The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-06-24

city is about $500 miles, to Chicago
even less. San Francisco is 5000
miles away. 1t would take today's
bombing planes 10 to Is hours to
cover this distance, although they
would have to refuel before going
back. But the plane of tomorrow
may well be able to make the round
trip.
Commercial Aspect Vital.
There are rumors in the news col
umns-they may be nothing more
than just rumors-that the govern
ments of the United States and Can
ada already are concerned with the
possibility that their nations may
be dominated by Soviet air base
at the pole. The rumors continue
that these governments are prepar-
ing to demand that should such an
air base be successfully constructed
it must be subject to strict and i'm
partial international control.
These are scary conjectures, how.
ever. It is probable that the Rus
SLAMS are far more interested in
the commercial possibilities of the
Arctic air routes.
Seeking new economic frontiers,
the Communists turned quite nat
urally to the north. Here were great
reserves of timber, fur, gold, oil
and metals to fill the needs of mod
ern industry. The modern pioneers
laid out towns, dug mines, erected
cities containing mills. The great
market for their products lies in
America. The shortest route to
America is over the vast wastes Of
ice. Development of air routes
seemed the plausible answer.
Internal air routes over. the polar
regions are almost equally impor-
tant, for they can drastically short
en- the distances between the east
ern and western extremities of the
vast Soviet empire. Flying by the
curvature of the earth's surface
from Leningrad to the new Pacific
industrial and military stronghold of
Khabarovsk, the distance is about
$500 miles; via the pole it is less
than 1000 miles. If polar aerial
base sould be established, COM
mercial craft could make the hop
from any large industrial city of
central Russia to New York or Chi
cago in Is to 80 hours.
Air Travel Now Heavy.
The reduction of the flying dis
lance from one end Of the Soviet
empire to the other is of signifi-
canoe in another way. The two ma
tons the Communists fear most are
Germany and Japan, one at one
end of the empire and the other at
the other end. The precious saving
of time in the transfer of planes
and other aviation equipment would
be sorely needed in time of war.
Russia already has made impor-
tant transportation advances in the
north country which is already set
tied. The northeast passage has
been opened up along the Siberian
coast; last summer, with the aid of
icebreakers, IA ships made the pas
sage. Strategic commercial points
have been connected with more than
IL 900 miles of anyways. Over these
there were 267,0 900 miles flown in
1884; the figure estimated for 1887
is 1888, 900 miles.
The Russians want to know in ad-
vance what the conditions will be
when they are ready for the trans
arctic air lines, what the upper air
currents will be, what moisture,
temperature and winds may be en-
countered, what the effect of the
Arctic centers of cold will be on
the weather to the south. That is
the reason fou1 men and a dog are
adrift with tons of scientific equip
ment in the Arctic today.
@ Western Newspaper Union.