ties a few hundred miles apart. The War Department has already
taken steps, and will establish thirty-two fields in the country to
encourage flying. Many more are needed.

Atlantic City is apparently the pioneer air port of the country, and
for many reasons this is natural. There are political and social
advantages which make Atlantic City ideal. Rules have been laid down
for the coming and going of airships, and a field for land machines
and water space for seaplanes have been laid out. A large
aeronautical convention has already been held there.

Every city in the United States will have a landing-field and hangars
for airplanes, as well as mechanics to care for them. Whether this is
to be a private or public enterprise lies in the hands of the people
handling such things. Much could be said for either type of
establishment. The thing must come; it is as logical as one, two,
three. There are some, perhaps, who remember the roars of derision
which went up when the first automobile garage was established in
their town. Such a thing was visionary-there would never be enough
machines to make it pay!

There are many reasons why it is impossible to consider the use of
city roofs, for the present, as suitable landing-places for airplanes.
In fact, the first successful landing on a roof made by Jules Vedrines
last January was hailed as a feat of almost unparalleled daring. He
flew and landed on the roof of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, and
won a prize of $5,000 for doing it. The police of Paris refused to
allow him to fly off the roof, and he was compelled to take his
machine apart and lower it in an elevator.

The theory of flight, the laws which make it possible apparently to
defy all laws of gravitation, make it impossible for us to depend on
the roofs of buildings in large cities and landing-places. It will be
a long time before the dreams of men who would establish
landing-places on hotel roofs can come true. The progress of
aeronautical development has been great enough so that there is no
need to overemphasize it--to set ridiculous tasks which cannot be
accomplished.

We shall not see the business man flying to his office in the city
from his country estate--unless some landing-field is built on the
lower end of Manhattan Island as has been proposed. The Chamber of
Commerce of the State of New York has taken up the matter of
legislation to make landing-fields possible, and it must go through.
The business man