Evening Star Newspaper, November 19, 1922, Page 73

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, France Takes Flying Setiously “ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF AIRPLANES USING THE PARIS FLYING FIELD ARE CHALKED UPON BULLETIN BOARDS JUST LIKE TRAINS IN OUR RAILWAY STATIONS. REGULAR CUSTOMS AND PASSPORT SERVICES ARE BOARDED FOR INTERNATIONAL PASSENGERS.” BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. ] PARIS, 1922. | S I motored toward Paris last| night I saw two moons high | in the sky. This has nothing | to do with the absence of the | prohibition amendment in France. 1| do not drink and my eyes are as clear | as my head. The first moon was far | above the second. Its light was shady | and the woman in it was plainly to! be seen. The second moon was equally large, only nearer the earth. It was| I or afternoon, and have his luncheon[ or dinner at his hotel in London at the same time he would have eaten it tad he stayed here. There are now seven planes that leave Panis for Lon- don every week day and five planes' upon Sunday. The same is the case from London to Parls. On the lines to Amsterdam and Warsaw there is only one flight each way per day.” “How about your service between | Paris and Constantinople.” “That is in the way of rapid or-| ganization,” said Mr. Eynac. “It will [0 b [’ : Aviation Minister Tells Carpenter of Great Progress—Seven Planes Now Traveling From Paris to London—Daily Flights to Belgium and Holland, and Across Europe to Warsaw—Ex- tensions From Czechoslovakia to Hungary and Turkey—A Daily Service From Paris to Con- stantinople—How France Flies to Its African Colonies—The Trip to Morocco, to Be Followed by Others to Algeria and Tunis. ] & great blazing ball of fire that shone | ', extonsion of the line from Parls (ST TSI SIS T DT T SIS DTS DTS SIS DS for a moment and then disappeared | only to return in its full brilliancy | later. As it flashed back and forth ! my chauffeur explained that it was the great signal light which notifles the passenger planes coming in to the | Le Bourget Flying Field from London, ‘Warsaw and Amsterdam just where to land. Since then T have visited the field, | watched the airplanes come in and zo out, and examined the huge birds which remind one of the roc of Sind- bad, the Sallor, as they carry their human freight for thousands of miles over Europe. I have talked with the officials of the various airplane com- | panies, | have chatted with the pilots | and mechanics. and have gone through the great afrdromes which encircle this mightiest fiying field in the world. T have also visited the government | department of aeronauties, chat with Mr. Laurent Eynac, who is the head of the bureau that has to do with aerial transport, about the won- | derful work that France is accom- | plishing in its commercial conquest | of the skies. | Laurent Eynac stands at the head, of commercial aviation in France, and | this means much, for France is far in | advance of any other country in|gy on to Allcante and Malaga along ! gal. and this will be extended on to|and the southern Sudan. Europe In its aeronautic development. Mr. Eynac not only centralizes the technical information of the country, | but he distributes the subsidies granted by the French parliament to the various operating companies, Moreover, he is a man of practical ex- } perience. He was famous as an avi- ator during the war, was formerly di- rector of the French petroleum and gasoline supply services, and has been | a2 member of the chamber of deputies. Of medium size, sturdy form and snapping black eyes, he grew enthusi- astic as we talked, and I could see| that his vision embraced a flying serv- ice that would eventually conquer the heavens. The language was French, and in translating our conversation T shall reduce the kilometers to miles, kilograms to pounds, and take the liberty of using round numbers and concrete illustrations in order that| you may more easily grasp just what his words mean. Said Mr. Eynac: * K ok ok K \HE progress of France along all lines of aviation is exceedingly rapld. We instituted our commercial aviation service in 1918, just after the war, when we established our first line from Paris to Brussels, to insure & postal air service between the capi- tals of France and Belgium. At the same time we put in a similar service ; between Paris and Nantes, to save time for our couriers who sailed from | there to America. All this was done | by the ministry of war. .Later on this | bureau was established with the idea of developing the art and pushing to the utmost the commercial navigation of the air. We have two services which deal with airplane construc- tion and operation. One is devoted to supervising the building of airplanes and motors, to increasing their efi- ciency and to extending the industry in every possible way. The other has to do with research work in aviation, motor construction, the study of the air as regards flying through it and to ali*matters of transportation and armament. Tt would take many words to explain the several branches” “How much have you accomplished as to actual flying?" I asked. “We have three international lines in daily operation,” was the reply, “and & number of others in rapid course of construction. We are now flying daily from Paris to London, from Paris to Amsterdam via Brussels and Rotterdam, and from Paris.to War- saw via Strassburg on the Rhine and Prague, the capital of Czechoslovafltia. It takes only nine hours by plane from here to Warsaw, while the dis- tance by rail is farther than from New York to Chicago. This includes stops for landing passengers and freight at Strassburg and Prague. We fly from Paris to Amsterdam in a little over four hours, with stops at Brussels and Rotterdam. The trip from London to Paris by the ordinary mail route, in- cluding the stormy Voyage across the English Channel, takcs nine hours. It covers almost three hundred miles. The voyage by air is made in less than one-third of that time. The actual schedule is two hours and fifteen minutes, so that one can leave Paris in the middie of the moraing { ta Warsaw, the Constantinople planes going from Prague southward to Bu- | dapest and thence on through the| Lalkans to Buchacrest and Constanti- nople. We have already connected with Budapest and are making flights ito that We should have the service to Constantinople in actual | opeslation by the time your letter is pub’ished. The mail route from Paris | to Constantinople is just about one thousand nine hundred miles, but in | these days since the war ome can never be sure as to how long It will take to get a letter by railway from one place to the other. By airplane 1t is sure to go through in a day and a half at most. * ok % % in south France and Casablunca in| Morocco. That city is well down on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. | The planes fly from Toulouse across the foothills of the Pyrenees to Bar- celona, the chief port of Spain. leave Toulouse at 9 and are in Barcelona at half-past 11. They stop there fifteen minutes, and then .| $80. ¥ addition to this,” Mr. Eynac con- ! They | | the Spanish coast of the Mediterra- nean sea. They stay over night at Malaga. but at 6 the next morning are again on thelr way southward. They cross the Mediterranean near the Strait of Gibraltar and then pass lover northern Morocco, reaching Casablanca at 10. vAt present the passengers and frelght for this line are carried to | Toulouse by express train, but that| {1eg of the trip will eventually be made by plane also. The fare from Tou- louse to Casablanca is 780 francs, which, at the varying rates of ex- {15 cents & pound. Just now the line| and had a|five times a week between 'rouxouuguork in Morocco. “The distamce from Toulouse lal {Casablanca by air is perhaps as far s from New York to the Mississippl | river, and the cost is about the same | as that made by steamer and rail. ‘We shall lengthen the line soutward to others of our colonies farther -ouu-| |in Afnica. We have an experimental | line now running to Dakar in Sene- | other possessions in the French Congo | ¢¢/ | Kayes in French equatorial Africa.|the great desert winter resort of ing.” the aviation minister continued. Eventually we shall have an air com- | Europe and there should be much | “Here are some more along the same munication with Togoland, Dahomey, the French Kongo, and all of our African possessions, possibly includ- ing Madagascar. We are making ex- periments aiso as to commercial avia- tion in Indo-China and in French Guiana. islands of New Caledonia and Tahitl with France by way of Australia and New Zealand.” “You have no regular line to Al- geria as yet?” sald 1. “No,” replied Mr. Eynac, “but we place of Napoleon. We have a land- | pletcd and in operation. Another branch will cross the Mediterranean to Algiers. Tho distance Is about 500 miles over the sea and it will probably be two years before this service is es- tablished. We shall have flights from Paris to Biskra In the Sahara, and probably a regular service across that great desert to Timbuktu and our Biskra is| We may even connect the! tourist travel across the Sahara.” “To show you the importance of | our airplane mail service” sald Mr.| Eynac, “during one month we carry as many as forty or fifty thousand letters from Toulouse to Casablanca, which means a saving of f.ve days for | every letter. The weight of the Mo- rocco muil in one month runs up to almost a ton. The amount of mail {and freight on all of our lines is rapidly increasing. The French com- | panies alone in 1919 carried about change, now amounts to from $60 to|Afe fying to Marseilles and Nice and |seven tons of merchandise and less The rate for freight is about | on to the island of Corsica, the birth- | than one thousand pounds of mall. In 1920 the freight had increased 700 is of the greatest importance in carry- | Ing place there outside Ajacclo, and |per cent and the mail about 800 per ing the mails, as it gives to us a|We expect to fly from there on to|cent. tinued, “we have a regular service | close connection with our government | Tunfs. That line will soon be com- |as much freight as we had in 1920, Last year we had three times | and the mall was more than el‘hleen‘ | times that of 1919. |18, of course, of & high class and the | mail is important communications, in } which speed of delivery is a con- | siderable item.” | * ok K % HESE figures indicate something ' | the globe at the equator. All of the freight | 1in the selecticn of plo i of how our air traffic is grow. line. In 1919 there were four French companies, which carried 558 pas- sengers and made 988 voyages, cover- ing a distance equal to about seven trips around the worid. By 1920 the companies had doubled the number. They made about 2,400 trips and flew more than 500.000 miles or over twice the distance from the earth to the moon. During that year we mare than doubled the number of passen- gers and had seven times the amount of freight. The results of 1921 were even more remarkable, We then had nine companies, which made over 6,000 trips and covered more than 1.500,000 miles. This s equa! to six flights to the moon or sixty around The num- |bers of our pilots and machanics have increased in proportion.” ‘“What pretautions are you taking as to the safety of airplane travel?’ “We are doing every:ning possible in the way of research to discover new meth.ds to make our planes fool- proof and fog-proof. We are careful and me- chanics and take every precaution to prevent accidents. At present no GQQQQ% DA plane is allowed to go out until ex- amined in the most minute etali by one of the aviation inspectors’ per- manently on duty at every airplane division. This man must have a cer- of aeronautics as to his efficiency, and our examination is rigld. We do not allow pilots to fly unless thsy have licenses showing their profes- sional knowledge of aviation, their education and experience, and their practical understanding of all air- plane machinery. Every pilot under- goes a strict physical examination. “Moreover, the routes of travel are carefully outlined and every airplane has a wireless radio apparatus by which the pilot keeps the airdromes posted as to where his plane is, just as the conductor does the train dis- patcher on a railway. As a result we have very few accidents and you may count on Your fingers the pilots and passengers killed in one year. Indecd, considering the number ot passengers carried the proportion i 20 small that one is, I venture, much safer in the air than on the ground.” * % % % 1LL the day come when your air lines will pay commercially?’ “Yes, but cannot prophesy as to the date. At present they are largely subsidized by the government. The i budget for this year provided about $12,000,000 and the largest item in it approximated $7,000,000 for works, airdromes, technical laboratories, and meteorological services. Something | ke $3,000.000 was set aside for sub- |sidles for the French aerial companles. ‘We shall have to continue to subsidize lour air industries for some years to come, but we belleve it will pay in the development of our commerce and Missionary on Visit to Takoma Park Says That Strikes and Riots Furnish Evidence of New Conditions. Splendid Trains With Latest Equipment. Weather Is Praised. Surroundings of Beauty. BY UTHAI VINCENT WILCOX. F you have long had the idea that Africa was the last wild man’s country, filled with great snakes, grinning gorillas, wild black men, lions and tigers, just immedi- ately erase all that from your mind and get the very latest information. There are now American and Eng- lish motor cars running away up into the Belginn Congo, which, by the way, is the same country where within the memory of many people conditions were 80 primitive not long before the great war that men were mutilated if they did not bring in ivory and big game. In this same section and other equally wild parts of a few years ago splendid trains, with all the latest equipment, are running; American drills are used In the mines and American saws for the felling of trees. Along the coast pretty girls may be seen with their surf boards and in the cities double-deck street cars. Rev. 5. A. Koningmacher, who has been visiting his brother In Takoma Park, remarked that “he has to carry post cards around in his pocket 80 as to show people that lions are not now running around in the streets of Cape Town, and that even strikes and riots are the latest acquired habits of the people of Africa. You see we are strictly up-to-date.” Mr. Koningmacher, who has been in Africa for a score or more years doing ploneer mission work for the Seventh Day Adventists, has shown a keen understanding of the problems of the country. He points out that the color problem is growing to be a scrious one; that there is also a com- ing economic crisis due to the educa- tion of the natives and thelr skill in taking the place and doing the work of the white man. Instead of merely the white man and the black in Africa, there are in Cape Town three color lines. There are the Englishman, the Boer and then the native. On the western coast the question is & very live one, and the recent strike and riot over there was fundamentally ‘the result of the raclal and economic difficulties, A “A white Africa” may sound like an anomaly, but it is a great and popu- lar slogen, Mr. Koningmacher points out. This is hard for people in America to understand, with negro organizations in New York gathering petitions and endeavoring to make ar- rangements through the league of n tions for a home for their race. “The recent strike will illustrate,” sald Mr. Koningmacher. “The ques- tion was raised when the white man came in and, disliking to do the hard- est sort of manual work in the mines, employed & native to serve. ~While the native is in the mine, working hard, the white man may be sitting about smoking. The white man gets paid 25 to 30 shillings a day and the native only § or 6.” * ¥ ¥ * INE owners and their experts, noticing that the natives could do as much more and as well as the white man, of course wondered why the white man should be paid so much more for doing very Ifttle. Up in the Broken HIIl section, ‘where Mr. Koningmacher opened & new mission station, there was trou- ble over the same Question. Here natives were Brought in to work the mines. ‘With the last outpost of civilization succumbing to such effete things as strikes and riots and racial questions, one can't help but wonder. According to Mr. Koningmacher, there is a grow- ing plan to place the natives on reservations very much as the Indians are in this country. In southeastern Africa there seems to be a plage for them where they are but little molested. Returning to the question of rail- roads and modern development, Mr. Koningmacher told of the well bullt native houses called huts, but they are not well described by that term in this country. Government men have built the finest kind of modern homes away up toward the center of the country. To see certain popular makes of motor cars s not considered such a remarkable sight. The railroads, while under the con- extent better equipped than in some places in America. At least this is Mr. Koningmacher's verdict. He sald: “There is a railroad in which travel- ing is more comfortable than in this country. The compartments are well furnished. There is no extra charge for a berth. It is all included in the price of the ticket. Some compart- ments accommodate six people, others four. Many of the latter ones have ‘washstands in them.”. “Hotter'n 'Africa” will have to be dropped as s truthful phrase, accord- ing to these returned missionarfes. “While it gets hot in Africa,” he said, was generally cooler than right In Washiogton.”. Then: he went | trol of English capital, are to some ; on to explain that the heat wasn't so troublesome, for the houses were well buflt, large and open, giving plenty of opportunity for air circulation. A letter which was shown was from Mrs. Helen Wheeler, formerly Miss | Walde of Washington, who is now in |the heart of Africa, saying that the | nights in July were very cool; in fact, that it froze one time, and she merrily suggested that with the ripe straw- berries and their cream it would be possible to have frozen strawberries ~ e¥etnny Atien. [and shoot a lion more than seven feat Inna ond Inok out for tigers and such like things. He toid ot liuns sleeping in the mis- sion yards, making It necessary to keep the windows closed. Another lion slept in the garden. “One passed the house one night, singing lustily, | going straight for the cattle, and I shot at him.” A lion in | Atrica when it is roaring. “One Friday evening I saw the boys Mr. Koningmacher. Not every fly carries the germ of sleeping sick- ness. He showed a bottle that held several of the dangerous fies. They looked very little different from the common house fly. “Some people go in and out of the fly areas all the time and are never bitten. Others are infected with the sleeping sickness immediately. 1 have been bitten a number of times myself, but have never been sick. A Baptist mis-: running in a straight line. I won- “ “'l’/ iy \‘\u.: ’ sionary worker went through there “A LION HAD COME RIGHT INTO THE BACK YARD OF THE HOUSE.” add cream if they would but set them outside some evening. It seems hard to visualizse such actual conditions In a country where the native people are generally pic- tured running about dressed very briefly, to say the least. * ¥ % ¥ 'T seems that, after alj, there is plenty of wild life, even though civilisation: 1s crowding it -~ bick farther and farther. Even with rail- roads and motor cars and strikes and riots it 1s necessary now and thi kill & thirteen orifourteen foot Py E e dered what was up now. I soon learned that a lion had come right into the back of the yard and within 100 yards of the house. These na- tive boys had seen it and ran to- gether and mounted & large ant heap.” ®To keep the snakes from being under foot and getting in the way the grass is kept short for it seems that the reptiles don’t care to come out in the open. The tetse fly is not always daa- mu by any means, mefl!!.n' to with her husband, who was a magis- trate. They were both bitten, but he died and she was not even iIL” In reply to questions about the economic life and the habits of the American missionaries that go over there, Mr. Koningmacher told of .the attempts to obtain good milk. The native cattle are not fitted for milk. They have been used for years for burden and must be inbred into finer foreign stock. “Another funny thing,” he said, “is that in order to milk we have to tie the. animals completely. Tie both ‘Motor Cars Now Running Into Former Wilds of Belgian Congo legs and then let the calf start things and then we do what we can. Often- |times we are rewarded with but a cupful or two, sometimes more.” * X x ¥ } ISSIONARIES are beginning to | cover the country, explained Mr. Koningmacher. For the Adventist | denomination in the last year four- | teen schools were begun in the Nyas- | saland. The Dutch Reformed Church was very active also. Mrs. Koningmacher, who is with him, and their son Robert, who i about twelve years old, were anxious to impress it upon people that Africa was catching up in modern things. “Some people,” he said, “think that Africa is all jungles—that it is all wild—but that is certainly not so. Some parts of it—many parts—are 8s beautiful and lovely as Takoma Park, right here in Washington. iSome people think there {s nothing but jungles, snakes and wild beasts and wilder men. I never had to lock anything up. Women are safer in Africa than they are in America, Judging by the newspapers.” Asked about educating the Afri- cans, the missionary sald that it was easy and pleasant. “My station has been running now for four years and we have taught the A B C's, the grades, organized a Sabbath school, & young people's soclety and a church.” After looking over the curios show- ing native goods and customs and the plctures and listening to Rev. and Mrs. Koningmacher tell of their ex- periences In constant ploneer work 1t was not hard to understand that there will soon be no large sections of the world that are really wild and barren and devoid of some of the comforts of civilization. Giant Butterflies. [‘1‘ is said that In the northern part of New Guinea there are butter- illes s0 large that the natives hunt <~hem with the bow and arrow. They belong to the species Troides chima- era and they are not only among the largest, but among the rarest butter- flles in the world. Some specimens measure eleven and one-half inches across the wings. The males, which are very shy, are are found only at oertain hours of the day and at the tops of lofty blossom-bearing trees. The natives sometimes shoot the butterfiles with four-pronged arrows, and sometim capture them in nets made of spiders’ ‘webs. The first specimens were taken to London not so long ago by Meek, who had spent more than twenty years in New Guinea hunting rare varieties of birds and insects for American and m' pean collections. & - l | tificate from the government service | { in the national defense of the re public.” This matter of patioral defense re ferred to by Minister Eynac is th milk in the cocoanut of the vas amounts of money which France Engiend, and other countries ar spending on commercial aviatior Alrships and airplanes are bound t be one of the necessities of the war of the future. Just before leavim Washington T had a talk with Ma! Hickam, who, under Gen. Mitchel has charge of our Army air service He says that the wars of the futur will be fought In the air, and tha every nation should have a large avi ation industrial plant which it ca turn over to military uses in time o war. The life of an airplane is short and the war planes deteriorat rapidly if they ife idle. In war plane lasts only from six to twelv. weeks. Even in commercial work : motor will run for two hundred hour at the most. The flight from Pari to Warsaw takes about half a day On that line a motor is worn out’ ten round trips and a new ‘one mus be installed. As a motor is worsi $12,000, this makes it cost about §60 per trip. Other parts of the airplan are less perishable, but all soon wea out, although it may be better whe: the machines are made entirely o steel. It takss time fo build up an ai- plane industry, and in case of sudde war the country that has no inlus trial aviation establishment will bs at a great disadvantage For thi, reason France is daing all she can t« develop airplane factories, and is nov manufacturing airplanes for othe countries at little more than cost especially for the South American re publics. Maj. Hickman says it woul: pay us to make planes at a loss o for nothing for export to Japan, anc that If we could supdly the Japanes: with all their planes, military znc otherwise, our profit in case of wa would be enormous. As a result Japar would have a splendid aviation arma in the course of two or three mnonth: its airplanes would be worn out anc the country would be at our mercy for our commercial plants could b easily turned to making military planes In t.me of war. This is the reason why England is subsidizing her airplanes and airships, and it i the cause of the great anxiety tha prevalls in every country of Europ: as to the aviation industry. fly- * % % 2 IN the meantime commercial ing has been put on a sound anc permanent basis in this part o? the world. Our people seem to considel it an experiment, a plaything, an¢ more or less of a joke. Here s is ar established Industry which Is rapidly growing. The European thinks litth more of fiving to London, Brussels o) ‘Warsaw than he does of taking the train. Le Bourget, where I spent a day, ir the greatest flying fleld In Europs and perhaps in the world. It covers several hundred acres, surrounded by airdromes, with planes coming in and going out almost continually. There are airplane offices and depots. In the latter are bulletin boards giving the hours of arrival eand Aeparture and showing at all times just where any plane is. There is a regular customs and passport service for the passen- gers, and inside a glass case Is whai looks like a weather map, upon which are great round pins with arrows at- tached. These show where the planes are on the aerial routes and aiso the winds and fogs of each locality. Another map rvegisters the heights of the clouds by means of slides which pull up and down, giving an accurate hourly survey of the upper air be- tween Paris and London. Paris has airplane aviation time- tables, just like the rallway guides of the United States, containing the arrivals and departures of thc planes on each line, the places of landing and also the fares. One of these comes out every month, It is called “L'Indi- cateur Aerien.” It cost half a franc which just now is about five cents For the main lines, such as those from Paris to London and from Parie to Amsterdam, beautifully illustrated gulde books of about the size of out larger monthly magazines are for sale. These describe the routes and tell one all about the cities and cou try over which he is passing. The illustrations, which are photographs made from the plane: how London Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris a1 they look from the sky. Every com- pany has its own folders giving the times and fares and the advantages of its particular route over the others, s0 that all together the business iz becoming as highly organized as that of the railways.