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TRUCKS, TUBES, AND MAIL ROBBERS 307
the most ardent supporters of the air-mail service, but he was not gentle in his comments on my flying around in those "ash cans." Actually, flying a few air-mail routes gave me a closer feeling toward the men in the service, the service itself, and the importance of building up a trained force of pilots.
In spite of the fine record being established on the New York-Washington route, it was decided to discontinue it at the end of May and close the Newark airport. We were faced with a financial situation whereby the air-mail service was being largely supported through the railwaymail appropriation. Since the cost of maintenance was so great, we had to economize in every way possible. It may seem strange that the New YorkWashington route, which was setting a good record, should fall under the butcher's cleaver in favor of the transcontinental route which had claimed nineteen lives. But it was the long run, not the short one, on which greater experimentation could be done and where the saving in time was greater.
In the meantime, changes were made in personnel and in conduct all along the line, stricter regulations were put in force on landing fields, and a safety-first campaign was begun. Planes were to be mechanically perfect before taking off, and pilots were forbidden to fly when bad weather conditions prevailed.
Late in June an opportunity was presented to me, through an interview, again to bring the air-mail service to the attention of the public. I held even then the conviction that our future, the future of the world, was in the air. I felt that how we developed or failed to develop aeronautics in the years following 1921 would determine whether we took first or a lesser place among the nations of the world.
It is hard to realize that in 1921 people were still not convinced of the value of human flight, and statistics showing 812 forced landings in 32 months did not strengthen the argument in favor of saving the remnants of aviation. The cost of operation for those 32 months showed an average close to $1.36 for each mile flown.
In July we combined business with a little recreation and staged a race to the West Coast with the Dempsey-Carpentier fight pictures— the air mail versus private planes and transcontinental fast mail trains. The air mail won by three hours, crossing the continent in 44V2 hours. The fight pictures were on the streets in local newspapers less than 48 hours after the event had taken place. For those days, that was fast. In the meantime, Arthur Brisbane was shocking a lethargic public by telling them that we needed 5,000 planes now.
In midsummer we put into commission six planes taken over from the Army and remodeled at a cost of $3,000 each, as against an initial cost price of $15,000. The "new" planes carried 800 pounds of mail, or 32,000 letters, per trip. After much experiment the best type of plane