Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-28
Africa Flight
|Symbo|izes
New Era
AirpIone to Achieve
Greatest Victory
With Peace
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Entirely apart from the military
significance of the Presidents trip
to North Africa, the trans Atlantic
journey is symbolic of the ending
of one era and the beginning of
another. 1t has implications for
the future Of democratic govern
ment and for the establishment of
machinery whereby peace can be
preserved.
For the airplane, which has made
many thousands of safe trips back
and forth across the ocean, now car
ries a President of the United States
to confer in person with the head
of another government. The Incl
dent means that the world is rela-
lively small, that distances no
longer furnish an insurmountable
barrier for personal communication
and that the day of second hand
and indirect diplomacy has been
superseded by a day of direct con-
tact.
Who can doubt now that Mr..
Roosevelt will feel free TO fly to the
next peace conference and then back
to America quickly to explain what
has happened? Who can doubt that
In the future when a crisis in world
peace occurs an American President
will fly abroad to Geneva or The
Hague to confer with the parties at
interest, offering a practical means
of mediation
The failures of written diplomacy
with its formal language and super
condensed code messages is well
known. The opportunity for per-
sonal persuasiveness and the give
and-take of personal discussion
whereby passions may be cooled and
misunderstanding removed is at
hand.
Instrument of Peace.
The airplane has proved its worth
In combat. But its greatest chance
to help make peace and keep it lies
ahead. AS long as there are air
planes to carry important person.
ages back and forth, men of first
rate ability in the business and gov
ernmental world can travel any dis
lance quickly to help adjust the
tangled economic questions that so
often are the root of friction leading
to war.
just as the Atlantic is now being
epanned dozen times a day by
relays Of planes carrying cargo or
passengers or warriors, so the Pa
cific-is being spanned also. In four
days American representatives OF
the armed forces fly back from Aus
tralia or to New Zealand or to other
combat areas. In about six days or
less an envoy can get from Chung
king or India to America.
What is not generally realized is
that the reliable airplane motors of
today are doing jobs which never
before have been tried, and the
amount Of engine failure is neg
llgible, just as the amount of poor
navigation is reduced to the mini |
u1une els .. ..- .r-. |
Little has been revealed about the |
wonderful achievements of the ail
transport service, which comprises
all the private air lines. Little is
known Of the way the famous Pam
American Clipper planes are carry
Ing important passengers back and
forth across the oceans. Military
necessity still keeps the details
secret, but the public can well infer
that the progress has been so great
that President of the United
States did not hesitate to use the
plane to cross the Atlantic.
War Seen StreamIined.
The airplane has come into its
own in this war, not only as means
Of combat, but as vehicle of quick
communication and transportation.
When the President of the United
States decides to use personal and
direct conference instead of written
messages through couriers or radio
to get together with the military and
civilian chiefs of our major ally in
this war, it means that the airplane
has gotten final recognition despite
the accidents and failures and the
hazards of weather. For on the law
of chance, the airplane has Jared
very well with the risks of weather
and msn-made errors.
Plainly the President must have
had the best pilots, excellent escort
both above the sea and on the sur
face, and, since the secret of his pro-
posed journey, though not known in
detail, was we'll kept by the press,
the American people will have cause
for congratulation that the war is
being streamlined TO bomber speed
at least on the military side.
The sirplane is an American in
vention II was designed not for
var. but for peace, and in peacetime
1t will realize its greatest victories.
(Feproduction Rights Reserved