LETTING OURSELVES DOWN GENTLY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 8 May 1931, Page 6

LETTING OURSELVES DOWN GENTLY

' Like s most other human contrivances, parachutes are productive of mixed results. One of them failed to open in the South Island the other day,-and the victim, a professional parachutist, met his death. Similarly, the Schneider Cup winner, parachute in hand, sustained broken bones this week, in.England,'but it is suggested that he quitted his falling aeroplane at too low an altitude to give the parachute an adequate chance. On the other side of the account, it is claimed that parachutes have saved the lives of 66 Air Force men in five years. On the whole, it will probably be conceded that the parachute is a 90 per cent, blessing to those who go up ( to the sky in ships. It has broken the fall for so many that regret must be felt at the absence of any known device for parachuting falling prices. A price parachute installed in 1929, or even earlier, might have prevented a good many bumps and crashes on Wall Street and elsewhere. The more this vein of thought is pursued, the greater seems to be the parallel between flying and finance. RlOl symbolises many other famous flotations. In both cases there is the same process of inflation and deflation, and the same quest for stability, which sometimes means getting down to earth, i However he arrives there, neither the flying man nor the financier is ever conquered. Both will fly again.