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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0957.PDF
Flight, August 29, 1918. CHT : First Aero Weekly in the World. Pounder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Jowmal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Traaspori. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 505. (No. 35, Vol. X.) AUGUST 29, 1918. j, Price **.Post Pre*. To. and The Aircraft Engineer. Editorial Offici: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. 3. Telegrams : Truditur, Westcent, London. Telephone : Gerrard 18*8. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free: United Kingdom .. tts. ad. Abroad.. .. .. 33J. od. These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under war conditions. CONTENTS. J Editorial Comment: PAGE Excess Profits and the Industrial Future 955 The British Machine Tool Industry 956 Raiding Frankfort .. 956 The Status of War Decoration* 957 Deaf Mutes as Aviators 8 Honours .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 959 The 300 h.p. May-bach Engine 960 Some Fokker " Milestones" 6 In the Hands of the Enemy .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 067 A. E. G. Armoured Aeroplane .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 969 Akiims from the Four Winds 973 Personals 975 The Royal Air Force .. .." .. 976 Aircraft Work »t the Front. Official Information 978 Leisure Hours 979 Correspondence 982 Company Matters 2 Imports and Exports, 1917-19x8 982 EDITORIAL COMMENT. " Newspapers axe an essential part of our war organisation." (Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service.) |HE maxim which has become current, that in time of war we must prepare for peace, may be trite but it is never- theless perfectly true. It is being urged upon us all round by all sorts of people from real thinkers to the Government that we should now begin to prepare for the industrial and commercial war which will follow the present military conflict as inevitably as day follows night. We have had ample warning of what is going to happen in the post-war future. Dr. Page, the American Am- bassador, recently told us that later on his countrymen would lead us a merry race for our trade and money. He was speaking to the Commercial Committee of the House of Commons which greeted his remark with laughter! Had he been talking to a gathering of business men, instead of to politicians, we doubt if the seriousness of the remark would have provoked ExcessProfits and theIndustrial Future. even a smile. Rather would it have caused the audience to ponder very gravely upon the position in which the crass financial policy of the present Government is likely to leave the commercial com- munity by the end of the war, and upon the chances which British industry, crippled by inordinate taxa- tion, will have of holding its own against others pro- perly equipped for the coming struggle. We agree that it is, superficially at any rate, a good thing that we should as far as possible pay for the war out of revenue. The doctrine that we should not leave to posterity the burden of debt which the war has laid upon us is good so far a^it goes. But there is at least a partial counter to that, inasmuch as we are beyond all question fighting this war in the interests of posterity equally with our own and it is arguable that if the costs are too heavy for us to bear without grave risk of crippling our future—and that of posterity—it is sound policy to leave to the latter a share of the responsibility as well as the benefits. Indeed, we believe it is demonstrable that posterity is likely to suffer very grievously from the attempt to make the present and next generations shoulder a burden that is too heavy to be carried by our available resources. It has undoubtedly been a weakness of our conduct of the war that the Govern- ments which have been in power have taken too rosy a view of our resources in man-power, in material, and in monej-. There has been too great a tendency to regard Britain herself as an inexhaustible re- servoir of all the necessities of war. We have spent money like water on our own preparations and have not taken the slightest trouble to see that we obtained even reasonable value for our expenditure. We have advanced money with a lavish hand to all our Allies, with the exception of the United States which is now a heavy creditor. We have recklessly called into the fighting forces of the Crown men who were excellent civilians but useless as soldiers, ruined their businesses and destroyed their potentialities as tax-payers, and all with a light heart as though it mattered not at all. We have crippled the future of industry by an inordinate and in many instances criminally unjust tax on profits, which is likely to leave British com- merce without a feather to fly with when the war is over and we have to face the war of commercial com- petition. No other belligerent has taxed industry as we have done. Germany, whose war bill is nearly equal to our own, has not taxed profits, with the result
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