Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 85

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASIII ;TON, D. C, OCTOBER 18, 1931 Official Washington “Up in the Air* President Hoover Has a “Flying Cabi- net,” Department Heads Are Soaring Aloft and Even The White House Has Become Air- Minded, as Lure of theSkies Beckons Uncle Sam’s Agents to_Journeys. BY CORINNE REID FRAZIER. N HAT with airplanes hopping back and forth acrcss the ocean like so many grasshoppers on the banks of a brooklet, new Trec- ords being set daily and famous family parties being organwe_d casually for round-the-world vacation tours via the blue, all eyes are so busy scanning distant horizons for the latest signs of aerial prcgress that we have failed to note what is going on right under our very noses. Quietly and unostentatiously official Wash- tngion has taken to the air. For the first time in tke history of the Nation we have the spectacle of a “flying cabinet,” 15 per cent of which uses the air as a regular or, at least, a frequent medium of travel. As for the “little cabinet” and the rest of officialdom, more ¢f them are joining the sky trotters every day. Once they take to wings, they admit they are “completely sunk,” or, rather, permanently elevated to a new plane of thinkers—that cult known as the “air-minded.” Is the White House air-minded, too? Rather —although, for obvious reascns, the President and his lady do not travel that way them- selves. A President’s life is of necessity guarded with the ufmost csre, and his mode of travel ‘as well as everything else connected with his movements must be chosen with the most scrupulous conservatism, even to the point of bending over backward, lest some chance hazard might prove an unhappy risk. No President of the United States has yet been in the air— at least not while he was in the White House. But bcth the President and Mrs. Hoover are keenly interested in the development of air travel and believe confidently in the rapid and steady progress of all forms of aviation. Both of their sons fly, and one of them, Herbert jr., holds his cwn license and owns his own plane. WO of the White House staff are not only air-minded; they are by self-admission “flying bugs.” Lawrence Richey, secretary to the President, was the first Chief Executive's aide to catch the fever, quite accidentally, sev= eral months ago. James Ray, well known auto- giro pilot, dropped in mcre or less literally one day last Spring to pay his respects at the white House. After he had been greeted by the President and had demonstrated his ability to land on a single blade of grass or what ncot, he fell into conversation with Lawrence Richey, who was admiring his queer-looking ship with its four huge propellers spread out on top like a spider’s legs. Mr. Richey remarked, albeit a trifle wistfully, that he had never been up in the air. “What, never?” quoth the autogirator. “No, never,” solemnly averred Mr. Richey. The pilot, who had an appointment in Balti- more or St. Louis or somewhere a few minutes hence, shook his head sadly, murmuring in a shocked sotto voice: “This will never do—no, never.” Then, doing things to his queer little jnstrument board, he suddenly rose straight up in the air and was <fl. But not for long. The discovery of a full- grown man who had never been off the ground weighed upcn his soul so heavily that one day in June he dropped dcwn at the Washing- ton Airport and got in touch with the execu- tive offices without delay. The too-long- grounded Mr. Richey came forth with alacrity, sped toward the field and greeted his visitor frcm the ether most heartily. “Never bcen up yet?” queried James Ray, with incredulity in his gaze. “Nope. never,” grinned the secretary, “ex— pnot yet!™” “Well, hop in.” Mr. Richey took a deep breath—and hopped. By his own account he's been hopping ever since, into every kind of ship he could get with- in hopping distence of. The cther “flying bug” at the White House is Miss Mildred Hall, youthful society secretary to Mrs. Hoover—the youngest ever to hold this position, by the way—who took her first flight two years ago in a cabin plane which was being looked over by officials at Bolling Field. While the cabin plane gave Miss Hall her first air thrill, her real love is the small open pursuit type. “You can see so much more as you go along,” she says. In inserts, upper left, Assistant Secretary of War H. Trubee Dav right, Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Navy, who is an Right center, Secretary of War P piloting he has Lieut. C. W. Cousland do it for him. the air. F THE President should call for his cabinet unexpectedly scme day and be told that they are “all up in the air,” he wouldn't get all hot and bothered himself, thinking that they were upset over some affair of state. No, he probably would go out and scan the horizon, cr compose himself to wait a few moments until a whir of wings should announce their return. . Dashing Patrick Hurley, whose youthful face and figure almost belie the dignity of his im- posing title, heads the cabinet list of high fly- ers, with a license of his own and, it is said, more hcurs in the air to his credit than any other member of this select group which gath- ers around the cabinet board. The Secretary of War flies often and he flies high. He likes the rarefied atmosphere of the upper reaches. Not so lcng ago he flew his ship at an altitude of something over 12,000 feet with a tailwind of 60 miles making things in- teresting for him. He has a plane assigned to him, distinguished from other planes of the Army _Air Corps cnly by the addition of four small stars around the emblem on the wings and fuselage. Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Navy, is another of the cabinet group who knows the feel of the controls in his cwn hands. Although he is among the older members of the cabinet, he is one of the most enthusiastic aviators. He is cne of the very few men who can boast the thrill of piloting the giant Los Angeles, the Navy's second largest dirigible, a thrill which he likens to that of sailing his yacht, the favorite sport of his leisure hours, if any. Secretary Adams is a most colorful fig- ure in Washington officialdom, a vigorous, enthusi2stic sportsman who hasn't allowed his years to affect his youth nor white halrs to drive him frem any of the fields of his hobbies, even the tennis courts, where he can be seen often late of a Saturday afternoon battling for points with Director General Rowe of the Pan- American Union, or Hustcn Thompson, another of his cronies. Postmaster General Brown may not take the controls himself, but his traveling experience in the air rivals that of the War Secretary. He has pretty well covered the country by plane, following the various airmail routes which now spread out like a giant spider web fron coast to coast. The Postmaster General takes his flying quite as an every-day affair. Secretary of State Stimson,-it is safe to say, is the first Secretary of State to make a prac- tice of air travel. He has made numercus trips to New York and other points, and recently he whirled away in an airplane on the first lap of his portentous trip to Europe to play his important role in the debt mcratorium parley. TTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM MITCH- ELL despite a conservative background and a typically legal turn of mind, has a vivid imagination that roams the azure of trails, and whenever opportunity affords he hi 1f fol- lows it between the wings of a pla®:, anni- hilating distance as he soars hundreds of miles through the blue. He takes a spin down to Florida to see how things are getting along quite as readily as he would hop a bus or a train for a neighboring town—and he leaves in such a hurry sometimes that he forgets to mention where he's going; not that it matters, for he'll be back before his secretary could in- form the ever-waiting press of the details of the trip. Up Commerce way, Secretary Lamont has only one grievance: his job keeps him so close at home that he rarely has the time or a place to fly to. He likes air travel, however, and is distinctly enthusiastic on the subject in gen- eral. Recently he took a trip in an autogiro and is talking about it yet. Upon the rare oc- casions when he is called out of town, he uses any plane that comes handy. Secretary Hyde of Agriculture also has been up occasionally, but does not make a practice of flying, chiefly because, like Mr. Lamont, his job keeps him at home. Secretaries Mellon, Wwilbur and Doak remain, as far as is known, the three non-fiyers in the cabinet group. Mr. Mellon, it seems, has never been in the air either here or abroad, and Mr. Doak doesn't travel by air bccause he's an old railroad man who would no more think of deserting tbe rails for any other mode of travel than he sunfd consider abandoning an old friend. idson, who likes to do his own piloting when flying. Upper ardent aviation fan and frequently takes the stick when in atrick J. Hurley who flies often and flies high. Lower right, David Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. W hen he doesn’t want to do the In the so-called “little cabinet” group, eem- posed of undersecretaries and assistant secre- taries, there is much air enthusiasm and quite a little expert flying talent. For instance, there is Col. Clarence M. Young, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, an expert pilot with a romantic war record, who not only pilots his own planes, but holds the No. 2 transport pilot license on the United States list. The only man ahead of him is former Assistant Secres tary MacCracken, whose license is No. 1. Col. Young, during the war, was shot down behind the lines on the Italian front, captured by the enemy and left languishing in an Austrian prison camp for five months. Then the Austrian government collapsed and in the general eon- fusion he made his escape, hiding away for 96 hours in a box car without food or water in order to gain entrance once more into Italy just in time to celebrate the signing of the armistice. Col. Young has had a hand in the develop=- ment of the aeronautics branch from its in- fancy, having served in the capacity of chief of regulations at the time of its organization in 1926. He is the second man to hold the post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics. DAVID INGALLS, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, is another erack pilot with an enviable war record. Mr. Ingalls at the age of 18 went to Europe with the Yale unit and entered the British Flying Corps. He saw plenty of action and has several German planes and a balloon to his credit. At the close of the war he returned to Yale, completed his course there and then was graduated from the Harvard Law School, subsequently serving in the Ohio State Legislature. While a member of that body he formulated the Ohio air laws, ac- knowledged as the first carefully thought-out air cpde in the Unlted States and used as a basis for the national air laws later evolved by the Department of Commerce. Assistant Secretary of War H. Trubee Davison Cont nued on 1'cnth Page