◆ SpookStack

._ passenger oarrying was not only possible, but also practical ‘oday, I am trying to assure our government and our people that while trans- seanic bombing is possible, it is not practical, end that the damage it ould do on wartime stendards would be slight. ~f.000.¢).) ‘ ‘ ie M .v I find the same people who scoffed at transatlantic air ro : 10 yoars ago, now telling me that if the Britieh empire does not win this - , vig) war, the United States of America will be conquered by air invaders fron Europe They say that the world's two greatest oceans are no barrier to bombing Planes, and that at any moment we may find trens-oceanis parachuse troops raining down on the streets of our major cities, .°.~ re i PEO pm >" Qur own president has talked about air invasions by way of. , ftoecapped Greenland, and about others based on the jungles of Central and South America -- incidentally, at cruising sppeds that are far higher than any ractng pane has yet attained. Well, 10 years ago, those of ua who bee . lieved in aviation set out to make thie country "air minded.” We seem to ha’ “succeeded, and now I suppose it is our job to get its feet safely back onto . . the ground. Now that we have become “air minded,” our next problem is to =. " learn how to operate aircraft to our best advantage. : : a But from what I say here, do not gain the impression that aviation has reached its ultimate development. It has still far to go both - in commerce and in war. The bombing plane will become more destructive, the’ -- ‘pursuit plane more effective, and the commercial plane more efficient than they are today. “It is even possible that the discovery of new sources of energy ‘ will permit us to build rocket planes in the future which will outperform the mythical bambers of our present day politicians and interventionists. With- unlimited energy available, one can conceive of speed limited only by the ac- Seleration the human bédy can withstand, In that case, cur descendants may ‘some day accolorate halfway across the ocean, and "decelerate" the rest of way across. If new sources of energy are discovered, the power of explosives - , Will also increase, And then, in some future generation, fifty, or a hundred, |: "or a thousand years from now, the United States may be ag vulnerable to attack — '_ from Burope as England is today. es ‘ x heey Wow, I am sure that many interventionists will feel that sino we may some day harness the atom and travel in rockets, we should go to war - imnediately to make the world safe for whatever system of government exists . in that unknown and distant time. But I am among those non-interventionists who feel that we have enough problems to solve in our ow generation; and that if °°. our grandchildren insist on splitting atoms and building rookets, it must be upon their own responsibility. I believe that our generation will bave accomplished — " Ate duty Sf we pass on to cur children a free and independent American heri-e ©. tage that is not too greatly burdened with the debts of wer. And so, for the-° oe 4 faa present at least, I am willing to pass the atom and the rocket Plen over to the - : interventionists, to hold in trust for Benerations of the future. be, “In disoussing air power, we should start. with the realisation conquest of the air will bring revolutionary changes to the entire