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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Philippines. I present to you Maj. Gen. 

 Leonard Wood, the senior officer on the 

 active list of the United States Army. 



MAJ. GEN. LEONARD WOOD, CHILE OF 

 STALE, U. S. ARMY 



Mr. Chairman, Mr. Toastmaster, La- 

 dies and Gentlemen : I have had the good 

 fortune tonight to sit beside Mr. Wright, 

 and I have tried to pull a little informa- 

 tion out of him about his work with the 

 Army. But those of you who know him 

 know that he is so modest and so reti- 

 cent that to get information out of him 

 is a good deal like mining, for you have 

 to work it out in little pieces. He is the 

 father of aviation in our Army. He has 

 instructed *a number of our officers in 

 the use of the aeroplane, and he has laid 

 the foundation for a corps of officers 

 skilled in the use of this most useful ma- 

 chine. All of us soldiers look upon the 

 aeroplane as a great addition to our 

 warlike apparatus. We know that its 

 use is going to be invaluable in future 

 wars. As a means of reconnaissance, of 

 locating the forces and dispositions of 

 the enemy, it will be invaluable. Its use 

 is going to be rather hazardous, and as 

 yet I look upon it only as an instrument 

 or means of reconnaissance and for the 

 transportation of messages and perhaps 

 messengers. But there is no doubt, if 

 the rate of progress made the last year 

 or two is continued, that we shall soon 

 have machines working with great ac- 

 curacy and great speed and carrying two 

 or perhaps three or four people, or the 

 equivalent amount of material, to places 

 which would otherwise be inaccessible. 

 I think the course of the next war, cer- 

 tainly the course of all the larger opera- 

 tions, will be very largely influenced by 

 the knowledge that the enemy will have 

 a machine which will enable it to fly over 

 their lines and locate their dispositions 

 and see where their reserves are, etc. 



Now, the work that Mr. Wright has 

 been doing has not received much en- 

 couragement from the government. 

 While the governments of France, Ger- 

 many, and other great European coun- 



tries have made very large and liberal 

 appropriations for the purpose of in- 

 structing their officers in the use of the 

 aeroplane and providing machines for 

 their use, we have one old machine which 

 the chief signal officer told me the other 

 day he thought could be put in working 

 order for seventy-five or eighty dollars. 

 And one of the officers volunteered to 

 put up that amount of money and see if 

 he could get it off the ground again. 

 That is the condition of aeronautics 

 in our military establishment. The offi- 

 cers are willing if the money is forth- 

 coming. * 



* Some young men scattered through- 

 out the country who own aeroplanes, 

 under the leadership of Mr. Thomas 

 Ryan, of New York, and others, have 

 gotten up a voluntary aeronautical club, 

 and they are working at a plan to organ- 

 ize a sort of aero-militia, if I may use 

 that term, and put themselves entircdy at 

 the disposition of the government. They 

 have recently made application for the 

 use of some of the government land near 

 Washington, and propose to keep a num- 

 ber of machines for the purpose of in- 

 structing the officers of the Army, and 

 all of us who are interested in this work 

 are trying to assist them in obtaining the 

 use of a suitable piece of public property. 

 We feel sure that as soon as this work is 

 taken up and the government sees the 

 future of it, that money will be forth- 

 coming, and the United States will be 

 the last in the procession. I thank you 

 very much for your kind reception. 



THE TOASTMASTER, GEN. JOHN M. WILSON 



Before calling upon the eminent scien- 

 tist, Mr. Wright, Major General Greely, 

 a distinguished scientist, has a few words 

 to tell us about the experiments of Sec- 

 retary Langley in aeronautics before his 

 death. I present to you General Greely. 



MAJOR GENERAL A. W. GREELY 



Mr. Chairman, Mr. Toastmaster, La- 

 dies and Gentlemen : The dinner tonight 



* The Congress has since made an appropria- 

 tion of $125,000 for the purchase and operation 

 of aeroplanes. 



