World's Best

"During the two years the Air Commerce Act was administered under your direction as Secretary of Commerce, the foundation for the pre-eminent place the United States now occupies in civil aeronautics . . . was established. . . . The Federal airways system, although in the process of establishment, already is superior to the airways of any nation or group of nations in the world."

Thus last week was President Hoover addressed by his Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, Clarence Marshall Young, in a special report requested by the White House. In it the public was reminded of what it might have forgotten: that the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which created the Aeronautics Branch, was a project to which Secretary Hoover gave lavishly of his time and energy.

To justify the boast of "world's best," Secretary Young marshalled an array of figures measuring every phase of the airways system. Some measures:

1931 1930

Scheduled miles flown daily 130,000 105,000

Miles of lighted airway 15,300 13,400

Beacon lights 1,680 1,470

Radio stations 51 (13 more under const.) 35

Radio range beacons. 49 (11 more under const.) 9

Miles of teletype circuit 9,400 5,650

Airports & landing fields 1,819 1,655 (697 more proposed)

In the past year, said Secretary Young, transport planes flew 40,080,000 miles, carried 418,000 passengers, 9,100,000 Ib. of mail, 3,250,000 Ib. of express. Forty-four companies, operating 125 routes, fly 650 aircraft valued at $14,000,000. In miscellaneous (other than transport) operations, 2,200,000 persons flew during the year.

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