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Show J The Airplane Scandal. . The revelations concerning American inefficiency in supplying airplanes to the army which have been made in the report of the sub-committee of the Senate Committee Commit-tee on Military Affairs and in the testimony of Major-General Major-General William L. Kenly, Chief jof Military Aeronautics ought not to surprise the country. They had been foreshadowed fore-shadowed in this and other journals. Many months ago The Outlook reported to its readers, in several articles, the deficiencies and failures in our airplane production. We had at that time reliable reports from trustworthy sources that all was not going well. We asserted that our army was not getting airplanes, and was not likely to get them, under the prevailing conditions of organization organiza-tion and manufacture. In JanuaVy last we said editorially: editor-ially: . '. . What is the duty of the American public, whose fighting sons, brothers and husbands are awaiting the weapons with which to win our victory? The unpardonable sin is indolence and lassitude, or the paralysis of official red tape hidden under the plea of military secrecy; and it is the sin of the public if it permits inacton. In the light of the rifle and machine gun revelations, if seems necessary that the public should demand the truth concerning our airpalne situation. Criticisms of this kind aroused a storm of protest. The Outlook, as well as other journals which were trying to tell the truth for the good of the country, received letters let-ters accusing them of a lack of patriotism and loyalty. Some of our readers told us that we were actuated by, partisan bias and were trying to discredit the Adminis-. tration. But nothing that we said six or eight months ago concerning the mismanagement of our aircraft pro-; gramme compares with what is now said by members of, the Senate Committee, especially designated for this in-! vestigation. The investigating sub-committee consists of two Democrats, Senator Thomas of Colorado and Sena- tor Reed of Missouri, and two Republicans, Senator New of Indiana and Senator Erelinghuysen of New Jersey. The sub-committee, of which Senator Thomas is chairman, chair-man, after calling attention to the fact that on June 8, 1917, the government announced that a great fleet of 25,000 airplanes' was about to Tje created, and to "the fact that on July 24, 1917, Congress appropriated $640,000,000 to carry out this programme, says: "In the opinion of the ummiuee, a suostanuai part oi tne lirst appropriation was practically wasted." The committee makes no allegation alle-gation of corruption, leaving that aspect of the case to-the to-the special investigation which ex-Justice Hughes is now carryng on. But it does asserfrthat there was favoritism in making contracts and unbusinesslike confusion, waste, and lack of co-ordinated authority. The Committee makes several practical recommendations of reform, of i which the two most important are, first, the creation of i a Department of the Air with a single head, who would) presumably be a member of the Cabinet. This plan has already been adopted by Great Britain with notable success. suc-cess. The second recommendation is a commission of engineers en-gineers and pilots for observation at the front. This report of the Senate Committee of the disheartening disheart-ening and almost scandalous situation in the American production of military airplanes is confirmed by General Kenly in the evidence, just published, which he gave before be-fore the Senate Military Affairs Committee. General William L. Kenly is a graduate of West Point and has been intlie .service for nearly thirty years. lie was in action 'in Cuba during the Spanish war and in the Philippine Islands' He was appointed. to his present post as Chief of Military Aeronautics last spring.. He reports that he found";great confusion in thq airplane organization, organiza-tion, and, defined the, entire situations "a'mixed-up jumble." jum-ble." He urges thq creation of a Department of Aeronautics Aeronau-tics with a secretary in the Cabinet. A significant feature of his testimony was his asser-,1 tion that, to the best of his knowledge, and he of course ' is in a position to know as much about the airplane situa- ' tion as any one in the country, not a single American-made American-made machine was, as late as JuK' 20," used by our fliers! on the other side. He and two of his su bordinatesv Col-! onel Bane and Major Reinhart, who also testified,, named ( certain American manufactured airplanes as "unsafe! and dangerous." Ten days before this testimony appeared a gallant young American aviation officer, who has just had "a most dramatic fall in an American made machine,! in which, although he escaped with his life, he was severe1 ly injured, told, one of the editors of this journal that all the American fliers on this side distrust the structural! strength of this particular niachin.e. Wrnt can possibly, be worse for the morale of our Aviation Corps? To supply sup-ply our fliers with machines in which they have no faith' because they have tried them and discovered their weakness weak-ness is nothin gless than a crime. We have done wonders with our man power. Our soldiers sol-diers are the best in the world. Our-training camps have been' a complete success. The knowledge and practice of the art arfd science of fighting shown by our soldiers and sailors have been unsurpassed in history. Their meclfrtn-ical meclfrtn-ical equipment ought to be of the very best, and the Unit-1 Unit-1 ed States is1 capable of producing the very best if the pro- j, .1 - duction is properly organized and directed. We regret B to say that the country will hold Secretary Baker per- m sonaliy responsible for the collapse of our aircraft pro- m gramme. He has resisted the formation of a single de- & partment with a Cabinet head. The President ought not . jE; to' permit tWs resistance any longer. As Commander- .$ in-Chief of the Army and Navy President Wilson is en- titled to the profound thanks of this country for his re- $ markable accomplishments in organizing the largest. finest and most efficient body of fighting men that any , '0 republic has ever sent to war. By using the same raetn- 1 ods in producing its equipment that he has used in organ- E izing this army he will add to the debt of gratitude his fe qountry already owes to him. Wrc wish that the president y might realize this and create a special department with (g a man of power and authority at its head. This is the H only effective remedy for the War department's present . failure in airplane production. To put, as Secretary Ba- s I ker has done, the matter in the hands of -anssistant Sec- I retary of War is something, but notehrj!sh&mQ?he Out-j M look. . . , i t,....... k...i r' I |