Monstrous

It is not far from general in the average U. S. home that the children can drive the family car much better than their parents. Father has trouble getting the gears to mesh properly in hurried traffic, and mother is eternally leaving the ignition switch unturned while the starter grinds on and on. All this is indicative of an hypothesis: young men and women have mechanical sense superior to that of older men and women.

Arrived at this theory and in the hope of stimulating interest in aviation as a sport, the American Society for the Promotion of Aviation has offered a prize of $1,000 to the first U. S. boy or girl who successfully pilots a plane across the continent from San Francisco to Boston. The promoters point out that famed War aces had but barely emerged from puberty when daily zooming through riotous air-fusillades.

Parents of youngsters with the mechanical bent last week fumed and ejaculated. "Monstrous!" cried the father of a clever boy named Wilbur. "This is monstrous! Encouraging kids like Wilbur to try flying next . . . making them dissatisfied with automobiles, which are dangerous enough, goodness knows. This Society will have them running away from home, bumming around flying fields, hooking rides on the mail planes . . . reckless bravado . . . inexperienced . . . premature ascent . . . broken necks . . . weeping families ... a shameful offer . . . monstrous!"