Evening star., 1950-01-08

ldDle pTlue, De QeSCTlDlug 10 MS
century how he built tiny armail
.vana into the 110, ,000-mile world
wide airline system it is today.
The historians in turn might be
pronouncing it the greatest sue
cess story in the annals of trans
portation and might be pointing
TO this highest monument yet
erected to free enterprise in Amer
lea, where fame and fortune are
rewards for. ingenuity and hard
work and where the results of ones
labors are his to have and hold
against all covetous eyes.
Then the success storys happy
ending might tell how this air
pioneer modestly accepts the we'll
done tributes from his Govern
ment and the 10 other nations,
colonies and dependencies his
great airline serves as he is pro-
claimed the international air
transportation wizard of all time.
Such a story, about Juan Tripps
and his Pan American World Air.
ways System. doubtless would be
occupying this space now but for
the seemingly inconsequential
wording of an act of Congress
nearly IL years ago and for the
Second World War. Those two
combined to change the status Of
Americas international air COM
merce development from a mo-
nopoly controlled by Pan Ameri-
can up to 1910 to Government
policy of regulated competition on
international air routes-meaning
other United States airline COM
panies should operate on airways
Pan American pioneered and de-
veloped years before, and they do
so now. They also operate inter-
nationally on others of their own
development.
Blessed by CAB Examiner
Right or wrong. this policy has
produced an unsettled condition
among many United States inter-
national airline operators and two
days before Christmas Mr.. Trippe
and his Pan American, who have
been relentlessly fighting 1t and
the competition imposed upon
them by the Civil Aeronautics
Board for the past seven years.
| scored significant hit. They won
the approval of q CAB examiner
to buy out and merge American
Overseas Airlines. one of their
two United States competitors on
the North Atlantic route to Eu-
rope, the richest of all airways
on the globe.
The other competitor is Trans
World Airline, which Mr.. Trippe
unsuccessfully sought to purchase
nearly three years ago from ma
jority stockholder and multimil-
lionaire Howard Hughes and
which was followed by electrifying
charges by Mr.. Hughes that MIR.
Trippe conspired with Republi-
can Senator Brewster of Maine
to threaten him with a ruinous
congressional investigation of his
wartime aircraft contracts II
Hughes refused to sell TWA to
Pan American. Mr.. Hughes re-
fused to sell. The investigation
was held, and a very memorable
one 1t was. Senator Brewster de.
MED any connection between Mr..
Trippe's interest in buying TWA
and the inquiry, but that phase
of the investigation was shut OF
before Mr.. Trippe could give his
version under oath.
CAB Examiner Thomas L.
Wrenn's S recommendation Pan
American be permitted to consum--
mate the deal for American Over
seas Airlines for SIT 7,450,000 cash
and merge its routes across the
North Atlantic and into Northern
Europe with Pan Americans Eu-
ropean pattern, is the first major
victory for Mr.. Trippe and his
compsnys in his continuous battle
to keep United States airline COM
petitors away from "his'' routes. /,
But two more such recommends =
tions have to be made in his
favor before he can eliminate
American Overseas Airlines as Q
competitor. The CAB. after q
formal hearing to be held in Q
few weeks on Examiner Wrenn's
recommendation. will give its de-
cision and then the matter must
receive the approval Of President
Truman. The board does not Nal-
ways accept the recommendations
of its examiners and the Presi-
dent, who is brought in on this
because it involves United States
airline operations to foreign lands.
has not in every past instance,
followed the recommendation Of
the CAB.
See Storm Clouds
Though MIR. Trippe and Pan
American enjoyed the merriest
Christmas in many a year basking
in the sunshine of Examiner
Wrenn's 189-page favorable report.
they saw storm clouds gathering
as enemies of the principle Of
monopoly in international air
transportation; Mr.. Trippe's out
spokenly unkind colleagues In the
airline industry and Pan Amer
leans industrial opponents pre-
pared once again to consolidate
forces and fight this sale OF AOA
before the full membership of the
CAB. Last spring they came to
Washington and blasted away at
the merger in extensive hearings
conducted by Mr.. Wrenn and
though the volume of testimony
was preponderantly opposed to the
absorption of AOA by Pan Amer
lean from witnesses representing
every conceivable type of interest,
Mr.. Wrenn was not impressed.
But he was impressed by Pan