operators were far from having extended experience, is taken
into consideration. Men like the Wrights, Curtiss, Bleriot, Farman,
Paulhan and others, are now experts, but there was a time, and it was
not long ago, when they were unskilled. That they, with numerous
others less widely known, should have come safely through their many
experiments would seem to disprove the prevailing idea that aviation is
an extra hazardous pursuit.

In the hands of careful, quick-witted, nervy men the sailing of an
airship should be no more hazardous than the sailing of a yacht. A
vessel captain with common sense will not go to sea in a storm, or
navigate a weak, unseaworthy craft. Neither should an aviator attempt to
sail when the wind is high and gusty, nor with a machine which has not
been thoroughly tested and found to be strong and safe.

Safer Than Railroading.

Statistics show that some 12,000 people are killed and 72,000 injured
every year on the railroads of the United States. Come to think it over
it is small wonder that the list of fatalities is so large. Trains
are run at high speeds, dashing over crossings at which collisions are
liable to occur, and over bridges which often collapse or are swept away
by floods. Still, while the number of casualties is large, the actual
percentage is small considering the immense number of people involved.

It is so in aviation. The number of casualties is remarkably small in
comparison with the number of flights made. In the hands of competent
men the sailing of an airship should be, and is, freer from risk of
accident than the running of a railway train. There are no rails
to spread or break, no bridges to collapse, no crossings at which
collisions may occur, no chance for some sleepy or overworked employee
to misunderstand the dispatcher's orders and cause a wreck.

Two Main Causes of Trouble.

The two main causes of trouble in an airship leading to disaster may
be attributed to the stoppage of the motor, and the aviator becoming
rattled so that he loses control of his machine. Modern ingenuity is
fast developing motors that almost daily become more and more reliable,
and experience is making aviators more and more self-confident in their
ability to act wisely and promptly in cases of emergency. Besides this
a satisfactory system of automatic control is in a fair way of being
perfected.

Occasionally even the most experienced and competent of men in all
callings become careless and