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DAVE: Where have you gone?

ECK: I've covered four great continents. I've flown over our own country, most of Europe, circled South America, and have flown over the jungles of Africa from Cairo to Capetown.

DAVE: Well, Mr. Eck, you were one of the ten passengers to make the round trip flight across the Atlantic. In addition you occupied birth number one and were listed first on the passenger list. How did that happen.

ECK: When I was flying around South American eight years ago,  Mr. Elman, I got to talking with the Pan-American pilots. They told me that someday Pan-American was going to make flights across the Atlantic. So I immediately sat down and wrote a letter making a reservation for the first flight.

DAVE: Yes, and your reservation was received only several weeks after that of Will Rogers. Tell me, Mr. Eck, what impressed you the most about the trip?

ECK: It's speed. . . the fact that I was away from home only six days and that four of those days were spent on land in Europe . . . the fact that last Monday morning I had breakfast in Lisbon, Portugal, and that Tuesday morning I had breakfast in New York.

DAVE: Yes a few hundred years ago it took Christopher Columbus ten weeks to cross the Atlantic, and now you have just done it in twenty-four hours.  Weren't you afraid?

ECK: Not at all, Mr. Elman. And I don't think you would be either if you could see the Dixie Clipper. It's the largest aircraft either military or commercial - in the world. You could even have breakfast in bed if you wanted to. Except that you'd have to wait a little while for boiled eggs.

DAVE: Wait a little while, why is that?

ECK: Well you see, Mr. Elman, we were up about ten thousand feet. Due to the altitude it would take twelve minutes to boil a pair of three minute eggs.

DAVE: Did you pick up any whales or eagles as traveling companions?

ECK: No, we didn't, Mr. Elman. All the way across we didn't see a single living thing. As a matter of fact we were up so high we didn't even see the ocean.

DAVE: Mr. Eck, there's one thing more I've been wanting to ask you. You're a railroad executive. Flying seems an unusual hobby for one in your position.

ECK: Well Mr. Elman, I believe that travel begets travel, and that progress in one field means progress in another. The airplane and the railroads are two of the greatest of our modern inventions, and they're both predominently American.. There is naturally a certain amount of overlapping, but I believe that each has its field, a great tremendous field for its own development and growth.
Thank you Mr. W. J. Eck.
(APPLAUSE)
MUSIC ............