a $20,000,000 (44,110,152) allotment for the handling of domestic air mail by air transport lines, but the two houses of Congress and the new budget director of the new administration each successively took a crack at that sum and lowered it progressively to nineteen million dollars (£3,904,644), to f en (£3,082,614), and finally to fourteen (£2,877,106). For next year here seemed to be good reason to hope that the trend would be reversed and the air mail appropriation increased, and the editor of "Aviation" in his prophecy of last month predicted a boost at least of $17,000,000 (£3,493,600). On the face of the present returns that was a
little too optimistic.
The estimate for 1935 is for $14,995,000 (£3,081,586), still far below the level of any previous year since 1930 except 1934, but good enough to offer at least a hope that transport companies will feel justified in keeping all their present services alive and maintaining their present schedules. Should there be no change in mail runs in the next eighteen months the average payment per mile flown in domestic service in 1934 will be 40 cents (1/7a.) as against an average of 57 cents (2/4d.) a mile in the calendar year 1932 and of 35 cents (1/5d) a mile (which inevitably means heavy losses for most of the operators under present conditions) over the last three months of 1933, If Congress expects to have any new air mail routes inaugurated or to secure air mail service over the northern trans- continental airway or any of the other airways that are now being built with Public Works funds, Congress will have to do better by the air mail than Budget Director Douglas has done.
"Subsidies"
As for four years past, the allowance for foreign air mail remains fixed at $7,000,000 (£1,438,550). Both for the foreign and forthe domestic services, the appropriations are set up in a new fashion for 1935. Each item is divided into two parts, one alleged to represent the income to the government from postage on air mail, the other explicitly listed as a "subsidy to contractors". On the domestic mail the estimate is that
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