Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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ktEe5i?Wl I H5-1-fj UNCLE SAM'S ALBATROSS OF GOOD WILL ONG after sunset, on the twenty-first day of May, 192 7, a trim, silver monoplane soared high above a milling throng of warm- hearted Frenchmen, frantic with anxiety. Precariously hovering there for an instant, it careened down over the mob, as the sea petrel skims the endless whitecaps, and Chas. A. Lindbergh soon landed with ease and safety, only to experience a peril which, to him, was greater than the oceanic flight he had just achieved. As he brought his cherished Spirit of St. Louis to a stop on this foreign field, his name was necessarily chronicled along with Balboa, Polo, Magellan, Columbus, and dozens of other fearless navigators. incidentally, like Columbus, he had fash- ioned his own ship, secured the necessary backing, and, in fact, single-handed and alone, planned and executed the whole voyage. l-le was an acknowledged champion of navigation-Lindbergh, the Navigator! A trait of far more importance, however, revealed itself, for the flight. disguised in the raiment of Opportunity, served as an open sesame for conveying the good will of the country from which he had flown. Slim Lindbergh, truly representative of American youth incarnate-the spirit which charms and subdues to its purpose all things, was nonchalantly serving in the capacity of America's unofficial envoy of benevolence and good will. A sea of humanity rushed to greet him, and in doing so endangered the safety of the conquering silver bird, so recently of trans-Atlantic fame. Only by the heroic efforts of the French police was the daring navigator delivered to the waiting welcome of the American Ambassador to France, Myron Herrick. The Spirit of St. Louis was likewise saved from the ravages of the wild mob by the capable French police. There is no spot on the civilized globe that would not have accorded Lindbergh the same sort of reception that he received from the impulsive people of France. While it is true, quoted Myron Herrick, that unusual ties bind this country fFranceJ to ours, it is not doubtful that had Lindbergh chosen London, Brussels, Vienna, or Berlin as his destination, and with the same degree of success, he would have been tendered a similar ovation in any of these cities. Colonel Lindbergh was deluged with the highest honors that could be bestowed. France, the impulsive, had not witnessed anything like the enthusi- asm created by Lindy's success since the days of the Armistice. One of the great airman's first acts was to call upon the mother of the unfortunate Nun- gesser, who, a short time previous, had made an unsuccessful attempt to do what the American aviator accomplished. This immediately won to the American any of the French people who might have been harboring ill feelings toward the United States for political reasons. The French aviators whom Thirlevn

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LlNDY Twel ue LlNDY'S DREAM-THE NEW LANIBER T FIELD

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k2BVV s4I5JJJ Colonel Lindbergh later toasted as the finest in the world were unstinted in their praise of the plucky Yankee. No evidence of jealousy was noted during his stay on foreign soil. And so it was that throughout his brief European tour, which consummated little more than a week, with his itinerary embracing Brussels, London, and other high spots of Northeastern Europe, he was lauded tremendously. ln accepting the infinite ovations that he received everywhere he went, Colonel Lindbergh conducted himself in a manner that astonished and elicited the admiration of the most capable diplomat.s in the world. The most exclusive society in the Old World entertained this modest chap from usomewhere in the Middle West, and likened his conduct to that of Benjamin Franklin, who won the hearts of the French people many years before by his simplicity, modesty, and frankness. The very day of Lindbergh's landing, the Petit Parisienn nominated the Flying Colonel for the Nobel peace prize. The news- paper declared that Lindbergh had united France and America and that his flight across the Atlantic had done as much for peace and understanding as the Locarno Pact drawn up by M. Briand, Sir Austen Chamberlain, and Herr Streseman. To the applause which all the world was lavishing on the hero, the Mexican newspapers contributed. Lindbergh's unbreakable physical resistance, reck- less valor, incomparable energy and auclaciousnessf' said Excelsior, have gained a triumph unprecedented in aviation, giving to the United States, the glory of having such a hero. Indeed, Lindbergh typifies all the force of a significant race, all the formidable boldness of the most powerful people on earth. Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Lindbergh-these are the breed of a nation with stupendous vitality. El Universal said it thought of Lindbergh as representing eternal, inextinguishable youth. One of the finest things of all, it added, is the frank and generous spirit with which all the world has hailed the triumph, with an absence of envy and with spontaneous, sincere joy in the performance of a great and glorious deed. The Lone Eagles next startling achievement was his good will tour of his own country. The flights were intended to prove the safety of air trans- portation, to dispel all doubt as to the practical uses of aviation, and to promote the air game as only Slim Lindbergh could promote it. ln reality, how- ever, it served as a gesture of good will, cementing the bonds of inter-state friendship. War with Mexico was assuming an aspect of possibility and even prob- ability. Various groups of American citizens seemed to be actively fomenting hatred between the peoples of the two republics. Exchanges between Wash- ington and Mexico City revealed the strain under which government officials labored. Dwight W. Morrow gave up a remarkably profitable partnership and accepted the relatively minor post of Ambassador to Mexico. Slowly, Fourreen