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To All Members  -12-  October 15, 1942

well set up to protect you and we intend to fight in every case to obtain justice for the pilot and copilot involved in an accident. Nevertheless, we feel it our duty to forewarn you of a legal department of the Civil Aeronautics Board that is out to penalize and convict every pilot who gets mixed up in any trouble whatever. While they have been educated, to a large extent, to fair methods of investigating air line accidents and not blaming everything on the pilot, they still have decided leanings in that direction and in back of that picture we have the House Investigating Committee headed by Congressman Nichols of which the Chief Investigator is an attorney by the name of McGann. The leanings of this committee including its Chief Investigator, are decidedly in the direction of, it's always the pilot's fault.

If I were a pilot and were careless about getting myself in a jam, now would be a beautiful time to do it. Of course, the first agency that would bounce on me would be the C.A.B whose investigators would do everything possible to clear their skirts first, and if they can blame it on the pilot, their skirts are clean. After this fiesta would come the Enforcement Section of the Civil Aeronautics Board (all lawyers) which is out to convict every pilot it can. Don't ask me why, but I guess it is just because they figure that convicting the pilot is more of a deadend street, impossible of any kickback on any of their own people, etc. Then don't forget, at the same time I would be faced with Nichol's Congressional Investigations, and if I were still alive, I would be called in an questioned very sharply and at great length on the entire affair. Then if I should manage to be exonerated by the C.A.B and its Enforcement Section, there would be nine chances in ten that the Nichols House Investigating Committee would convict me. Now you have the picture. By your side stand ALPA together with its attorneys and we will fight for you at every turn of the road and to the last ditch, and if you have right on your side when an accident occurs, you will have a very excellent chance of being exonerated -- but still, the best bet is, DON'T CRACK UP!!

For the past five or six months we have conducted a continuous search for a suitable Washington Representative to replace Mr. Hamilton who left our employ by mutual agreement on November 1, 1941. He acted as our Washington Representative for quite a number of years, but it was finally decided he would do better somewhere else. Recently, we took on a man, Mr. Charles German, who has had twelve years of private law practice, has spent three years with the Internal Revenue and three years with the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington. He is not an air line pilot but he appears to be a capable fellow and knows his way around Washington and the C.A.A. We have employed him on a trial basis of one year, and if he works out, we shall retain him in our employ -- if he doesn't, we shall see someone else. Mr. German has been with us now for one and one-half months, and he seems to be doing quite well. Our plan is to have him act not only as our Washington Representative, but as a trouble-shooter fir the pilots throughout our entire organization in the field. The way the situation now stands, the minute a pilot gets into serious trouble, our Headquarters or our Washington office will be on the job immediately.

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