Today in Washington

THE airmail situation is far from clarified, even though every day there are promises from various quarters in the administration that the public will get the service it used to get.

No information is available as to what mail is being delivered by air and what is going by trains. Delays are numerous and complaints of irregular service are continuing, notwithstanding the improvement in weather conditions.

Meanwhile the private air companies are laying off employes right and left. Some of the pilots are being hired by the army but many of the other kinds of workers are joining the ranks of the unemployed.

The cry that all this punishment is justified because the aviation companies made a lot of money is still heard among the thick and thin supporters of administration policy, but a checkup of stockholdings shows that the Wall Street crowd sold out their securities early in the game and it is the small investor who is suffering today.

Charges of sabotage in handling army planes have not been publicly proved and the airplane companies have caused investigations to be made to determine the source of such rumors, which may have been started as a smoke screen behind the tragic deaths of army flyers.

While there have been suggestions as to new airmail legislation, the truth is the power to restore normal service rests in the post office department. Emergency contracts can be granted pending a determination of airmail policy. The postmaster general has the right to fix the rates to be paid for carrying airmail.

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The possibility that the new laws would specify ways and means of reopening bids, based upon financial reorganization of the airplane companies which previously had contracts, is being voiced in Congressional circles. It would mean delay in getting airmail service unless temporary arrangements are made, because any financial reorganization of airmail companies would take months and possibly a year or more. In the interim, with few exceptions, the only companies that are responsible and can meet airmail schedules are those now in business. Hence the return of the airmail service to private hands on the basis of 60-day contracts, which could be extended from time to time and cancellable whenever the provisions of the new law could be made operative, is the only thing that can be done at the moment to save the thousands of employes who are losing their jobs.

It has been estimated that about $100,000,000 has been invested in airports in different parts of the country. Many of the airport companies have indicated that the airmail situation is affecting them adversely. Indeed, commercial aviation has received a body blow from which it will not soon recover. The prospect of getting extra capital, which is needed from time to time in any growing industry, may also have been diminished by the erratic policy followed by the government in first stimulating the development of commercial aviation and then taking its principal support away and transferring the job to the army.

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Not all of the aviation companies have made money. Many of the officers and corporations who originally built routes and acquired contracts are no longer the same as in the beginning. Also there has been no proof adduced that all the companies were guilty of collusion and fraud. Nevertheless all companies are being treated alike--the innocent and the guilty.

The important thing from the public standpoint is the efficiency of the service and the saving of human life. Many airmail schedules have been cancelled to prevent accident to the army flyers. It will take a long time for the army to be able to operate airmail-schedules efficiently. The training in night flying is something which it took the private pilots a long time to acquire and it has not been a part of the army routine.

Nearly a month has gone by since the airmail service was interrupted and there are no signs of a return to normal except a lot of conversation in and around the capitol. But it would not be surprising if the public did not have normal airmail service until the summer months.