not only because the Navy has a very 

 Hmited number of specially trained de- 

 signers in this class of work, but be- 

 cause such a plant would call for the di- 

 version from actual flying work of many 

 of the most competent operators. Any 



^50 Popular Science Monthly 



advancement of aeronautical work to war, especially if the private manufac- 

 lose the ideas and results of private in- turers had been driven out of business 

 vestigation and experiment. The estab- by government competition? At present, 

 lishing of a government plant for the after a year and a half of warfare, and 

 general manufacture of aircraft would although private manufacture of aero- 

 require a complement of officers that planes took a tremendous boom after the 

 could be ill-spared at the present time, failure of the government's experiment. 



Great Britain is forced to buy almost 

 the entire output of the many American 

 aeroplane factories. 



Should war be declared upon this 

 country after the private manufacturers 

 had ceased their efforts, because of gov- 

 ernment competition, the 

 government factory would 

 not be able to supply the 

 needs of our Army and 

 Navy. It is conceivable 

 that we might not be able 

 to cross the ocean in search 

 of privately manufactured 

 aeroplanes. In that case we 

 would have to build up the 

 industry from the start, 

 while thousands of enemy 

 aeroplanes hummed over 

 our heads, and dropped 

 bombs upon our ships and 

 troops. 



Mr. Henry Woodhouse, a 



The navy has a half dozen of these flying boats which 



can really fly. It should have five hundred as a basis 



for a real aero corps 



government plant which could be estab- Governor of the Aero Club of America, 

 lished in the near future would be entire- in expressing his opinion of this project 

 ly inadequate in war time, as aircraft to the writer, said : 



would be required in large quantities for 

 such an emergency." 



In spite of this report, the project is 

 still being agitated, and numerous offi- 

 cials appear to be in favor of establish- 

 ing such a factory. Southern news- 

 papers, particularly those conducted in 

 Florida, are jubilant, but it is to be hoped 

 that they are "counting their chickens 

 before they are hatched." 



Senator Fletcher says that government 

 manufacture would act as a stimulus to 

 private manufacturers. When did gov- 

 ernment competition ever act as a stim- 

 ulus to private manufacturers? Certain- 

 ly not in Great Britain when the govern- 

 ment was conducting its costly experi- 

 ments along those lines. Great Britain 

 found that by means of government 

 manufacture it could not keep up with 

 the foreign powers in times of peace. 

 How did it hope to produce the thou- 

 sands of aeroplanes necessary in time of 



"Manufacturing of aeroplanes and 

 motors, which Senator Fletcher pro- 

 poses, is inadvisable, first, because it 

 would retard the development of naval 

 aeronautics, and second, because it 

 would discourage the youthful aero- 

 nautic industry. Needless to add, there 

 is, therefore, no argument in favor of 

 the proposition." 



There are many persons, interested in 

 the problems of national defense, who 

 see in such a project a real start toward 

 a greater air fleet, and overlook the fact 

 that it is a start in the wrong direction. 

 It is probable that they cannot see the 

 far-reaching e\\\ results of such a step. 

 On the other hand, a large number of 

 far-seeing advocates for real prepared- 

 ness are displaying great concern that so 

 obvious a "pork barrel" proposition 

 should receive even the most casual at- 

 tention of Senators and Congressmen at 

 a time when the nation seems at least 



