AVIATION.

The plans for a triangular air race between Harvard, Yale, and Columbia would offer a new field of competition for the members of these three universities. What better rival of a Yale game could there be than an Intercollegiate Air Derby ending at Soldiers Field or the Yale Bowl? It would be without question nearly the biggest event of the college year.

But aside from the sporting element contained in such an affair, its effect on the public would be very great. Aviation would be thrust upon people in a new and pleasing light, tending to create a strong sentiment throughout the country for placing this industry on its proper footing. Since the government refuses to help aviation by its failure to pass the fifteen million dollar appropriation fund, all stimulus must come from private sources. And which of these latter are more suited for the task than the colleges?

Aviation has been out adrift as it was struggling to gain a foothold in peacetime industrial affairs. Competent authorities say that the industry is 90 per cent, liquidated, and that the remaining 10 per cent, is slowly but surely breaking up. Major-General Menoher, Director of Air Service, recently testified before a senatorial investigation committee that production is at a standstill, and that the aviation personnel has been wiped out. Such a condition is the more deplorable upon consideration of the action of foreign countries. Already French and English companies are developing the airplane as a cargo carrier in South America.

To place American aviation in its proper position in the world, the support of the people at large is absolutely necessary. The organization of aeronautics among colleges is a step in the right direction.