Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1928-05-24
TO CELEBRATE THE FOUNDING
OF THE AIR MAIL SERVICE

On Tuesday, May Is. occurs the
tenth anniversary of the founding of
the air mail service in the United
States-the establishing by the Postal
Department of an air mail line be-
tween New York City and Washing
ton, ID. c.
From the very humble beginning of
ten years ago to the successes and
great accomplishments of today, the
air mail transportation service is one
of the greatest benefactOrs of our
every day life. 1t is the vehicle used
to shorten distance, to bring all the
people of the universe in close con-
tact with one another. Let us cele-
brate the founding of the air mail
service by mailing the greatest
amount of air mail in the history of
this service. Let us make a new and
greater record in quantity of air mail
flown.
Postmaster c. j. Funk of Redondo
Beach, has written the following on
the Great Adventure In Aviation:
Man has always dreamed of flying.
He has ever anticipated the time
when he should celebrate the conquest
of the air.
This hope and the fear that it
never would be fulfilled-is written
into the ancient mythology. There is
a myth that tells of a man and his
son who were imprisoned by the au-
thorities of Crete and were about to
be executed, and seeing no way of
escape, the father who was a skilled
artificer made wings out of feathers
and fastened them onto his son and
himself with wax. They poised them
selves in the air and flew away. The
son was warned not to fly too near
the sun, but he being thrilled by his
ing and scared upward until the blaze
of the torrid sun melted the wax and
the wings dropped off and down he
came, fell in the sea and was drowned.
This tragedy is but one of the many
similar accounts during the early days
of man, whose ambition was to mas
ter the air.
In history we read of other men
who builded contrivances of various
shapes and kinds in an attempt to
fly-great scientists and inventors OF
those early days were courageous, but
failure and disaster befell all of their
efforts.
1t is not in the nature of man to
admit that anything is impossible
he reaches out for the mastery Of the
universe and will be content with
nothing less. The very difficulty of
the undertaking is challenge to his
courage and his faith. The story of
mans efforts are sad and tragic, but
one that proves his indomitable will
and uncomfortable spirit. He will
not admit defeat and will not be
crushed by failure.
We have many men whose names
shine as the stars in the heavens and
among them are the pioneers-Mont-
gomery, Langley and the Wright
Brothers. These men developed the
principles of aeronautics some twen-
ty-five years ago, and which has made
possible the success of aviation in
recent years.
The first notable achievement was
the crossing of the English Channel
by Bleriot, in 1909, and Curtiss flew
from Albany to New York City, in
1910, distance of $50 miles at the
rate of about 81 miles per hour. In
1921, John A. Macready, u. S. A., at
tanned an altitude of nearly 10000 #.
Then came the World war with its
astounding and rapid progress in avi-
alton, which followed by a period of
development during the last ten years.
eliminating in the sensational flights
of Lindbergh, Byrd and Mobile The
trans-continental mail and passenger
service.
AS an illustration of the revolution
caused by the airplane and other air
machines, think of exploration. 1t
took Columbus months to cross the
Atlantic ocean-Lindbergh made it in
thirty-three hours. It took Peary