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ployment of aircraft has almost reached, and all indications tend to show that it soon will reach, a scale of importance equal to the army and navy. The use of aircraft as an auxiliary for military and naval operations was at the date of the armistice rapidly approaching a point of secondary importance when compared with the uses and value of aircraft as an independent fighting force.

It is a matter of common knowledge that whenever an organization is made up of two or more parts, each part will be smaller and less important than the whole. The axiom applies particularly to military and naval organizations which should be so proportioned as to obtain the greatest efficiency from the entire organization. Neither the army nor the navy, nor both combined can be expected to develop, organize, and perfect aircraft and their employment to the greatest possible limits of which that weapon is capable. Considered simply as a military and naval weapon, a conservative estimate of its possibilities ten years from today is such that is can always be stated that, in case of war in which the United States is engaged, if the enemy obtains the mastery of the air, he will be able to dictate his own peace terms at any place within the United States that he may desire. It is firmly believed that in wars between first-class powers, the victory will be won by that nation