Publication 471, 1903, Airship problems and universal free trade
| Original title | Airship problems and universal free trade |
|---|---|
| Simple title | Airship problems and universal free trade |
| Authors | |
| Date | 1903 |
| Countries | US |
| Languages | en |
| Keywords | commerce, cargo, St. Louis World's Fair, Aerostatic Club, aerial law |
| Journal | Aer. World |
| Related to aircraft? | 1 |
| Page count | 2 |
| Word count | 659 |
| Wikidata id |
Full text:
Airship Problems and Universal Free Trade.
"Commercial revolution will follow the advent of aerial navigation. Customs duties will be wiped out, and social merging of the races will come with the fading away of frontiers marking the boundaries between nations," says Robert J. Thompson, secretary of the United Lafayette Memorial Commission, in speaking of the universal discussion aroused by the St. Louis exposition's offer of $100,000 for the pioneer airship.
"The airship will have its conquests of peace as well as of war. Universal free trade will be established the day when the world is told that some one has grasped the secret of the air and that all may ride supreme through the ether. Military students of foreign governments have long sought to discover a secret whereby they might direct an aerial Craft at will so as to destroy tjieir enemies from the clouds. The science of war, therefore, is practically in the future airship.
The successful airship means the building of countless crafts of the air.
"Commerce will awake to infinite possibilities. The fine old honor of the world will not stop at escaping customs duties by smuggling highly dutiable articles across the frontiers. Who is to prevent the high class smuggler from loading his pirate craft of the air with a diamond cargo and darting from England into France or from France to Germany, so hidden among the clouds that no telescope of the most alert customs observer may detect the contraband voyage? Then in some remote and unfrequented spot a safe landing can be made for the discharge of the illegal freight.
"Our quick witted friends may say that government aerial revenue cutters could do police duty in the skies, arrest the pirate by boarding him in parachutes and drop down to the fastnesses of prisons on terra firma. Very good, but how about stolen flights in the night or even in the day through the cloud wracks? What a game of dodging among the mists of midheaven would be played by the aerial smuggler, with the government cruiser lying to in a gentle breeze, watchful for the contraband. We who have studied the science of aerostatics may see the difficulties which might confront the chaser if he was not in the current attained by the chased and could not reach that current without such tacking as would confound the doughtiest skipper on the main.
"Then the merchant who stayed on the ground and upheld the laws by shipping his goods in the good old-fashioned way of steam railway and ocean liner, would he be content to pay his duty in the face of the enormous competition arising from the successful smuggling of luxuries? Any one who knows the frailties of the business world will laugh at the idea. He would remonstrate ; he would demand that the illegal traffic be stopped at the expense of his purse. Then he would demand that all duty be abrogated. And the pressure of wealth and political influence would bring about free trade, and the commercial policy of English statesmen would have been vindicated.
"The countries of the world would now have to fall back on their internal revenue to satisfy the national debt. The principles of those who have long advocated that the individual and the nation should be able to sustain themselves on what they produced themselves, without resort to taxing external trade and its reciprocal features, would have been set right by that 'crank' idea of flying like a bird. In the minds of aerostaticians who have made a life study of aerial navigation the day of discovery is not so far distant as the incredulous may assume. Whether the dirigible balloon or the aeroplane solves the problem the complete revision of commerce and society is certain to take place."
The theme of free trade being made possible through the success of aerial navigation has become the leading topic of discussion in the Aerostatic Club.
Sources
- Brockett 1910, page 34, entry 471: Airship problems and universal free trade. Aer. World, Vol. 1, No. 6, 1903, Glenville, Ohio, pp. 132-133. S (471
- Scan at Internet Archive
