June 7, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
21 
pistol-practice ; as was fully proved of the German soldiers 
in France. Then, having dealt with our own limitations 
with all sobriety and sincerity, we can ask the democrat 
what will be the probable effect on the Prussian officer of 
having so lashed his men, and lashed them to comparative 
victory ; just as we can ask the devotee what will be the 
probable effect on the blasphemer of having ostentatiously 
defiled the altar and suffered no apparent disadvantage from 
God or man. We can appeal to the same common sense that 
allows tor those limitations to admit that the Prussian's 
escape, or anything he can call his escape, must mean that 
his pride will be henceforth unlimited. He will certainly 
say, in a sense he would be a fool if he did not say. that to 
lash a soldier's face is evidently the way to prevent him 
turning his back to an armed league of nations ; and that the 
pistol that was pointed at the altar was eminently successful 
when it was pointed at the world. We can appeal to the 
same common sense to see that the longer we seem to be waging 
a doubtful war, the less we can afford to have a doubtful settle- 
ment. Until this chain that has been girt about Eur.ope is 
unwound to its last link, its mere length will more and, more 
support the legend that it is endless. If it is once thought to 
be endless, man will sit down for ever in chains. If it is not 
endless, we must follow it to the end ; and its end is not in 
.\hace or Belgium, but in Berlin. 
I always deprecated any disdain for America's long regime 
of peace ; and I am very glad of it now. For American peace, 
or even American pacifism, is now the strongest argument 
for American war, and even American ruthlessness. America 
would never have gone to war if it had not been an extra- 
ordinary war ; a war that desecrated all that even war holds 
sacred. If that extraordinary war could be followed by any 
ordinary peace, the deadly distinction would be lost for 
ever ; and nothing in war or peace would ever be held sacred 
again. The hour will come when Americans will be asking 
like ourselves, in a collective but none the less literal and 
awful sense, "If Prussia be not a monster beyond all mere 
enemies, why do we die daily ? " 
Britain, France, A.merica 
By Henry van Dyke. 
(Formerly U .S. Minister to the Netherlands.) 
The rough expanse of democratic sea 
Which parts the lands that live by liberty 
Is no division ; for their hearts are one. 
To fight together till their cause is won. 
For land and water let us make our pact, 
And seal the solemn word with valiant act : 
No continent is firm, no ocetin pure, 
Until on both the rights of man are sure. 
United States Air Policy 
By Henry Woodhouse 
Member of the Board of Governors Aero Club of America ; Publisher of Flying (monthly), and Aerial Age (weekly). 
f 
WHAT the United States proposes to do in the 
air is already fairly well defined. The war, 
supijorted by the educational campaign of the 
Aero Club of America and the Aerial Coast 
Patrol Commission, has taught the United States the fact that 
supremacy in the air is the key to supremacy on land and at 
sea. There are two famous quotations which everybody 
knows by heart in the United States and they are (i) the 
saying of Mr. Arthur J. Balfour : 
" The time is here when the command of the sea will be ol 
no value to Great Britain witliout corresponding command 
of the air " 
{>) The statement attributed to Lord Kitchener : 
"A well-trained and equipped aviator is worth .an army 
Corps." 
These statements can be 
read and heard in the re- 
motest part of the United 
States as well as in the 
House of Representatives 
and in the leading publica- 
tions. 
As a member ot the 
Board of Governors of the 
Aero Club of America, who 
served as delegates at the 
Conference Committee for 
National Preparedness 
from the very first meet- 
ings, I know by heart 
just what had to be done 
to get men of military age 
to take steps to prepare 
themselves for service. The 
practical American mind 
began to realise that, 
whereas it would take 
about two years to train a 
civilian to make him worth 
about half a soldier, he 
could be trained to pilot 
an aeroplane and be worth 
a thousand soldiers at the 
end of six months. Ameri- 
cans are practical people, 
and once this fact became 
known hundreds of young 
men responded to the call 
of the Aero Club of Ameri- 
ca and the National 
Aerial Coast Patrol Com- 
mission and volunteered 
not only to enhst in air 
service — which by the 
A Navy Recruiting Poster : " Here he is, Sir.' 
way they could not do — but actually undertook to pay for 
their own training. 
On June 29th, igi6, I was a member of the Committee 
which called at the White House to submit to President 
Wilson the fact that thousands of young men were begging 
to be admitted to the Air Service, and that there was no way 
for the army or navy to take them into the Air Service, there 
being no provision for the same. Fourteen days later Presi- 
dent Wilson authorised the organisation of the Aerial Reserve 
Corps, which opened a way for admitting civilians to the 
United States Army Aerial Reserves. At about the time of 
the call at the WTiite House, our Committee also called on the 
Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the United 
States House of Representatives and Senate to find out what 
the opportunities were to 
get a reasonably large ap- 
propriation for military 
aeronautics. 
The estimates under con- 
sideration then for aero- 
nautics for the army and 
navy amounted to only 
about ffioo,ooo. The Aero 
Club of America appealed 
to the country and within 
a few weeks Congress was 
flooded with requests for 
larger appropriations. The- 
result was that Congress 
allowed over three and a 
half millions sterling for 
aeronautics for the army 
and navy. Thanks to that 
campaign there is to-day 
a promising aeronautic 
industry in the United 
States and there are thou- 
sands of young men ready 
to take up aviation train- 
ing, many of them only too 
anxious to cross the sea 
and fly, as the members 
of the Lafayette Corps flew 
with the French and 
British aviators for the one 
good cause in which we are 
now at last united. 
Pubhc opinion has given 
an idea of what the United 
States should do in the air. 
Public opinion wants the 
United States to send be- 
tween 5,000 and 10,000 
aviators to France to 
