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TO ALL MEMBERS 
- 12 - 
February 16, 1943

copy is fastly waning. However, since his Pacific experience he is again much in the limelight, and from all indications he is taking full advantage of the resultant publicity. Why? Well, for one thing, his pilots and mechanics are organized and every once in a while they speak up in their own interest. Maybe this causes him to feel bad. 

Again, we wish to make it perfectly clear that we have no quarrel with Mr. Rickenbacker's expounding his theories even though they be on a subject of which he knows very little and for which he couldn't possibly have any sympathy but we do wish to point out that the working people in the industry had better start talking about their side of the picture and point out that Mr. Rickenbacker is speaking for the companies an for Wall Street interests, and not for the man who carries the dinner pail nor for the man who kisses his wife good-bye on storm nights to go aloft to see that the country's arteries of communication and transportation are kept intact.

BUILDING YOUR ORGANIZATION

We have heard much talk about what is going to happen after the war, and we have a limited number of "Calamity Janes" in our profession who seem to take keen delight in standing around and wringing their hands deploring the future. I say there is nothing to worry about in the postwar future of air line transportation in any form it may assume except the harm that bunk peddlers may do if they are not curbed. Debunking must be the order of the day of all the working people who are really the backlog of the industry. So far as the air line pilots are concerned, if you, Mr. Veteran First Pilot, and you, Mr. Veteran Copilot, do a good job of selling that newcomer in your cockpit on the value of organization and what ALPA has accomplished and what it must accomplish in the future, no one in the air line piloting profession need have any fear of the outcome.  

In the first place, we have Right on our side, and that is a powerful ally in any man's argument, but if we keep all this to ourselves as far as the newcomers in the profession are concerned, and so far as the traveling public, with whom we are in daily contact, is concerned, we will have no one to blame but ourselves if it doesn't turn out so well. Keep everyone informed of the proper facts in the air line transport picture, both domestic and foreign, particularly in our own profession, and there will be nothing to fear. However, we are going to have to get busy and do this and just talk about it.

AIR SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS

Ever since the beginning of ALPA we have spent nearly half of our time improving the safety aspects of our working conditions. Very little has been done in the way of increasing safety in air line transportation in which ALPA didn't have a part. 

For example, no Civil Air Regulations are promulgated without the advice and suggestions of the air line pilots through their organization. This goes into all phases and all aspects of air safety regulation. It also goes deeply into the engineering field. Only a number
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