Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/277

 Government Manufacture of Aeroplanes — A National Menace!

Bv Eustace L. Adams

��A GOVERNMENT factory for the manufacture of aeroplanes and motors. The specter which liaunts iliose who hope to see the United States take her place among the nations with a fleet of aircraft which will demand, and receive, respect! The ex- periment which cost (jreat Britain nearly five millions of dollars, and produced, al- together, fourteen flying of- ficers and seventeen aero- planes at the end of a wasted three years!

There is a strong South- ern movement, of which Senator Duncan U. Fletcher is a leading spirit, to estab- lish at the new aeronautic base at Pensacola, Florida, a government factory for the manufacture of aeroplanes and motors for the Navy.

��lurers. Experiment > may be conducted there which will evolve a highly valu- able type of military aeroplane. There a highly trained force may be created, and a training and industrial plant built up, capable of infinite expansion on the

����A general view of the wharves at the new Aero Base at Pensacola, Florida

��Senator Fletcher, in defending his atti- tude, says :

"I am strongly of the opinion that the aeronautic base (at Pensacola) should be equipped to manufacture aerojjlanes and motors. Not to manufacture all that we may require, but a considerable number. This will act as a stimulus to private manufacturers, as a nucleus for a considerably increased output in war times, as a check on any tendency to- ward slackness on one hand, or too high prices on the other, by pri\ate manufac-

��It is on these grounds that Flor- ida hopes to see factories estab- lished to manufacture aeroplanes

government's 1,400 acres, which would be of service that cannot be estimated to the country in time of war. The government has an opportunity to build up a modern manufacturing plant, school and experi- ment station at Pensacola that will attract the best of the official and enlisted personnel of the Navy as well as the most skilled workmen."

A year ago the Secretary of the Navy requested the lUireau of Construction and Repair and the Bureau of Steam Engineering to investigate and make a report upon the advisability of having the Navy enter upon the manufacture of aeroplanes. This report, which the Sec- retary tran.smitted to Congress, advised strongly against such an attempt. Some of the reasons given were:

"It would be a tremendous loss to the

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