Viewing page 44 of 76

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

To All Active ALPA Members -28- January 26, 1948

enclosures. Yet only 16 subjects have been covered. The balance of the 25 items will have to wait until the next membership letter. A letter of this kind requires a good deal of work and effort, first to author, and second, to produce. Headquarters hopes you find it interesting and that it will result in giving you a closer and clearer insight into ALPA organizational activities, happenings, accomplishments, obstacles, and problems, generally. If you find the letter interesting, it will be helpful and encouraging to Headquarters to have you tell us so. If there are improvements you would like to suggest on form or contents, we are particularly anxious to have you tell us what they are. If you have any additional questions on any part of the letter, or anything else about ALPA activity, we shall be more than pleased to hear from you.

Generally speaking, irrespective of alarmists and Calamity Janes, the air line industry is stabilizing -- things are quieting down a bit. The same applies to ALPA. First, it was the pre-war excitement, tenseness, pressure and uncertainty. Then came the war. The Association was not classed as an essential industry. Help and supplies were impossible to procure. ALPA’s survival in good shape is a miracle. The postwar years have been hectic, jammed with problems. We have come through it all with a whole skin and with many marked gains —- milestones in the building of the airline piloting profession and its representing organization. Things don’t look too bright for 1948. Mismanagement has taken its toll. Errors of judgment in air line equipment selection, and devastating crashes, all combined to shake public confidence in air transportation. Washington is swinging further and further to the reactionary side, and 1948 is a presidential election year. On the other hand, there is a definite advantage in everything getting back to normal. The quicker we meet it and face it and solve our problems, the better. The job is well along and what ALPA does in 1948 will go a long way toward completing it. It’s up to all of us during 1948 to do as we have always done in ALPA -- avoid politics, cliques, and any form of harmful actions, and stand shoulder to shoulder for a square deal for all air line pilots. Above all, we must guard against selfishness and greed which are the real termites of successful employee representing efforts.

The expansion and reorganization of ALPA along strictly departmentalized lines have been completed. It has come a long way over unexplored trails of every character. We are not overmanned nor undermanned. ALPA is a clean, agile, effective, representing machine. As you will gather from the pages of this membership letter, 1947 was a great year for ALPA. If we all stay on our toes, 1948 can't miss being the same. 

With every good wish, I am
Sincerely yours, 
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION
[signature]
David L. Behncke, President

dlb/mh
encls. 2
P. S. It's up to every member to bring in that non-member with whom he flies occasionally and thereby greatly strengthen ALPA. 
DLB