Evening star., 1934-03-04
BY WILLIAM HARD.


of the whole Airmail furor Is
the strong revival of the
i project for separate air
force" in the defense struc-
ture of the United States.
Discomfort with the War Depart
ment's development of the Army Air
Corps is widespread in the Congress.
REPRESENTATIVE Rogers of New Hamp-
shire. chairman of the Military Al
fairs Subcommittee investigating the
Army Air Corps, says:
Sentiment in the Congress for
separate air force, largely independ-
ent of the War Department, is strong
and is all the time growing stronger.
The source of this sentiment is in
the information accumulated by the
House Appropriations Committee
through its subcommittee on the
War Department under the chair
manship of Representative Collins OF
Mississippi. That subcommittee finds
that its efforts to create an adequate
and effective military air service are
constantly crippled by restrictive
measures in the administrative branch
of the Government.
$l,S00,0OO for Fuel and Oil.
For the current fiscal year, for in
stance. the Congress appropriated
S1,8OO,0OO for fuel and oil for Army
airplanes for the flying training OF
Army air officers. The Congress
even went so far as to say that mot
less than that sum of money was to
L.. f,,o1 oil r..
ating of airplanes in the endeavor to
perfect the skill of our Army flyers.
Nor could the sum be considered eX-
cessive 1t was sufficient to give each
Army flyer approximately only 200
hours in the air in the course of the
whole year.
Then came Economy" In the
midst of all the profuseness of the
P. w. A., c. w. A. and A. A. A.
there came economy" for the Army
Air Corps. The congressional man
date of mot less" than ST 800, 900 for
fuel and oil for flying training pur-
poses was administratively arbitrarily
cut down to S1100,000. 1t was cut
down by more than one-third. The
number of flying training hours pos
sible for each Army flyer was cut
down to less than $50 hours in the
total course of the year. 1t was cut
down to an average Of less than 80
minutes per day.
What would be thought of COM
mercial air organization whose pilots
were in the air, on an average, less
than half an hour out of each "a?
Only III Planes Procured.
The same sort of economy" i'm
posed upon the most modernistic and
crucial element in our military pre-
paredness, is evidenced in the ex-
penditures authorized and the ex
penditures actually made upon the
procurement of military airplanes Of
newer and better types. For the cur
rent fiscal year 1884 the Congress
ordered the procurement of 375 addi-
tional airplanes. The number actual
ly procured, in consequence of econ
omy," will be 1T.
It may be said that this sort of
economy" is due to the budgetary
authorities in the administrative
branch and is not to be blamed upon
the War Department. There is much
merit in such a contention. The
question thereupon arises, however:
How keen is the War Department,
how keen is the general staff, for the
utmost possible development of our
air arm? To what extent will it
60 in fighting our budgetary authori-
ties on behalf of the needs of our
air arm? Is the general staff hot. or
is it cold, toward air arm progress?
The answer has to be that the gen.
eral staff can see the air arm as an
adjunct of the Army on the ground,
but 1t has great conscientious tech
nical difficulty in seeing the air arm
as a force which might possibly hit
the enemy more or less by itself with
its own power.
Friction Damages Morale.
The restul is continuous friction
between the Army Air Corps on the
one hand and the War Department
and general staff on the other This
friction is extremely damaging to
Army Air Corps morale. The officers
OF the Army Air Corps, rightly or
wrongly. feel themselves being always
circumvented and thwarted. They feel
themselves "hitched to ground maneu-
vers" and tiled to the Army's apron
strings"
Not long ago Gen. Foulois, chief of
the Army Air Corps, prepared maga-
zine article on the idea that an air
force with competent airplanes could
make life extraordinarily unpleasant
for an enemy fleet approaching our
shores His article was condemned
by the general staff, and its publica-
ton was forbidden. The censoring
officers Of the general staff took the
view that "any indication Of our Air
Corps operating alone against an
enemy fleet should be avoided
The outcome of such a spirit is
inevitably that our Army Air Corps
becomes less experimental and less
adventurous than the separate air
forces" of Britain and France and
Italy.
The observations on this point OF
Representative Collins of Mississippi,
as chairman of the subcommittee OF
the House Appropriations Committee
on the War Department, are the most
authoritative in Washington.
Passion for determination"
Mr.. Collins was in times past much
denounced in Army circles as a
"pacif1st." His "pacifism
at any rate-seems to consist of
boiling passion for the "mechaniza-
ton" of warfare and for the improve
ment of every sort of machine util-
lied by the War Department, includ-
ing especially airplanes. For the fis-
cal year 1885 he intends, it is be-
heved, to allocate an extra million
dollars to the Army Air Corps for
the purchase of better airplane en-
gines not only from manufacturers in
this country but also experimentally
from manufacturers abroad.
Mr. Collins states:
1.-The only military airplanes we
have that are genuinely comparable
to the best foreign planes are our
bombardment planes. Our pursuit
planes and our attack p!anes-that
Is tn SQV OIIr fiphterS-QYS below the