◆ SpookStack

‘Aviation, Geography, and Race By Charles A. viaTION has struck a delicately balanced world, a world where stability was already giving way to the pressure of new | dynamic forces, a world dominated by a mechanical, materialistic, Western European civilization. Avia~ tion is a product of that civilization, borne on the crest of its conquest, deve! by its spirit of adventure, typical of its science, its industry, its outlook. Typical also of its strength and its weakness, its van- ity and its self-destruction — man flung upward in the face of God, another Icarus to dominate the sky, and, in turn, to be dominated by it; for eventually the laws of nature determine the success of human ef- fort and measure the value of human inventions in that divinely compli- cated, mathematically unpredicta- ble, development of life at which Science has shied the name of Evo- lution. Aviation seems atmost a gift from heaven to those Western nations who were already the leaders of their era, strengthening their lead- ership, their confidence, their domi, Nance over other peoples. It is 4 tool specially shaped for Westén hands, a scientific are which others only copy in a mediocre fashion, another barrier between the teem- ing millions of Asia and the Grecian inheritance of Europe ~ one of oy Lindbergh those priceless possessions which permit the White race to live at all In & pressing seg of Yellow, Black, and Brow: Buc avidt sing it symboli- cally as well as in its own right, brings two great dangers, one pe- culiar to our modern civilization, the other older than history. Since aviation is dependent on the intri- cate organization of life and indus- try, it carries with it the environ- mental danger of a people too far separated from the soil and from che’ sea — the danger of that physical decline which so often goes with a high intellectual development, of that spiritual decline which seems invariably to accompany an indus- trial life, of that racial decline which follows physical and spiritual me- diocrity. A great industrial nation may conquer the world in the span of a single life, but its Achilles’ heet is time. Its children, what of them? The second and third generations, of what numbers and stuff will they be? How long can men thrive be- tween walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineraltike quality of life? This is our modern danger eA one of the waxen wings of flight. It may cause our civilization to fall eo unless we act quickly to counteract ? jt, unless we reabze that human <: character is more important than .. efficiency, that education consists of more than the mere accumula- , tion of knowledge. » But the other great danger is «more easily recognized, because it has occurred again and again through history. Ie is the ember of war, fanned by every new military weapon, flaming today as it has never flamed before. It is the old internal strug- gle among a dominant people for wer, blind, insatiable, suicidal. Western nations are again at war, a war likely to be more prostrating than any in the past, a war in which the White race is bound to lose, and the others bound to gain, a war which may easily lead our civiliza- tion through more Dark Ages if it survives at all. . ~ In this war, aviation is as impor- tance a factor as it has been a cause — a cause due to its effect on the balance of strength between na- tions, a factor because of the de- struction and death it hurls on earth and sea. Air power is new to all our coun- tries. It brings advantages to same and weakens others; it calls for readjustment everywhere. If only there were some way to measure the changing character of men, some yardstick to reapportion in- fluence among the nations, some way to demonstrate in peace the AVIATION, GEOGRAPHY, AND RACE & strength of arms in war. But with all of its dimensions, its clocks, and weights, and figures, Science fails us when we ask a measure for the rights of men. They cannot be judged by numbers, by distance, weight, or time; or by counting heads without a thought of what may lie within. Those intangible qualities of character, such as courage, faith, and skill, evade all systems, slip through the bars of every cage. They can be recognized, bur not measured. They lie more in a glance between two men than in any formula of mathematics. They form the unseen strength of an army, the genius of a people. Likewise, in judging aviation, in its effect on modern nations, no satisfactory measurement of strength exists. It is bound to geography, environment, and racial character so closely that an attempt to judge by numbers would be like counting Greeks at Marathon. Some men and some nations have grown wings. What advantage will they gain? What new influence can they exert? To judge this one must look not only at their aviation but at them, at the gepgraphy of their country, at their problems of existence, at their habits of life. Mountains, coastlines, great dis- tances, ground fortifications, all those safeguards of past genera- tions, lose their old significance as man takes to his wings. The English Channel, the snow-capped Alps, the expanse: of Russia, are naw looked