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been invested, is so all embracing that it would take not merely a prophet, but a most courageous one, to prodict what the future may truly hold in store in the way of the transportation of passengers and cargo by scheduled aircraft. The role of commercial aeronautics has never yet become static. The whole subject remains fluid and the accent is ever-varying. Beyond doubt, the scheduled air transport industry has  influenced and stimulated many of our other national industries. Our military air force is as dependent on commercial aeronautics as is our Navy upon our Merchant Marine. 

In the Spring of 1917, I turned to Marshall Joffre in my quest for information as to how large our aerial installations should be to provide for our World War activities. The "Savior of the Marne" advised me to guess my fondest hopes and my fondest dreams, to multiply the answer to obtained by ten, and then to realize that my calculation would still be too small. This sound advice of a generation ago finds its parallel in the story of the current progress of civil aeronautics. 

The inquiry most often made of me is "How large will the air transportation industry grow?" No one is gifted with the foresight necessary for answering that question. As a matter of fact, the only body which, by self-admission, is capable of definitely predicting the future limitations of aeronautics in the United States is the Congress of the United States. Our 73rd and 74th Congresses have made such predictions; that is, they have written into our basic Air Mail Act certain narrowly restrictive limitations, which, if not accurate predictions, are highly contrary to the public interest. In my opinion, these two  Congresses were just as far from correct in these, their recent predictions for civil aeronautics, as was that other (and at least equally competent) Congress which twenty years ago legislated for the future