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4
Business Digest

fly from Chicago to Mexico City or from New York to Montreal, using such equipment and paying such wages as he pleases. Foreign air mail contracts are awarded for a maximum of ten years, but there is no provision similar to that which gives the domestic lines assurance of continuity. Competitive bidding for routes which require the negotiation of permits with innumerable foreign countries and the investment of enormous sums in ground facilities, which in this country are largely provided by federal, state or municipal bodies, is obviously impracticable.

Consequences Obvious
The consequences of the existing lack of economic controls over the industry are not far to see. As long as the present state of affairs continues, there will be no adequate new capital available to the industry. Few people realize that the air lines have been built up hitherto almost entirely as a result of capital furnished by a few individual patrons or corporations which have been willing to take long chances. Of the $120,000,000 of private investment which has been made in American air transport, over $60,000,000 are gone. New sources of additional capital must be made available. Within the next twelve months the domestic lines should have at least $15,000,000 and the foreign lines $5,000,000 additional capital. Many of the lines are already pinched for funds.
This condition of financial starvation not only makes it impossible for these lines to take full advantage of possible technological improvements, but could lead to competition for traffic of such intensity that the accident ration might accelerate instead of declining. Failure to correct the existing situation, and to do so promptly, means more than loss to the capital remaining invested in the air transport industry, to the labor employed in it, and to this country's position in civil aviation.
For the reasons which I have just indicated, the present situation cannot be allowed to continue. The belief that we are not confronted with an emergency and that matters can go right along as they are for another four or five years is a completely erroneous belief and one which, if adhered to, will have tragic consequences. Something must be done, and done quickly—now, at the coming session of Congress.

Information Available
There is no dearth of information available in regard to the air transport industry. It has been repeatedly investigated by committees of Congress, by the aviation commission appointed by President Roosevelt in 1934, by innumerable private agencies. Out of all this investigation there has, to my knowledge, come only one really constructive and comprehensive plan which has commanded any appreciable amount of assent. That plan now stands in the form of carefully devised legislation, carrying with it unanimous recommendations made after