The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-10-04
Observations
General Arnold Must
Dispose of $4,000
Planes by June IL
BY HELEN EssERY

The commanding general OF the
Army Air Forces, Henry II. Arnold,
has a problem be would like TO talk
over with the country. o
II is a problem so thick It may
lose the general that name Hap
(for Happy Arnold. For hoy
any man, even so popular a fellow
the the general, can toss OF the
proposition he faces without grow
ing grim and gaunt is riddle to
battle the sphinx.
The problem-the disposal OF
$4,000 airplanes by next June!
Eighty thousand shiny, At airplanes
must be got rid OF" within eight
months
What! You say, get rid" of
10000 airplanes! Why do that?
Silly. don't you know the war is
over. And when the war is over,
nobody wants anything connected
with war. (Not until the next war;
So the powers that be (you ind out
who they are) say-"Do something
with these planes. Nobody needs
them now. They are fighting
planes. Dump them in the ocean.
Blow them up. Dig a hole and bury
them. quick. The war is over,
We tell you"
No wonder General Arnold has
begun to brood about the job that
is backing up on him. He fought
and bled and almost died TO get
those planes. They cost the tax
payer a pretty penny, too. And
now nobody wants them.
The most planes / can dispose
OF by what you might call norman
methods is 10000. That leaves me
with 70,000!" General Arnold told
me.
Seventy thousand planes. / keep
muttering on my typewriter. Seven
" thousand planes TO be destroy
ed,
But they don't have to be des-
troyed beyond all usefulness" said
the general in our informal CONVEX
sation. 1--WE a plan for their dis.
posal I'd like, to get over to the
public. You'll help me! Splendid!
well, my plan is something Ike
this: Pig those planes! Let me
use a wide, open space out in Utah
or Nevada. Let me dump those
planes In big furnaces and melt
them down. Pig them is the word.
Once they're melted. down. they're
no longer useful as planes. But
the material OF which they are
made is salvaged. How? It's very
simple.
Wed Just pile up the pigs In a
big heap or in several big heaps
and leave them there until the time
came to use some or the metal
again. For other planes, for auto
mobiles, vacuum cleaners-for any
thing"
Pigging the planes would not
eliminate them forever. But drop
ping them in the deepest part OF
the ocean and forgetting them,
would eliminate them.
I asked General Arnold why he
was uneasy about his chance OF
"pigging" the planes. He explain
led that the plugging" would cost
a little money. You'd have to have
Labor for the cutting up and melt
sing down. Congress might not un-'
derstand why more money need
ed be appropriated now. To him
such an appropriation would be
ECONOMY and. saving OF natural
resources. Certainly We have no
right to waste ore We dug out OF
the mines for those planes.
As q layman, | completely agree
with the wisdom OF the generals
plan. I told him I'd help get the
idea over. I hope ! have.
OF those 10000 planes General
Arnold says he can dispose OF, sew
eral thousand will go to the ma.
tons high schools. II is General
Arnold's wish that each high
school able to raise $500 be given
a B-2s. With this superb ma
chine, high school children may
learn to fly. May develop useful
Inventions for further conquest OF
the air.
Giving surplus planes away 10
foreign governments who come
a begging is not as simple a meth
cd OF getting rid" of them as
some people think. No war ma.
terials can be given TO foreign ma
lions without consent OF Congress-