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1 NATIONAL AIR-MAIL WEEK-MAY 15-21 j Through its 46,000 offices covering the nation, the Post Office Department is launching an intensive drive to awaken public interest in the Air Mail Service, Postmaster Ernest J. Kruetgen has announced. Mr. Kruetgen is state shairman for the compaign in Illinois and Paul R. Younts, postmaster at Charlotte, North Carolina, is national chairman. Postmaster General James A. Farloy is honorary national chairman. The week of May 15 to May 21 has been designated National Air Mail Week in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of regular Air Mail Service. From a 218-mile flight between New York City and Washington, D. C, in May, 1918, to a 9,000-mile flight from New York City to Hong Kong in May, 1938, is the remarkable story of air mail development. Prizes ar being offered for the best essays on the subject "Wings Across America" and the best posters based on the idea "Posters Relating to the Air Mail Service of the Present and Future and Its Adaptability to the Needs of the Nation." Information regarding the contests and prizes may be obtained at your local post office. Mayor Kelly has been named honorary chairman for Chicago and has offered his whole-hearted support to the movement. PATRIOTIC AND PRACTICAL. The purpose of National Air Mail Week is to intensify the American peoples con-I sciousness of aviation and the air mail, but the more immediate objectives of this far-flung and vigorous movement, which has the full support of the Post Office Department, are at once patriotic and practical. As announced by the National Headquarters, these objectives are: To commemorate the i twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of the air mail service that was started by the i Post Office Department May 15, 1918; i educate the citizens in the use of air mail, showing its progress, dependability, safety and value, and, to increase the use of the air mail to the end that through increased revenues still further expansion of this now essential service will be made possible. In a multitude of ways, through the assured splendid cooperation of the leaders in public and civic affairs of the states, the radio and the press, and by Air Mail essay and poster contests for the school children, and otherwise, the comprehensive plan for arousing and crystalizing Americas interest in the air mail service will be carried steadily forward during the ensuing weeks. SPECTACULAR EVENTS. The National and State Headquarters, It was announced, are planning various spectacular events for the purpose of demonstrating not only the speed, efficiency and value" of the air mail service to the commerce, in-dusty and population of the United States but also to emphasize the historic and "patriotic appeal of these "wings across America" to the present and future generations of Americans. Kitty Hawk, on the sandy shore of North Carolina, the birthplace of aviation, where the never-to-be-forgotten Wright Brothers made the first airplane flight, will be the historic center of interest during the Air Mail Week. A"special and official cachet for air mail has been authorized for Kitty Hawk for Air Mail Week by the Post Office Department. This cachet will commemorate the first flight and will pay due honor to Kitty Hawk, now marked by an enduring memorial, for the place it holds in the record of the United States progress at an amazing rate in aviation. Each city and town elsewhere throughout the United States will be privileged also to have a special cachet for the marking of air mail during the week.
