Celebrating 85 Years: Air Mail Act of 1934

Pilot-partisan lobbying efforts yield early protections

By John Perkinson, Senior Staff Writer
Lieutenants E.C. Plummer, left, and H.M. McCoy, U.S. Army Air Corps pilots, prepare for an airmail flight on March 12, 1934, at a Newark, N.J., airfield.

Editor’s note: As ALPA celebrates its 85th anniversary this July, “Celebrating 85 Years,” a series of articles, takes a look at the issues, events, and people who helped shape today’s airline industry and the piloting profession.

From the Association’s inception, ALPA’s first president, Capt. Dave Behncke, understood that favorable aviation legislation and regulations could help protect and enhance the pay and working conditions of line pilots. The Air Mail Act of 1934 provides a brilliant first example of just what working directly with government policymakers can accomplish.

Capt. James Roe (TWA, Ret.) recalled the early days of canvassing Capitol Hill in George Hopkins’s book Flying the Line, observing, “One man can’t cover Congress, so 10 or 15 of us would map out the group of people we wanted to see.” Roe noted, “We always wore our uniforms; Behncke asked us to,” adding, “You could get into an office a little easier and get an appointment.”

ALPA didn’t stop with Members of Congress; Behncke made a special effort to get to know New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who viewed ALPA’s president as his closest advisor on aviation matters. And these relationships paid off in spades for the Association.

Neither snow nor rain nor collusion…

In 1933, Sen. Hugo Black (D-Ala.) launched an investigation, accusing aviation holding companies of colluding with the previous postmaster general to allocate airmail routes, rather than awarding them through competitive bidding. During this time, the airline industry’s pioneering pilots mostly delivered the mail; transporting passengers would not become a priority for some time.

On Feb. 9, 1934, the Roosevelt administration announced that it would cancel all existing airmail contracts within 10 days, opting instead to have the Army Air Corps transport the mail. The political backlash was immediate—newspaper headlines lambasted this controversial move while others called it “socialistic.”

Although the decision was detrimental to airlines, resulting in the temporary loss of flying, Behncke opted to support Roosevelt. Behncke gambled that whatever transpired, commercial airmail delivery would eventually be restored and that, assuming Roosevelt would come out on top, he would reward ALPA for its support.

Not surprisingly, the transfer of airmail duties to the Army proved disastrous. Army pilots had not been trained for the kinds of weather conditions they faced, and their aircraft lacked the navigational equipment available on newer civilian airplanes. And the news media was quick to point out the 66 accidents and 12 fatalities that occurred within a five-month period.

About face

Other problems ensued and by May the government opted to allow some airlines to resume airmail delivery on certain routes. On June 12, 1934, Roosevelt signed the Air Mail Act of 1934, restoring airmail delivery to the private sector with a new set of rules. The law set routes, schedules, and fixed payment rates for airlines, and authorized the Commerce secretary to specify the speed, load capacity, and safety features of the aircraft to be used.

More importantly, ALPA’s lobbying efforts compelled Roosevelt to press Congress to include language introduced by the National Labor Board known as “Decision 83.” The bill detailed a federally guaranteed minimum wage for pilots and limited pilot monthly flight time to 85 hours.

During a “Congressional Opinion” broadcast on CBS Radio in March 1935, Rep. James Mead (D-N.Y.), talked about the “human element” of the trailblazing act. Mead underscored the vital service airline pilots perform and referenced specific language in the bill “to guard against a natural tendency to lower costs through reduction in pilot wages.”

Behncke and his fellow ALPA members had effectively communicated to policymakers that protecting airline pilots was in the public’s best interest. The law set a significant precedent and provided important groundwork for ALPA to build upon in becoming the largest airline pilot union in the world.

This article was originally published in the June 2016 issue of Air Line Pilot.

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