Viewing page 18 of 63
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
TWO THE AIR LINE PILOT May, 1947 THE AIR LINE PILOT Volume 16 - 4 [[image]] 66 May, 1947 Published monthly by the Air Line Pilots Association, International Affiliated with A. F. of L. Annual Subscription................ $2.50 David L. Behncke............... President Jerome E. Wood................. First Vice-President Raymond B. Andrews............. Secretary Warren G. Malvick.............. Treasurer Vice-Presidents, Foreign W. F. Judd..................... TWA-Rome, Italy T. H. L. Young................. Panagra-Lima, Peru, S. A. W. R. Everts................... PAA-Rio de Janeiro, S. A. Vice-Presidents, Domestic F. C. Miller................... PCA-Chicago J. M. Marcum................... AOA-New York L. L. Caruthers................ Delta-Atlanta W. T. Babbitt.................. EAL-Miami L. R. Davidson................. C&S-New Orleans G. F. Beal..................... NWA-Minneapolis J. H. Roe...................... TWA-Kansas City M. W. Sellmeyer................ Braniff-Dallas E. H. Campbell................. Continental-Denver S. J. Cavill................... WAL-Salt Lake City J. L. Crouch................... UAL-Seattle Robert Ford.................... UAL-San Francisco L. M. Williams................. AA-Los Angeles J. M. Dickerman................ Legislative Representative Entered as Second Class Matter March 11, 1933, at the Post Office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Contents Copyrighted 1947 by The Air Line Pilots Association. Editorial Offices: 3145 W. 63rd St., Chicago, Ill. Telephone Hemlock 5015 David L. Behncke..................... Editor THE OTHER SIDE The letter quoted below, written by a member of organized labor, was sent to a number of United States senators and congressmen in protest against national anti-labor legislation. It has received favorable reaction from congressmen, economists and labor leaders. Representative Augustine B. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, says: "Yours is one of the best letters I have received on the subject of the causes of labor unrest. The points you have made are excellent." Although the time has almost passed for sending letters of protest to our congressmen, the following letter may be found to contain a few points upon which we can all agree in our common struggle to save our labor unions and the political freedom of our democracy: "When ill-advised and punitive anti-labor legislation comes before you, I hope you will bear the following in mind: "1. That present day industrial strife is due to the failure of our economic order to adjust itself to changes initiated by the industrial revolution (beginning in England in 1765 A.D.) which have continued on down through our own time. That the outstanding defect of our economic order has been its inability to provide sufficient purchasing power to keep industrial plant capacity in constant operation. This has resulted in depressions, unemployment and economic insecurity. "2. That since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution which ushered in the present machine age, that (a) A worker's chance of owning a factory with its expensive machinery and of becoming his own boss has progressively declined; (b) That modern industry does not afford the worker an outlet for his creative abilities or artistic skills as did the old handicraft system of production; (c) That through the introduction of machines, the worker's toil has become repetitive, monotonous and nerve-draining; (d) That the worker is frequently 'speeded up' and receives no wage increases for his added production - the employer often arguing falsely that if wages are increased prices must also be advanced; (e) That the worker's employment relations have become impersonal and that he seldom comes to know his employer on account of absentee ownership; (f) That the modern industrial worker is being regimented. He is often referred to by 'number' instead of by name and herded around in other ways; (g) That the worker's pay check often is not sufficient to 'make both ends meet' due to inflation or manipulation of prices. "3. That labor unions grew out of the deplorable working conditions created by the Industrial Revolution and that whatever increases in their standards of living the workers have received have come about as a result of their labor unions. "4. That to destroy the labor union without destroying the corporation would be manifestly unfair since both are the outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution (the corporate was formed for the purposes of getting together large amounts of capital for the purchase of expensive machinery and factories). Also to destroy any combination of labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor or the CIO without destroying such organizations as the National Association of Manufacturers or the United States Chamber of Commerce which 'unions of corporations' would be unjust. "5. That monopoly has grown apace with mechanized industry. "6. THAT FASCISM GROWS OUT OF THE MONOPOLY STAGE OF CAPITALISM. "7. That Fascism was brought about in Germany by the German Federation of Industries, a powerful industrial group similar to the National Association of Manufacturers in this country, first by splitting, and then entirely destroying organized labor. We workers believe that monopoly and other labor-hating groups in the nation are spearheading most of the anti-labor legislation now before Congress in order that they might gain full economic domination of the country. "8. The words of that great English statesman, William Ewart Gladstone, who once said: 'Trade unionism is the bulwark of democracy.' We workers believe that any attempt to decentralize or otherwise render organized labor impotent would be a grave threat to the safety of our democracy." Yes, this is truly a fine letter. It speaks volumes of truth, and its words strike home as clear as a bell. The generalissimos of the country's most dangerous force of reaction are running wild in Washington. They are clamoring to strange and destroy the rights of the organized workers of the nation. Senator Taft, of Ohio, and Senator Ball, of Minnesota, are playing the well-known game of "I want to be president, too" with gusto. Can they succeed by scuttling the gains of the working men in the street and the laboring class' right to organize and be effectively represented, thereby gaining an effective voice in their rates of compensation, conditions of employment, and in the affairs of the nation? We think not, and not only will they fail, these generalissimos of reaction, but they will carry the great Republican party down with them to many more years of oblivion. The hand-writing is on the wall. - David L. Behncke News Notes From the Councils [[images]] No Erie-Based Crews, No Lamb By J. T. McGEOGHEGAN Council No. 29, AOA New York, N.Y. Now that AOA has begun to assume the proportions of a full-fledge air line and our council has grown considerably in the last few months, we decided to have a scribe. We are now officially entered in the corn-shucking contest. The results of our last council election are out and Emery Martin has been reelected chairman. Brian Sparks is vice-chairman. Roger Folwell and Keith Whitsit are captain councilmen. Bob Nordt is senior copilot representative, while Miller Hays and John Scott are copilot councilmen. How About Some Spam? Council No. 29 just voted unanimously to have its pilots fly the runs through to the European outer terminals, with a layover at Shannon each way. This precludes the possibility of having any crews based permanently in Ireland, where the diet of lamb, ram, sheep, and mutton gets pretty monotonous. Our new contract is now being negotiated. If we can get by the first stalemate, namely copilot pay, things ought to progress in the usual smooth manner. Tsk-tsk! News from the outposts: Eddie Steward, Jack Kirkpatrick and Al Matlack are based in Stockholm and fly through Oslo and Copenhagen to Keflavik, Iceland. A CFR approach in the winter in any of those places comes under the heading of "It can't happen here." The Stock-holm copilots are Ed Vita, A.C. Noehren and W.L. Depping. Eddie Stewart has been living on the King's palace grounds in some kind of a chateau, and by this time, has probably had Gus himself over for a gab-fest. Don Swenson is temporarily based in Shannon. His copilot is TWA COMEBACK Revenues are again on the upswing on TWA and have shown a consistent monthly gain ever since February. TWA transcontinental revenues, reports this month indicated, topped the $3,000,000 mark in March for a gain of one-third over February. March revenues totaled $3,225,001 compared to February's $2,417,000. International Division revenues were estimated at more than $1,600,000 for a system-wide total of more than $5,000,000 in March. The strong upward trend, which began to appear in TWA traffic about mid-March, was continuing through the initial days of April, with revenues running ahead of the same prior in March. TWA's Transcontinental Division reported a passenger load factor of 63.6 per cent for March, a cargo load factor of 54.9 per cent, and a pay load factor of 61.6 per cent while April figures were up to 64.5 per cent for passenger load factor, 69.9 per cent on the cargo load factor, and 66.3 per cent pay load factor. [Column 2] Nine Weather Stations for Defense [[Image]] As a joint hemisphere defense project, the United States and their northerly neighbor, Canada, have completed an agreement for the joint establishment and operation of nine new weather stations in the Arctic Circle. Military leaders, who envision the next war being fought across the top of the world, say they are necessary to defend the northern hemisphere. Two of these stations, one at Eureka sound, Ellsmere Island (1), and the other at Winter Harbor on Melville Island (2), will be established in the summer of 1947. The United States is already operating a far-north weather station at Thule (3), on Greenland. The location of the remaining six of the proposed stations was not disclosed. [Column 3] [Column 4] ICAO MEETING International Civil Aviation Organization meeting in Montreal, Canada, by W. P. Kilgore from May 5 to May 10 for the purpose of determining the legal status of the commander of aircraft in international flight and defining and regularizing that status. Although it did not come up for discussion at the May ICAO meetings, there are many other facets, aside from the pilots' legal status, which will have direct bearings on the air line pilots. One of the outstanding of these is the so-called standardization requirements of air line pilots, which would have a direct effect on the pilots' rules and working conditions and to which ALPA President David L. Behncke registered the Association's objections in a letter to James M. Landis, Civil Aeronautics Board chairman, on May 6. In his letter, Mr. Behncke said that the pilots were in favor of proper reciprocal arrangements of operating factors, but on the other hand were opposed to any international arrangements that would curtail the personal rights or interfere with the rules and working conditions of American airmen. Called "Impractical" "When it comes to where and how often our air lines fly into a foreign country and they fly into our country," Mr. Behncke declared, "any reciprocal arrangement that is reasonable and fair is all right. But when it comes to delving into the personal rights and conditions of employment of the airmen of this country, then I think it is time for the citizens of our country to rise up and object. We should not alter our lives and the rules and regulations that govern us to any standard or criterion of any foreign country. We should lead, not follow, in establishing the conditions under which people work." Mr. Behncke pointed out that one of the most vicious parts of the present move was that which would require the individual approval of each pilot by each country through which he flies. Labelling the move as "impractical," Mr. Behncke said he attributed the move to development of an internationalism minded set in government commenting further: "The aero medical requirements, procedures, physical examinations, waivers, and, in fact, everything relating to our present aero medical program is the result of years of careful study and trial and error tryouts under actual operating conditions," Mr. Behncke stated. [Column 5] [continuation of ICAO MEETING article] "While our aero medical program was being developed, there was considerable trouble and differences of opinion between many of the people and organizations concerned. All this was resolved by numerous meetings and exchanges of ideas between the men in the cockpit and the men who know most about the problem from the medical point of view - the flight surgeons of commercial air lines, the CAA, and the Army and Navy. All these group worked together with the Air Line Pilots Association, the Air Transport Association, and with the representatives of the private pilots, all of which resulted in the present smooth-operating, efficient and safe aero medical program now in effect in this country. "This action," Mr. Behncke declared, "is being advocated and sponsored by impractical thinking people who obviously know little or nothing of the aero medical program in this country and its development and who are, no doubt, seeking to pass more rules and regulations to harass and confuse the issue and to confound it with all sorts of undesirable requirements." U.S. Standards High Mr. Behncke added that he felt the physical standards for American pilots, who are the best trained pilots in the world, were already the best in the world and that no foreign government should in any way be permitted to affect an American's right to make a living which certain segments of the ICAO proposal would do by (Continued on Page 5, Col. 2) [Column 5] On TWA, a Trend (Continued from Page 1, Col. 4) carry them to completion at the earliest possible date. [Inset article in box] NAME ORVIS NELSON PAL VICE-PRESIDENT Orvis Nelson, formerly First Vice-President of ALPA, has recently been named vice-president in charge of international operations for Philippine Air Lines while at the same time retaining his position as President of Transocean Air Lines, which has been carrying out the PAL non-scheduled operations under contract. The Philippine line has been maintaining two weekly trans-Pacific flights on a nonscheduled basis and recently completed its 100th flight using DC-4 equipment during which time they carried 808,200 pounds of air mail, 160,000 pounds of freight, and 2,301 passengers. They have two DC-6's on order and will put them into service on the route between the Oakland Municipal Airport and Manila, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Saigon and Bangkok with eventual extension planned to Singapore, Batavia and later Australia. [[image]] [[caption] THE "SACRED CALF" a wingless two-place plane, the "Sacred Calf," which is another way of saying "Sacred Cow, Jr." is taxied down the street in front of President Truman's home in Independence, Mo., by a couple of highway pilots testing its roadability. The plane, with its wings removed, was driven down the city's streets using the regular aviation engine and propeller. The test was made in conjunction with a parade for the Red Cross drive. nThe plane was named in honor of the presidential DC-4 of Independence's and the nation's first citizen, President Truman, however, says his new plane, a DC-6 soon to be delivered, will have no trick name. It will simply be called "The Flying White House."
