Mill a Mile

One of the worst knots in the perplexing U. S. airmail snarl can best be explained by this syllogistic sequence: 1) the airlines cannot get along without airmail subsidy; 2) airmail contracts are let competitively to the lowest bidder; 3) therefore airlines often have to bid so low to get the contracts that the airmail subsidy literally costs them money. A perfect case in point took place in July when the Post Office Department opened the bids for four new airmail routes. The minor run from Cheyenne to Huron, S. Dak. went to Wyoming Air Service, for the realistic bid of 19.8-c- a mile. To be sure of getting the far more valuable run rom Washington to Buffalo, however, Pennsylvania-Central Air Lines felt obliged to offer to do the job for an infinitesimal .00008-c- a mile, though it will possibly cost as much as 30-c- a mile. The contracts for the other two new routes--Dayton-to-Chicago via Fort Wayne and Winslow, Ariz.-to-San Francisco--went to Transcontinental & Western Air for a mill a mile.

Last week TWA inaugurated service on both these new runs. The one from Winslow to San Francisco is the more important for three reasons. It was ordered by the Post Office after a ruling by the Interstate Commerce Commission last spring forbidding TWA to expand in that direction (TIME, March 22). It is probably the most scenic flight for its length on any U. S. airline, passing over Grand Canyon, Boulder Dam, Painted Desert, Indian reservations. Death Valley, high Sierras and San Francisco's famed bridges. And by entering San Francisco, TWA breaks United Air's monopoly there. Expecting to snare part of United's traffic, TWA began with two round-trips daily between San Francisco and New York.

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