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Latest photo of Ruth Law in her aviatrix uniform. (Photo by Moffet.)
I Would Fly Through the Foe's Guarding Planes to His Headquarters and Try to Bomb Him, Says Ruth Law, and Prove That the Usefulness of Women Is Not a Myth

By RUTH LAW
The World's Greatest Aviatrix.

I HAVE an ambition, and that is to fly a battle plane on the allied western front-a dueling airplane. Having seen the French and English aviators in their maneuvers, and having flown with some of them in their practice flights, I have no hesitancy in believing I could handle one of the fragile machines in the twisting, climbing, falling combats of the air.

There is no doubt that people generally look upon a woman as an irresolute creature, unable to kill enemies. Woman's training has not been along the lines of warfare. If it had been she could react to danger with a man's decision and promptness.

Personally, if commissioned to do so, I could drive an airplane into battle and perform the destructive work of bombing Teuton batteries and barracks without any feeling of remorse, for the line of duty would be clear. And if the commander in chief of our military forces, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, were to say to me. "Aviatrix Law, I herby commission you to go get the Kaiser," I should fly away on my bombing mission with not only a free conscience but a glad heart.

I try to imagine how I would feel should by any chance such an order come to me. It would be a different sensation than any of those I have yet experienced, more dramatic I am sure than when I lander in New York at the end of my Chicago-to-New York flight. Then I felt emotional at having so many kind and notable people praise me for my record-breaking work, but this commission, "Go get the Kaiser," would, I think, affect me more deeply than any praise or blame. I would be thinking of the peace that my success would bring to the world. I would be feeling a little remorseful at having to end a life, but for the most part I would be watching my motor, urging the German planes, jockeying, dipping, darting to the spot where I would release my bombs and see them blow the man into eternity.

It would take co-operation from Allied intelligence bureaus to locate my man for this imaginary raid, but this is not so difficult as is imagined. From what I learn it has been almost accomplished twice to date. Once an aviator flew unerringly to the Kaiser's headquarters on the western front and missed the Kaiser by chance, killing two of his staff officers standing near by. At another time an airplane bomb narrowly missed the Kaiser as he stood on a hill far behind the lines scrutinizing the French trenches through his glass.

I am not bloodthirsty; I never killed anything in my life, but war is war and an enemy in uniform is by all rules a fair target. Ethically dropping a bomb is exactly like firing a rifle point-blank at an exposed head.

Unless I had been through all sorts of flying adventures, unless I know the air, I should feel childish in imagining that I could "Go get the Kaiser," but I have been flying for five years and over. I am accustomed to the necessity of holding my nerve steady in fighting wind and storm. Transpose these enemies into German airplanes and there is small difference to a skilled flyer.

Mechanically the feat of "getting the Kaiser" would not be impossible, for they told me in France he often visits the front. Nothing would deter me were I by any good fortune put in a position to accomplish the deed.

The speed of these racing planes is terrific and the distance which they can travel is practial for bombarding almost any given point in the interior of Germany.

Reports have been published indicating the presence of Allied aviators far into the enemy's country, and it may be recalled that a fleet of German airplanes dropped bombs on English cities and then, some of them at least, returned home.

I doubt if women can as a class be made successful flyers. Some of them undoubtedly have been trained in athletics to such an extent that they could steel themselves to air travel, but on the whole they cannot stand the strain. It seems likely to me that physical and not moral factors make them unfit for killers from the sky. The average woman would perform almost any act of legitimate warfare to bring the conflict to a close. But she is not prepared for the intense nervous strain of flying and flighting.

American girls of the type of Eleanor Sears, the tennis expert might become expert aviatrices. Their nerves have been inured to crises and unexpected climaxes. Their hardihood of body, their long practice in gaining complete command of their muscles has made their minds steady. Some dozen of this class might be found in America capable of doing airplane fighting should the occasion arise.

But where women might fly to advantage would be in supply and messenger work, far back of the lines where the Fokkers never come. This would demand plain, unspectacular flying, merely errand work. Hundreds of women could be trained to this sort of flying, for once the principles are understood the danger is slight and the course uneventful. The planes are slower and heavier than the battle machines and are not so easily upset in the wind. Pacing women in these "truck-horse" airplanes would release scores of men for the more perilous work up ahead.

Women also could become excellent primary teachers of aeronautics, instructing young men in the first stages of flying, the construction of their machines, the first-aid remedies to ailing motors, the co-ordination of hands and feet in managing the levers, etc. Our men then could finish their training at the front and the "aces" of the air show them the superfine points.

Dueling in the air today involves such skill and mental repose that it makes the average woman's place in its midst impossible. Loop-the-loops, once freak stunts for exhibitors only, now are commonplace events. Every aviator who matches his skill against his enemy must be able to turn upside down on occasion, to let his machine somersault over and over, tumbling inertly down until just before the ground is reached; to do the tail-spin, sinking like a plummet, and to do any number of circus acts with his machine. He must be prepared to avoid his enemy's bullets by every evasion possible, and to be ready to pump leaden death into his opponent from a level, a tilted or an upside-down position.

So long have I practiced, so constant have I been in my devotion to the air that I should feel myself a failure were I not able to do these things. And knowing how much training it has taken, I know that few women could learn to do them in time to be of battle service in this war.

As the business of flying becomes more and more stabilized we will see more women buying machines. I have not the slightest doubt but that it will become first a fad and then a practical thing with women. You remember that they said women could never learn to drive automobiles, and now feminine drivers are too common for remark.

Accidents among the crack flyers are rare, so completely have experience and invention removed the dangers. Practically all the casualties at the front are from bullets. This knowledge is encouraging American laymen to buy machines. After the war airplanes will be vastly cheaper than they were before, owing to the huge war output and the erection of mammoth plants for their manufacture.

Transcription Notes:
Image 1 - cutoff at top. Presumably of Ruth Law and President Woodrow Wilson with American flag behind them. Image 2 - headshot of Ruth Law in uniform