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Show rr Wing vers - (From the Delta Airport bY Dick Morrison) LORIMER'S POST . . . During the course of a cross country co-untry flight which landed Dr. R. P Adams, Leo Burraston and me in Louisville, Ky., last June, I found myself with several days to kill in Louisville and nothing much to do with them. A drive through the city park some time spent knocking kn-ocking about the waterfront seeking seek-ing local color, and a trip through a whiskey distillery didn't take up all the time, so I sought out the city library and with the help of a librarian dug up some old copies of the Saturday Evening Post in which were published two articles by Will Rogers. The articles were entitled Flying and Eating My Way East, and Bucking a Headwind. They had ap peared in the issues of January 21 and 28, 1928. Although more than twenty years had passed since I had first read them, those articles had so aroused my interest inter-est that I never quite forgot them; on re-reading them last summer they seemed as entertaining as they had those many years ago. The articles told of Will's advent ures on a cross country flight from L. A. to New York and back, as a passenger in the air mail planes In those days there was no regular reg-ular airline passenger service. It was necessary for Will to change planes several times enroute. The first leg of the trip, which ended at Salt Lake, was by Western Air Express, in an open cockpit Douglas Doug-las plane, powered by a 425 hp Liberty motor. This plane rather resembled the Ryan at Delta airport. air-port. The pilot sat in the back seat the passenger in front. Since verbal ver-bal communication between the two was impossible, the pilot wrote notes calling his passenger's attention at-tention to various points of interest along the route. One of these was Zion Park, which was just being opened to tourists in 1928. My purpose in looking up these old magazines was to get a quotation quot-ation from Will Rogers for use in another article - - as to which more later if I ever get time to write it. Will's quotation pertained pertain-ed to a characteristic reaction of all nilots to headwinds, and while the Post glorified American free enterprise. Lorimer's popular busin ess and success stories were argu-' mented with fiction and political articles by the best writers of the days. Just consider this list of writers writ-ers who were featured in that single sin-gle issue Jan. 21, 1928: Will Rogers, Rog-ers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, C. B. Kel-land, Kel-land, Thomas Beer E. Phillips Op-penhein, Op-penhein, Fannie Kilbourne, S. W. Stratton, Kenneth L. Roberts. The cover was by Norman Rockwell - -a picture of Uncle Sam vith wings and an airplane in the background The Rogers article was illustrated with cartoons by Herbert Johnson. If you are old enough to be dry behind the ears, those names will bring a twinge of nostalgia. Where today, is there a publication equal that one? That old Post sold for 5 cents. You couldn't buy its equal, now for any price. POLITICS . . In one of the aforementioned Will Rogers articles from the Post of Jan. 21, 1928, Will remarked, "Who ever though politices would get into aviation- Say, politics will get into a prairie dog hole if it can see the ground the hole is in." It seemed that even then politics was creeping into the matter of location locat-ion of airports, etc. There seems to have been more politics than met the -eye in the innocent announcement of a shake up in the top level of the Utah State Aeronautical Commission last week. Joe Bergin was "fired" by the engineering and aeronautical commission, and Frank Murray was appointed new director of aeronautics, aeron-autics, and all week long the fur was flying in the capitol as a result. re-sult. Aviators Blast Bergin Ouster, Lambast Murray, read one headline. head-line. Lee Evades Air Post Controv-versy, Controv-versy, ran another, with the statement state-ment attributed to Governor Lee that "I did not make the appointment. appoint-ment. The engineering commission did. They must come up with the answer". And finally, Ouster Final, Air Chief Tells Group as D. H. Wit-tenburg, Wit-tenburg, chairman of the aeronautics aeron-autics commission reportedly took full responsibility for the change. Well, Wingover wants to be non political and non controversial. In matters of politics, religion, ideologies ideol-ogies and racial problems, Wing- within the cockpit and Faith upon I the left? Does solitude surround the brave when Adventure leads the way and Ambition reads the dials? Is there no company with him for whom the air is cleft by Daring and the darkness is made light by Emprise- True, the fragile bodies of his fellows do not weigh down his plane; true the fretful minds of weaker men are lacking from his crowded cabin; but as his airship keeps her course he holds communion with those rarer spirits that inspire to intrepidity and by their sustaining potency give strength to arm, resource to mind, content to soul. Alone? With what other companions would that man fly to whom the choice were given?" Coolidge, Lindbergh, Lorimer, Rogers. They belonged to an Amer ica, a very fine America of an age that is past. In conclusion and by way of mak ing the leap from the roaring twen ties to now, we just want to take note of the landing of a Monarch Airlines DC-3 at Delta last Thursday. Thurs-day. In flight from Grand Junction to Salt Lake, the passenger carrying carry-ing ship was forced by dangerous icing conditions to seek a safe port in a storm. Her pilot set her down here Thursday night and took off Friday morning. it was very vague in memory, because be-cause after all twenty years is a long time to remember such a thing, I had no trouble finding it. Is was in the second of the articles, arti-cles, the one entitled Bucking a Headwind. I copied it and am saving sav-ing it for that contemplated Wing-over Wing-over of some uncertain future date. Once I had found and copied the quotation I sought, I settled down to enjoy the whole of the Rogers pieces, which were rich with Will's inimitable wit, wisdom and satire, sat-ire, and then enjoyed the rest of those two old magazines. They brought back memories of a day and an era, long gone; the era of the roaring twenties ,the Coolidge era, before America was ever burdened bur-dened with such "liberal" innovations innovat-ions as sales taxes, unemployment taxes, withholding taxes and innumerable in-numerable government reports; when none know the meaning of social security, and the welfare state was undreamed of; and yet an era which, lacking all these blessings, was nevertheless very prosperous and happy. Those old Posts were a part and parcel of that era. Under the brilliant brill-iant guidance of its editor, George Horace Lorimer, who, incidentally, had been born in Louisville in 1868 overs has but one creed: It is in favor of airplanes. Simply that and nothing more, to paraphrase Poe. HE FLIES ALONE . . . Remaks by Will Rogers twenty years ago have furnished pegs on which to hang nearly every item in this week's column. In the course cour-se of Will's XC with the early air mail, his pilot handed him a note stating that the famous early day pilot, Jimmy James, was in a certain cer-tain passing plane. Will remarked remark-ed that he couldn't recognize him. "We were going so fast that even if it had been Lindbergh or Coolidge Cool-idge I wouldn't have known it", wrote Will.Lindbergh and Coolidge were friends of Will's - - in fact Will was a friend of everybody; everybody who was anybody and everybody else, too. The most pop ular men America in 1928 were Lindbergh, Coolidge and Will Rogers. Rog-ers. Well, quite by accident, in the course of my research into events of 20 years ago I came upon this fine piece from the New York Sun of May 21, 1927. The title is, "Lind bergh Flies Alone". "Alone? Is he alone at whose right side rides Courage, with Skill |