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28 - Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart by Paul L. Briand, Jr. · Daughter of the Sky- The Story of Amelia Earhart

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Speaker 1: Section twenty eight of Daughter of the Sky The Story
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Speaker 1: of Amelia Earhart by Paubrion Junior. The s LibriVox recording
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Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Section two The World of
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Speaker 1: Flight nineteen, Purdue University. You are all a lost generation,
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Speaker 1: Gertrude Stein had said to Ernest Hemingway about him and
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Speaker 1: the group of disillusioned post war expatriates who lived in Paris.
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Speaker 1: Hemingway had quoted her in The Sun Also Rises, published
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Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty six. The phrase lost generation became a
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Speaker 1: touch tone of the times. In the early thirties. It
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Speaker 1: still persisted, but now included in one wide sweep all
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Speaker 1: who were the young, the troublesome, the enigmatic. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: thirty four, the New York Herald Tribune held its annual
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Speaker 1: conference the topic Women and the Changing World. Amelia Earhart
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Speaker 1: was a guest speaker. In the audience was doctor Edward C. Elliot,
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Speaker 1: president of Purdue University. Upon the platform, Missus William Brown
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Speaker 1: Maloney rose to introduce the famous woman flyer. I present
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Speaker 1: to you, Missus Maloney said, turning to ae evidence against
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Speaker 1: a lost generation. For I remind you that no generation
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Speaker 1: which could produce Amelia Earhart can be called a lost generation.
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Speaker 1: She has set a pace for those of her age
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Speaker 1: and time. She has never been content to rest on
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Speaker 1: her laurels. She has worked, and is working, and will
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Speaker 1: continue to work hard to further the science to which
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Speaker 1: she has dedicated her life. Amelia, thirty six years old
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Speaker 1: and born in the same year as Ernest Hemingway, sat
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Speaker 1: uneasily as she listened to the introduction. She had been
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Speaker 1: asked to discuss youth. Although she did not consider herself
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Speaker 1: a member of the younger generation, she certainly did not
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Speaker 1: consider it lost. She got up from her chair and
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Speaker 1: walk to the speaker stand. Her voice was low and confident.
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Speaker 1: The speech was short and to the point. It is true,
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Speaker 1: she said, after making the usual introductory salutations, that there
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Speaker 1: are no more geographical frontiers to push back, no new
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Speaker 1: lands flowing with milk and honey this side of the
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Speaker 1: moon to promise circes from man made ills. But there
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Speaker 1: are economic, political, scientific, and artistic frontiers of the most
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Speaker 1: exciting sort, awaiting faith and the spirit of adventure to
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Speaker 1: discover them. She brushed her hair back with a quick
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Speaker 1: sweep of the hand. Probably no field, she continued, now
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Speaker 1: with more animation, offers greater lure for young people explorers
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Speaker 1: than aviation. It has the color and movement of flying
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Speaker 1: to kindle the imagination, and its growing importance as an
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Speaker 1: industry is tempting to those who plan serious careers in transportation,
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Speaker 1: for aviation is simply the newest form of transportation, the
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Speaker 1: climax of the human pageant of human progress from ox
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Speaker 1: Cart to airplane. She listed some of the problems in
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Speaker 1: aviation that had to be solved and admitted that there
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Speaker 1: were no easy solutions for She then explained, the economic
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Speaker 1: structure we have built up is all too often a
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Speaker 1: barrier between the world's work and the workers. If the
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Speaker 1: younger generation finds the hurdle too absurdly high, I hope
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Speaker 1: it will not hesitate to tear it down and substitute
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Speaker 1: a social order in which the desire to work and
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Speaker 1: earn carries with it the opportunity to do so. She
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Speaker 1: narrowed to a conclusion. The ancients, such as I am,
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Speaker 1: she said, as she drove home a burning conviction, should
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Speaker 1: be listening to young ideas rather than pointing up opportunities
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Speaker 1: in all the world. She paused for a quick breath,
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Speaker 1: which has the elders decidedly on the run. President Eliot
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Speaker 1: of Purdeux nodded in agreement. Such a woman, he decided,
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Speaker 1: who believed in young people, belonged on a college faculty.
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Speaker 1: A few days later, Doctor Elliot joined the Putnams for
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Speaker 1: dinner at g P's favorite restaurant in New York, the
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Speaker 1: Coffee House Club. G P and A E sat with
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Speaker 1: their guest at a little table on the second floor.
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Speaker 1: The room was cozy, the men talked. Amelia glanced at
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Speaker 1: the familiar surroundings and was glad that her husband had
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Speaker 1: taken her to such a place. As if clearing the
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Speaker 1: area before making a turn in the vega, she directed
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Speaker 1: her eyes across the books and paintings along the wall,
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Speaker 1: the piano in front of the little stage, the fish
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Speaker 1: drawings and Chappelle cartoons along the other wall. George looked
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Speaker 1: at his wife. She seemed pretty, particularly lovely to him
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Speaker 1: that evening, Her long bangs neatly combed over the high forehead,
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Speaker 1: the clear blue gray eyes forever hiding a mystery, the
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Speaker 1: sensuous lips and the wide mouth, the strong jaw, the
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Speaker 1: long lovely hands. On such a night as this, he
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Speaker 1: could propose to her all over again. After dinner, they
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Speaker 1: walked casually out of the room toward a couch against
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Speaker 1: the far wall. Doctor Eliot pulled up a chair, A
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Speaker 1: E and j P sat on the couch. Amelia leaned
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Speaker 1: to one side, held her skirt, and tucked her feet
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Speaker 1: up and under her. President Eliot looked at the bulletin
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Speaker 1: board above the couch, then at the slight figure of Amelia.
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Speaker 1: He caught her eye, then told her how much he
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Speaker 1: had enjoyed her speech at the Tribune conference. Young people,
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Speaker 1: he explained, were his business, and he could never find
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Speaker 1: enough of the professionally trained to motivate and inspire his students. Amelia,
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Speaker 1: he said, smiling, we would like to have you at Purdue.
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Speaker 1: AE thought a moment, I'd like that, she said, knowing
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Speaker 1: nevertheless that she had no degrees to qualify for such
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Speaker 1: an assignment. But what do you think I could do?
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Speaker 1: Doctor Elliot's eyes brightened and crinkled at the corners. We
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Speaker 1: have about six thousand students, eight hundred of them are girls.
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Speaker 1: We don't think the girls are keeping abreast of the
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Speaker 1: opportunities of the day nearly as well as they might be.
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Speaker 1: Amelia warmed to the possibilities and I. She began a question,
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Speaker 1: you could supply the spark they need? He answered something
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Speaker 1: from outside the classroom. For two hours, they continued to
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Speaker 1: discuss the idea. By the time President Eliot had been
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Speaker 1: taken to Grand Central for a midnight train, the project
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Speaker 1: had assumed a definite shape. For one month during the
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Speaker 1: academic year, Amelia would deliver lectures, act as a counselor
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Speaker 1: to the girls, and advise the Department of Aeronautics AE
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Speaker 1: like the challenge. Purdue, at the time was the only
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Speaker 1: university in the country that had its own airport. On
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Speaker 1: June second, nineteen thirty five, after the Pacific and Mexico flights,
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Speaker 1: President Eliot formally appointed Amelia Earhart to the faculty of
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Speaker 1: Purdue University. Miss Earhart, he announced, represents, better than any
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Speaker 1: other young woman of this generation, the spirit and courageous
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Speaker 1: skill of what may be called the new pioneering. At
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Speaker 1: no point in our educational system is their greater need
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Speaker 1: for pioneering and constructive planning than an education for women.
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Speaker 1: The university believes Amelia Earhart will help us to see
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Speaker 1: and to attack successfully many unsolved problems. Amelia was heartened
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Speaker 1: by the announcement sat with the record flights of the spring,
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Speaker 1: she now tested the high speed capabilities of her plane.
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Speaker 1: In July, she set the transcontinental speed record for women
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Speaker 1: by flying from Los Angeles to Newark in seventeen hours,
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Speaker 1: seventeen minutes and thirty seconds. In November, Ae was the
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Speaker 1: flying professor of the Lafayette, Indiana campus, with the students
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Speaker 1: male and female. She was easy, casual, dressed in slacks.
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Speaker 1: At a conference, she would swing her legs up on
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Speaker 1: a desk or table and chat. She invariably preferred an
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Speaker 1: atmosphere of informality. She lived in one of the women's
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Speaker 1: dormitories at Purdue and kept her door open for any
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Speaker 1: of the girls who wanted to drop in for a visit.
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Speaker 1: In the dining hall, she had a different group sit
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Speaker 1: at her table for every meal. Amelia soon declared herself
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Speaker 1: as the empiricist and pragmatist, which she was learn by
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Speaker 1: doing and have fun at It had guided her every
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Speaker 1: step through life. At one of her first lectures, she
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Speaker 1: explained why she came to Purdue. It was her kind
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Speaker 1: of school, a technical school where all instruction had its
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Speaker 1: practical side. Education she felt had failed to discover individual
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Speaker 1: aptitudes soon enough. If a child's bent could be determined early,
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Speaker 1: much study and work in the wrong direction could be avoided.
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Speaker 1: We have watched the colleges, she said, produce countless graduates
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Speaker 1: who could only demand jobs for which, notwithstanding the adequacy
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Speaker 1: of their formal education, they might be totally unprepared or unfitted,
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Speaker 1: and in which they were often even just plain non interested.
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Speaker 1: It's a fundamental problem, and I can imagine that reform
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Speaker 1: may involve the entire reconstruction of our educational system. Because
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Speaker 1: Johnny liked to play with tin soldiers, his mother has
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Speaker 1: jumped to the conclude usion since the year one that
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Speaker 1: he wanted to be a soldier, so she packed him
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Speaker 1: off to military school, which he hated, though maybe she
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Speaker 1: never found it out all because what really interested him
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Speaker 1: about tin soldiers was that they were made of lead,
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Speaker 1: and lead is metal, and you heat metal and melt
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Speaker 1: it and make it into lots of things, steel for skyscrapers,
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Speaker 1: decorative iron work, leading for stained glass windows. Although she
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Speaker 1: would have liked to AE soon discovered that it would
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Speaker 1: be impossible to interview all eight hundred women students. She
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Speaker 1: therefore sent out a questionnaire to them. In answer to
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Speaker 1: one question she learned that ninety two percent of the
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Speaker 1: co eds wanted to go into useful employment after graduation.
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Speaker 1: She would assemble the girls in large groups and talk
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Speaker 1: to them. After all, she said to them, drawing from
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Speaker 1: her own experience, times are changing and women need the
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Speaker 1: criticals stimulus of competition outside the home. A girl must
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Speaker 1: nowadays believe completely in herself as an individual. She must
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Speaker 1: realize at the outset that a woman must do the
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Speaker 1: same job better than a man to get as much
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Speaker 1: credit for it. She must be aware of the various discriminations,
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Speaker 1: both legal and traditional, against women in the business world.
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Speaker 1: I cannot tell you that you will be able to
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Speaker 1: bounce right out of college into your life work. I
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Speaker 1: believe under existing conditions that it is almost impossible to do.
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Speaker 1: But I believe also that it doesn't greatly matter, for
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Speaker 1: the business world will draw out one's aptitudes. Probably, no
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Speaker 1: sure way has yet been discovered for women or men
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Speaker 1: either to know before they reach the age of sixty
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Speaker 1: five if they have done right by their lives, And
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Speaker 1: even then I believe they can't be exactly sure that
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Speaker 1: something else they could have chosen would have made their
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Speaker 1: lives richer. Probably people of outstanding talent like Lily Pond's,
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Speaker 1: for instance, couldn't do anything but follow their natural bent.
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Speaker 1: Such people must know they're in the right profession. The
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Speaker 1: rest of us, I fear, can never know for certain
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Speaker 1: until we can take a backward look in old age,
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Speaker 1: For we must have a background of experience against which
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Speaker 1: to make comparisons. So our vocational starts are somewhat conditioned,
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Speaker 1: but not fatally surely. Of course, if men and women
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Speaker 1: are very unhappy in their work, they are entitled to
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Speaker 1: a pretty good opinion that they are in the wrong work.
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Speaker 1: Yet if they are happy in it, I don't believe
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Speaker 1: it means necessarily that they couldn't be happier. And so
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Speaker 1: I'm inclined to say that if you want to try
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Speaker 1: a certain job, try it. Then if you find something
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Speaker 1: on the morrow that looks better, make a change. And
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Speaker 1: if you should find that, you are the first way
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Speaker 1: to feel an urge in that direction, What does it matter?
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Speaker 1: Feel it and act on it just the same. It
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Speaker 1: may turn out to be fun, And to me, fun
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Speaker 1: is the indispensable part of work, aptitude, trial and error, practicality. Fun.
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Speaker 1: Such were the tenets of her proclaimed philosophy for living
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Speaker 1: for the girl who initially had accidentally become a heroine
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Speaker 1: of flight, then had to prove it to herself and
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Speaker 1: for the rest of her life to the world who
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Speaker 1: acclaimed her. It was the only possible philosophy, although she
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Speaker 1: forgot to mention it. There was in her life, in
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Speaker 1: addition to the necessity of fun for work, much work
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Speaker 1: in her fun. And despite the fact that her practical
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Speaker 1: self would never admit it, she was also a romantic
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Speaker 1: and a visionary. Like the skylark and the nightingale of
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Speaker 1: Shelley and Keats, she was a blithe spirit and a
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Speaker 1: light winged dryad who soared on the wind and pranked
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Speaker 1: the starlight sky. Without her dreams, she could not live
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Speaker 1: in the wide awake world. Like Henry David Thurreau, the
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Speaker 1: famed mystic of Walden Pond, she could say, I hear
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Speaker 1: beyond the range of sound, I see beyond the range
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Speaker 1: of sight, new Earth and skies and seas around. There
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Speaker 1: was a fitful restlessness in the way Amelia had skipped
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Speaker 1: from job to job and interest to interest. On the ground,
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Speaker 1: the ground in which her soaring ambition could never take root.
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Speaker 1: It was only in the air that she found the
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Speaker 1: repose and the leisure to probe the depths of her
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Speaker 1: own soul to come to a sustaining knowledge of herself.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Elliott was pleased with her work. So was the
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Speaker 1: Purdue Research Foundation, which set up an Amelia Earhart Fund
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Speaker 1: for the purchase of a plane that she could use
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Speaker 1: experimentally at her own disas. Ae. Despite a deep interest
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Speaker 1: in the engineering and mechanical aspects of flight, wanted to
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Speaker 1: study the human elements involved the effects of flying on people.
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Speaker 1: She had named herself as the first guinea pig. Early
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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty six, enough funds were declared available for
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Speaker 1: her to make her choice of airplanes. Amelia picked a
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Speaker 1: new twin engined ten passenger Lockheed Electra transport plane. It
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Speaker 1: was what she had wanted for a long time, a bigger,
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Speaker 1: safer airplane. Amelia now announced to GP that she planned
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Speaker 1: to fly around the world at the equator. It was
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Speaker 1: something no man had done, not even Lindbergh, like the
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Speaker 1: matador of many victories, who pits his ability against the
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Speaker 1: bull by getting closer and closer to the horns and
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Speaker 1: making more and more difficult passes, or the mountain climber
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Speaker 1: who had proven himself the victory over the tallest peaks,
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Speaker 1: and yet has to climb Everest. So Amelia, who had
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Speaker 1: triumphed over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the North
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Speaker 1: American continent, now would set out to conquer the one
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Speaker 1: remaining adversary to her skill and courage, the world. End
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Speaker 1: of Section twenty eight