Show when will war BE end nation s no I 1 question ruhr valley bombings seen as concrete evidence of germanys germanas Germ anys inevitable defeat aviation expert revises estimate by news analyst anti and commentator service union trust building washington D C today washington deep as it Is in the problems of the Moment menton mo on the home front and along the seething globe scattered sectors where our men are fightlin 9 ls 19 more deeply conscious of the future than ever before in history and that thaC feeling leeling Is clearly reflected in every town city and crossroads cross roads in the country the letters I 1 receive express this interest in tomorrow the many polls on postwar post war problems and the plans to solve them echo that interest the comment of leaders the organization of clubs and forums and committees to discuss them add up to the largest and healthiest curiosity that the nation has ever seen the political parties recognize this and the republicans tire are busy working on a constructive foreign policy plank for their 1844 1044 platform to meet the tae administrations postwar post war plans As the people look toward tomorrow the first thing they ask Is 13 when will the war end you yoi x cant get an official prognostication on that subject and personally I 1 would hesitate even to make a guess dut but this week there came to my notice two remarks one from the german propaganda minister end arid onel one I 1 from the th president of tin an american aviation corporation which I 1 want to place figuratively in parallel col a not only side by tide side with each other but in balance with previous remarks of both men goebbels 1 viewpoint some time ago herr goebbels spoke poke of the ruhr that little in du area including the historic cen center ter of germanys germanas Germ anys munitions manufacture the krupp knipp works words of 0 essen goebbels was on record asi ac saying that the destiny of the ruhr was the destiny of germany itself and then only a few days ag ago 0 a broadcaster from berlin admitted that the havoc wrought by the allied bombers in that area was incredible the other gentleman whom I 1 wish to quote Is R S damon pres president ident of the republic aviation corpora tion which builds those famous 11 P 47 thunderbolts the fighters which havene have done such an cul clent job of p our bombers over eu rope sometime some time ago damon predicted that C germany would be knock knocked ed out of the war by 1914 1944 but mr darnon damon has now revised that estimate ile he says lays may have cost us many early rounds but now it appears possible that germany will have been removed from the lists by tho the end of 1943 1043 1 I believe this to be true because no nation not even hillers Hit lers germany can uffer suffer the rate of attrition which 1 Is now being inflicted on the nazis and survive tor for long the aerial con combat abat box bos scores are now so EO in ofir our favor and our constantly increasing production of fine ane aircraft and well trained airmen precludes prec ades any possibility of those scores being r reduced unless by a miracle and the days of altiers Hl tiers miracles have teased to bs our air forces are arc now systematically and liberally pulverizing the industrial centers of germany and without her industries germany cannot fight or even exist mind you I 1 do not underwrite this prophecy but I 1 think it Is worth recording because both men have revised their views in the direction of b n shorter war goebbels would never have dwelt on the importance of the ruhr la in the beginning if he knew he would have to admit tho the degree of its destruction Damon after similar consideration reduces the time he believes it will take to knock germany out growth in both cases we have a tribute to t 0 the tremendous trem tremendous endRus growth of american combatant air power now non let us look at the parallel growth in noncombatant non combatant air power we turn to no less an authority than the office of war information by 1045 it Is 13 expected that trans port planes in the pound class will be flying in quantity carrying loads of 15 tons at a speed of miles per hour over distances such as from new york to chicago by 1940 it Is expected that 70 per cent of the passenger travel now relying on railroad pullmans will go by air about 20 passengers a year exclusive of certain cert aan military air bromes there will be about major airports in the united states by the end of this year all with paved runways of feet or more cap campble rAble of handling the largest planes where fewer than existed in 1840 1040 in addition to these there aro are well over 2000 smaller fields to operate these planes and airports after the war there will be the air minded and trained pilots navigators radiomen airport engineers traffic controllers and others who will be in the air forces by the end of this year the predicts postwar post war flights of it 11 hours from washington to paris and london 7 hours from washington to mexico city 18 10 from washington to moscow 18 from washington to cairo or buenos alrea aires and 22 hours from washington to tokyo if 11 tokyo Is still on the map I 1 quote these statements to show how tremendously tho the world we are living in today differs differ s from the world we lived in before pearl harbor a change which must affect all phases of life tomorrow already as aa far a BS s the military go the earth has shrunk from the comparative size of on an orange to the size of a marble when the war is over and we have had time to adapt what we have learned in the field of aviation to peaceful transportation it will shrink to the size of a pea when we shift our war effort to peacetime production it will shrink still further utopian plans aviation is only one phase of tte the achievement the war has forced upon us there are great plans bursting to become realities many that seem eem so BO utopian that the cynics scoff a world organization to enforce peace and achieve freedom from fear car world operation cooperation co which will increase production and facilitate distribution to the point where there will be at least an approximation ot of freedom from want to tick oft off only two of the four freedoms tor for which we are supposed to be ba fighting discouraged at our inability to realize within our own vast bor ders oll nil of the dreams of our found ing fathers we cannot believe that the high alms tor for unity embracing the whole world can be anything but pure fantasy but if we can shrink the globe from orange to marble a teat feat that would have been considered utterly incredible to our own grandfathers must we say that we cannot build a world unity and a world understanding greater than anything heretofore conceived it took a dreamer to put the first wings on manthe laboratory and the machine shop did the rest with the widespread will to a better future providing the psychological inspiration who knows but that the energy which has made the prosecution prosecute oil of global war possible can be transmuted into a framework upon which global pence peace can bo be built its a smaller globe after all As we begin to think in global terms we have to adjust our views of geography for instance suppose someone should tell you that the important port of siberia for which the japs japa yearn but do not dare attack the port of vladivostok were a hundred and fifty miles south of the poetic city of venice with its streets of at water of course you would know better but could yot say how much better or it someone said flatly to you you cant tell me what south american countries a line running straight south from savannah ga would pass through you would feel you could at least guess and got get one right no no naples is ISO miles north of vladivostok you cant name any south american country south of savannah ga because the western coastline of south america Is east of such a point guess again |