Show GENERAL HUGH S JOHNSON aft aft 0 PILOT TRAINING washington civo weeks ago I 1 questioned the value and eM clency of the civilian callan pilot training program which la Is a plan to train pilots for military ond and naval lea by farming tho the students out to civilian pilots in ili groups of from 10 to 40 to bo be trained at so BO much a hend head I 1 said that it was not properly supervised was dangerous and unlikely to produce many military and naval pilots who would not have to start all over again in the primary training of the armed services vices I 1 wrote that after seeing tho the plan in ili process and talking with expert encee and impartial training experts upon whose judgment I 1 rely from other such men that column received indorsement endorsement Indor but by some interested te in that program I 1 was told with various degrees of indignation that I 1 did not know what I 1 was talking about wayno parrish editor of american aviation has watched this development closely has recently made a study of it and has not as aa a recent gossip column implied the re remotest political interest in an ed editorial in the september IS 15 issue ho he goes a 0 lot further than did my column and even hints at the very odorous condition which may result in a congressional investigation assistant secretary of commerce hinckley wangled a total appropriation pria tion of to finance this program it was presented OB cis a defense move to train pilots perhaps for mr Roosevel ts phantom planes the record Is not clear as tc whether congress was told that nothing in tho the plan commits any trainee to any kind of military service but mr parrish laports that prospects pacts are assured that there thera is no such obligation and told just to for got get that part of it out of 77 graduates of tho the secondary course 70 76 seek military training 0 no military or naval authority Is very clearly on record but privately neither branch believes that a satisfactory substitute tor for the service primary courses can be ba given in this haphazard fashion those who doubted the wisdom of tho the transfer of the independent CAA to tho the political department of commerce do not feel much encouraged by these developments nor by the increasing sabotage of the inspection spec tion service of the old CAA which hung up so remarkable a record of air safety on the transport lines veteran inspectors are being submerged weeded out or resign in ili disgust to make places for less experienced perien ced men it Is hard enough to understand how military and naval pilots can bo be trained by a slapped together hay crate organization of civilian pilots but harder still to see how a safo safe and uniform course of instruction tan can be given in so many independent schools by instructors themselves vea of a wide variety of experience peri ence and training without an inspection spec tion service rating almost perfect efficiency many of the so called private flying specialists who are directing this loose jointed organization for training military and naval pilots were examined and failed to quality qualify under the old inspection service as inspectors in this new specialist rating they receive higher pay than experienced P perien erlen ced inspectors a year as compared with or the latter figure being tho the highest rate in the old inspection service this and similar policies are stripping that service of competent men much worse faults of carelessness and monkey business have been reported but I 1 have been unable to confirm them what this situation needs is a congressional investigation maybe it will get it but not u until after the election 0 0 DEFENDING BRITAIN while I 1 was in chicago recently the defend america by defending britain committee staged a mass meeting largely of gold coast intellectuals in the coliseum it was harangued by several eminent breast beating war criers all they ask now is to strip our inadequate army air force of 50 of its flying fortresses and detach from our navy the mosquito quito torpedo boats which congress recently prevented the president from brorn sending to britain how this kind of thing could be done lawfully even under the attorney generals phoney opinion by which the destroyers were d detached without even consulting congress appear these people dont care they dont even worry about that because they know the president care either after the tha terrible rolling we got for listening to our anglophile anglophiles Anglo philes in fin 1917 1 I never expected to live to see the day when anybody would be dumb enough on the one hand and have nerve enough on the other to defy the great weight of american public opinion and try to pus push h us into another world war to make the world safe for anything but aur our own co country this eastern seaboard propaganda apparently fully fi danced by homebody body Is threaten threatening inq to got get away with it i |