Viewing page 63 of 102

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

NOT FOR RELEASE BEFORE AFTERNOON PAPERS OF OCTOVER 9, 1937

"AVIATION, YESTERDAY AND TODAY"

Excerpts from an address delivered by Colonel Edgar S. Gorrell, President, Air Transport Association of America, before the 8th Annual Mountain State Forest Festival, Elkins, West Virginia, 1:00 P.M., Saturday, October 9th, 1937.

As I travel around the country, the questions most frequently asked of me are those pertaining to the so-called errors of our wartime aviation program and to how large aviation of the future may grow.

Fortunately or not, and that I leave to your judgment, the opposition party secured majority control of the House of Representatives in the election which took place at the close of the World War. Subsequent to the Armistice, the majority party in the House passed a measure designed to conduct an investigation of wartime expenditures. This investigation being political, attempted to smear the Wilson Administration with the stigma of having conducted the war, and especially the aviation portion of the war, in an inefficient manner. Thus, partisan politics obtained the headlines of that day for the opposition party produced for the papers of this country such testimony, a great portion of which was erroneous, as then provided sensational reading. The truth of what actually happened during the war was thus greatly distorted for political reasons. The false impressions then and there given to the American public has never yet been eliminated from the minds of the generation of that time, or even of the succeeding generation. Pressed for time, as is the average successful person, the rumors and false statements, circulated for political effect at the close of the World War, have distorted America's viewpoint concerning aviation even as of today and have influenced public sentiment and even votes cast in the Congress of the United States as recently as the current year.

Before we pass to events of today, let us spend a moment looking at what truly did happen at the time there was laid this false impression pertaining to America's aeronautical achievements.