The round-the-world flight which has just been completed by the army airmen was a great undertaking, but it was not all-important. Even in 1872, before the day of flying machines, the trip around the world was made in seventy-two days, three months shorter time than that of the flyers. The army justifies the night by saying that they collected valuable data on air-currents, many maps, and general information which might be useful in time of war. They do not stress the point that all this knowledge was gained by agents before the flight, and that it might have been collected quite as correctly even if no flight had taken place.

The only justification is that of advertisement. It keeps America on the front page, advertises the progress the United States is making in aeronautics. With public opinion thus behind it, the army can confidently look for increased interest in its activities, and also for a larger appropriation from Congress.

The flight was popular because it was so purely an American gesture. Things were done in a big way--ships stationed every hundred miles on the ocean, spare engine parts sent all over the world, and when the fliers got back home, landing fields banked with flowers, and covered with huge, gasping crowds. It was a triumphant national boast, flung in the face of the world; and like every really good boast, it contained a certain element of futility.