Address by Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson Before the Annual Convention, National Aeronautic Association of the United States of America, at St. Louis, Missouri

WAR DEPARTMENT FUTURE R E L E A S E FOR RELEASE AFTER DELIVERY Address by The Honorable Louis Johnson The Assistant Secretary of War Annual Convention National Aeronautic Association of the United States of America St. Louis, Missouri January 17, 1939, 10:45 p.m., E.S.T. To be broadcast over CBS Network AMERICA'S WINGS Friends of Aviation: You and I are witnessing the dawn of a brighter day in aviation. You, the members of the National Aeronautic Association of the United States of America, who for years have been pointing the way to the commercial and military supremacy of our country in the air, are about to realize many of your fondest hopes. America's wings, which have been sprouting so slowly, are about to burst forth in greater expanse and to extend their protection over our country and our institutions. Two months ago I told a Boston audience that to meet the tremendous pace that the rest of the world is setting "we must double, yes, treble and perhaps even quadruple our present air force with the best planes that can possibly be produced.' On that day, our Army Air Corps had less than eighteen hundred planes. With the three hundred million dollars that the President proposes to put at the disposal of the Army for aviation purposes, we should treble our regular force of that day. Whether we ultimately will have to quadruple it depends on many factors upon which we in America do not have the final say. I vish I could tell you that the President's program as proposed today would set up a goal of numbers to suffice us for all time. If I set such a figure, I would be flying directly in the face of stark realities. We must not think of air defense in terms of magie numbers or in formulas. We must adjust our figures to our defensive needs. We cannot look upon national defense in absolute terms. It must change with world conditions. What was adequate yesterday may not be today. What may be enough to protect us now, tomorrow may prove insufficient. Several years ago we thought that a program of 2320 would suffice. But you know and I know what has happened in the world since 1934. In the disturbed world of today, I defy anyone to say how much armament ultimately may become necessary for our defensive purposes. The airplane has assumed tremendous psychological significance. Whether the fear of its destructive prowess is justifiable or not is beside the point. The fact remains, that those nations which neglect their air defense tend to become hysterical in the face of impending danger. In an emergency, they frantically prepare to evacuate the population of their great metropolitan centers to distant rural districts. They use up their energies in digging trenches and constructing bombproof shelters. They comb the world's markets, eager to purchase planes at almost any price, but they have difficulty in getting what they need. is NARA MORE