four hours, as well as mail, in the United States than in all of Europe combined. The service is as good, if not better, the planes generally faster, and safety records the same as for France, Germany and England. Rates in this country tend to approximate railroad plus Pullman fares. Do you know that every twenty-four hours planes on schedule fly at least 150,000 miles? Nor does that total include the uncounted thousands of miles flown by private owners and in army and navy manœuvers. At that, commercial aviation is just beginning to get ready to start.
As with T. A. T., my duties in the New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway primarily concerned passengers—getting them, and pacifying them when things went wrong. There were endless letters to be answered, and many many speeches to audiences of various kinds. Always my talks were about flying from one point of view or another. During this period of vocal salesmanship, I met college girls, women’s clubs, professional groups and mixtures of these, as well as all sorts and conditions of men before whom I also spoke.
Usually I asked those in the audiences who had flown to raise their hands. In the metropolitan areas among the women, the professional groups led in the number who had been in the air. Further, nearly all who had not seemed quite willing to go when opportunity offered. As an example of this progressive spirit, I myself ferried four mem
