The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-04-14

- - s Frank q,
Peter HassM Walker h imSell
gave recognition 10 this bad situa-
ton by his recent admission that
the airmail was In a bad way, might
have 10 be dropped entirely rs
war measure, 10 enable the COM
merclal Nirlines TO haul passengers
and priority express, relieving them
Of the added burden OF carrying
mere mail,
The inside story, however, Is that
Postmaster walkers statement was
something IN the nature Of trial
balloon, intended 70 call attention
10 the serious situation now con-
fronting the airmail service, tndt.
rcctly 10 prod along and force action
on the commercial airlincS' entirely
reasonable requests that they be al"
located n few more planes 10 do the
tremendous job that has been
dumped on their wings by the war
effort, As few as six planes would
help, two dozen more planes would
relieve Ghc crisis and u assigned 10
the alrllneS Immediately, this 18th
anniversary would mark tho rehirth
OF the airmail service instead Of It's
collapse,
AIRLINES STEP VI MILEAGE
The fact Is tina: U, s, commercial
airlineS have bSEn doing tremen.
Clous Job under severe handicapS,
with records OF plano aud personnel
performance which the Army'S Air
Transport Command, for all It's re-
cent Dragging, would have a hard
time matching II II would release its
figures, which II won't because II
considers such matters military
secrets, Every commercial plans In
the United States today Is averag-
ing 1850 miles Of flight per day, as
against an average Of only 1850
miles Fer plane per day before the
war,
Flying planes longer hours, great.
or mileage aud with heavier loads
has been the principal means by
which the commercial airlineS have
attempted TO make up for their lack
Of adequate equipment, As OF Pearl
Harbor, the commercial airlineS had
sos planes. In April the Army took
over 2S per cent Of them, In June
got the airlines TO convert about 70
planes from passenger to cargo use
and In addition took over another
% planes, That left the airltneS
with l66 planes, or less than half
Of what they had before, but with
more passengers, more express ana
more mail TO haul, The Army took
over control Of priorities, to run the
allines from 10 regional offices,
Twenty-Five cities and twenty-one
routes had their air service stopped,
AIRMAIL VITAL TO
WAR EFFORT
Congressman Jennings Randolph
Of Elkins, w. Va, who tathered the
airmail pickup service and Is now
running a one-man crusade for 40
600 airports In the United States,
has also been digging into this air
transport crisis In the belief that q
breakdown or q further curtailment
Of existing air services would be
most disastrous to the war effort,
At Randolph's request, Q. p.
Graddick, Of Chicago. director OF
the air cargo department for United
Airlines, has prepared a lengthy
and detailed statement on tho sttua.
ton, emphasizing the fact that the
business Of the United States Is now
geared TO airmail and air express
operation-not business as usual
airmail, but war business airmail.
including blueprints, government
contracts. specifications. rush or.
ders. waybills. business letters and
papers, soldier, sailor and marine
mail. mo one wants to impede the
war effort" writes Graddick, but
do believe we have reached the
point where re must weigh careful
iy the value to the war effort OF
maintaining .. essential CONNER
cial service.
$50 greatly overburdened In this
service today that II a few more
planes are not allocated TO the COM
mercial phase Of the service. the en-
tire war effort will be hurt"