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TO ALL MEMBERS  -2-  February 16, 1943

everybody will, according to this plan, be paying taxes in accordance with some sort of payroll deduction or other monthly payment plan which will amount to paying taxes monthly for the current year.

In any event, my advice is not to put too much stock in all of this nor in anything you read in the papers about income tax, etc., and in order to be on the safe side, you had better start planning to pay on or before March 15 in accordance with current income tax laws, and to bring yourself up to date on what these are, consult carefully the enclosed booklet.

Remember, your income tax return is due on or before March 15.

DRINKING QUESTION

In the course of carrying on the Association's business I have, of late, been doing considerable traveling about the country.  As a matter of fact, I am on the road more than half the time.

In the early thirties, when the air line piloting profession was beginning to come into its own -- I might say, beginning to feel its oats -- there was a great deal of trouble caused by pilots' imbibing too freely; in plain words, "hitting the bottle."

The Air Line Pilots Association carefully, diplomatically, and diligently approached this problem with the view of eliminating drinking at least to an extent so that it would in no way interfere with air line flying.  In this we have been quite successful.

First, we banned liquor at our conventions and we banned it completely.  Then we banned it at all meetings of air line pilots.  The general idea was to let the officials do the drinking for the industry and we would conduct ourselves as sober men.

The main cause for this change in the conduct of the air line pilots was that it brought home to all of them that they are members of a top-bracket profession and they are individually as well as collectively carrying a great deal of responsibility for the safe conduct of their flights on which part of the cargo is always human life.  We made the point that they owed it to their profession and to their families, and last but not least, to the public to keep sober.

Recently I have noticed evidence of strong indications that certain of us are slipping back into the grip of the drinking habit.  I have even heard reports that certain air line pilots are drinking while on runs.

Pilots that indulge in this practice are no credit to the profession and the quicker they are removed from it the better it will be for all concerned.  All should remember that the Air Line Pilots Association is not standing back of any of its members who find themselves in trouble because of drinking while on duty at the far end of their runs, or 24 hours before they leave on runs, or at any time they are 
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