push aerial
development with all the energy with which he has devoted himself to
the science of destruction.

The avenue of the seas has been up to now the world's greatest
civilizer. Very shortly, without doubt, it will be replaced by the
avenue of the skies. If we are to strive for freedom of the seas, what
shall we say about freedom of this new element? The laws of aerial
travel and aerial warfare open an unlimited field of speculation.

II

THE TRANSITION TO PEACE

Developments during the war, despite their startling sensational
character, had, however, been so overshadowed by human suffering and
desperation that but few minds were awake to the changes that were to
influence man's future. Amid the disasters, battles, and unprecedented
movements in the politics of nations, the achievements of flight could
command but a passing notice. People looked and wondered, but were
distracted from following their thoughts through to the logical
conclusion by the roar of a seventy-mile gun, the collapse of a
nation, or the shock of battle on a one-hundred-mile front.

Let us, however, weave together a few things that were done in those
days of sensation, which may have a particular effect on the future of
the science. Most conspicuous, perhaps, was the obliteration of
distance and of all the customary limitations of travel. German
airplanes in squadrons penetrated into snug little England when the
German fleet stood locked in its harbor. The Italian poet D'Annunzio
dropped leaflets over Vienna when his armies were held at bay at the
Alps. French, British, and finally American planes brought the war
home to cities of the Rhine which never even saw the Allied troops
till Germany had surrendered.

None of the conventional barriers stood in the way of these long
trips. A new route of travel had been opened up along which men flew
at will. The boundary-lines of states below, which look so formidable
on the map, were passed over with the greatest ease, as well as such
natural obstacles as the Alps and the English Channel.

Tremendous saving in time was constantly being effected. Men were able
to dart back and forth from the front to the rear and from England to
France with a speed never dreamed of by other means of travel. To be
sure, the front-line demands for planes were too severe to allow a
very wide use in this way, but nevertheless the possibilities were
there and were constantly availed of.[1]

Indeed, the B