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The Why of S. 2 and H.R. 7273

Address delivered by Colonel Edgar S. Gorrell, President Air Transport Association of America, at the Seventh Annual Convention of the National Association of State Aviation Officials, Miami-Biltmore Hotel, Miami, Florida, December 3rd, 1937

In the course of the past ten years the technological problems of air transport have been solved, to a large degree. Many remain, but we are well on the way to meeting satisfactorily the basic technical questions presented by flight.

However, the growth and success of the air transport industry have presented a new set of problems--problems commercial in nature. These are not questions for the engineer. They are questions for the managing operator and the government. Air transportation is already of profound importance to the nation, but America cannot reap the full benefit of this vast new avenue of travel and shipment, limitless in its possibilities, until a sound and permanent pattern for the commercial progress of the industry has been marked out. To this end legislation is requisite, not makeshift and haphazard, but carefully devised, comprehensive, and permanent regulation that will protect the public and investors.

I. The present legislative situation and the need for its improvement.

As to the domestic lines, there is now practically no economic regulation. The sole regulation is that incident to the carriage of air mail, contained in the Air Mail Act of 1934, as amended. That act was adopted to safeguard the Government's interest in mail transportation. It was amended in important particulars the year after its adoption. Further amendments are now urgently proposed, and tinkering with it will be necessary every year or two for it is an ad hoc device, directed to specific, temporary problems. It was not offered and it is not defended as a permanent regulatory measure; nor does it