Evening star., 1933-07-26

Flight from Rome to Chicago by the
air squadron under direction of Gen.
Italo Balbo IS rated as historic event
by Americans, as personal triumph
Of the leader and as demonstration Of
the efficiency of the Italian government
under MuSsolini. Its unprecedented
character, because Of the mass forma-
ton, is a subject of comment, while the
significance in national preparedness is
balanced against defense in such at
tackS.
Achievement in mass flying" is
lauded by the Toledo Blade, which calls
it "a great modern epic of the air" That
paper concludes that the poet laureate
OF the skies has yet to write his name
in the arch of the heavens, but Balbo
gives him both opportunity and mate
rial" The New York Times declares
that "the acclaim of Gen. Balbo and
his officers and men was recognition
of courage and craftsmanship of the
highest order" while the Uniontown
Herald pays its tribute to the COM
pletely breath-taking victory of 96 men
in "a seaplanes over what is, perhaps.
the most treacherous course for air
craft ON the globe" The Eureka
(Calif) Humboldt Times calls it per
hapS the most significant episode in the
history of aviation. although other
flights may have been singularly more
sensational"
Italy has pioneered the way for fu-
ture excursions of this character with
the greatest mass flight in all history"
according to the Charlotte Observer,
land the air minister of that country
has earned for himself niche in avia-
tons hall of fame" The Ashbury Park
Evening Press observes that the flyers
were greeted both as missionaries of
friendship and as pioneers in the de-
velopment of practical aeronautics,
while the Scranton Times declares: THE
fleet has given the world the most i'm
pressive demonstration yet seen of
massed flying over long and difficult
route The Italian air fleet has other
exceptional exploits to its credit. The
achievement, however, of taking "a
planes in massed flying across the At
lantic stands unprecedented and right
fully ranks with the plotting of the first
plane across the Atlantic in 1919, Ad-
miral Byrd's crossing the pole in 1925
and Lindbergh's spectacular Paris flight
in 1927"
For some reason, difficult to explain
except by the axiom of safety in num-
bers," remarks the Providence Journal,
"a successful transatlantic flight by a
single plane, even when the northern
route is followed, seems to require good
luck, whereas similar venture by a
group of aircraft seems safer and surer.
Actually, the latter feat is the more
difficult, and the fact that Gen. Balbo
and his men have accomplished it, with
the loss of only one man in a landing
accident at Amsterdam, brightens
dramatically the prospect of routine
transoceanic aviation, and heightens
for the layman the significance of Col.
Lindbergh's present activity in survey
ing the northern route with view to
the establishment of regular air service
across the sea-"
"The event." says the Omaha World
Herald, directs international attention
again to the bearded but youthful
leader, Ba1bo. A newspaper man. hero
of the World War, black shirt general
and former cabinet minister charged
with organizing national economy. he
was assigned by II Duce to be minister
Of aeronautics. He could not then fly.
but he quickly learned. He reorganized
Italy's air service until today it can
challenge that of any other power No
other nation has performed in such
spectacular fashion in the air. His
cruises, with many planes. over the
Mediterranean, to the Far East, over all
Europe and to South America, before
the present voyage. proved not only the
skill Of Italy In the air, but demon
strated, to putative foes, the menace Of
her bombing planes"
"DoubtlesDg1 VIII stlmulate interest