Editorial July 8, 1944 Issue

Unloading Heavy Cargo

PAUL STARK SEELEY

When in 1929 Admiral Byrd took off from his base some hundreds of miles from the South Pole, bound for that objective, his plane was heavily loaded. The pilot soon discovered the load was too heavy to allow the plane to gain any considerable altitude, and a high altitude had to be reached in order to pass over an obstructing mountain range between the base and the pole.

When the Admiral was informed of the situation, he at once gave orders to unload some of the heavy cargo. Immediately, the plane gained several hundred feet in altitude. Still the pilot could not bring it up to the height necessary to ensure safe passage to the pole. A second time heavy cargo was unloaded, and yet a third time, before the plane rose sufficiently to go over the mountain pass and continue safely on its way to its goal. The pole was found, observations were taken, and the return trip was made.

Perhaps you have sometime had a worthy objective which you found difficult to reach. It may have been health, happiness, the working out of pleasant business or home relationships, a successful career, the overcoming of a false appetite, or the conquering of a bad temper, impatience, envy, self-will, or other unlovely traits of character. Perhaps there seemed to be a barrier between you and the accomplishment of your objective. You may have seemed stalled and stymied—on the wrong side of the mountains— and not known how to surmount them to reach your goal. How impassable that barrier sometimes seems to be, threatening frustration, failure, and defeat. For many millions the present war with the resulting disarrangement of well-laid plans appears as a difficult obstacle to the realization of long-sought and worth-while objectives.

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