Page 139 - Demo

Summary of Indiana%u2019s Emergency Air Mail Flights Flight City Direction Departure Time Postmark TimeAM 30-B Terre Haute Southbound 1:20 am February 20 12:30 am February 20 AM 30-C Terre Haute Northbound 6:109 am February 20 12:30 am February 20 AM 30-D Evansville Southbound 2:20 am February 20 12:30 am February 20AM 30-E Evansville Northbound 5:10 am February 20 12:30 am February 20 AM 34-J Indianapolis Westbound 3:55 am February 20 1:00 am February 20 AM 34-K Indianapolis Eastbound 8:30 pm February 19 7:30 pm February 19William McCracken chaired a series of meetings that became known as the Spoils Conference, which led to the Air Mail Scandal, which led to all Commercial Air Mail (CAM) contracts being cancelled.McCracken and Northwest Airways Vice President L. C. Brittin (who destroyed some of McCracken%u2019s incriminating records) were each convicted of Contempt of Congress and sentenced to 10-day jail terms. Brittin, who had been fired from his job and didn%u2019t have enough money to appeal, served his sentence soon after being convicted. McCracken challenged the ruling, and eventually appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled against him. He served his 10-day sentence two years after Bitten.As a result of the the Air Mail Scandal of 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Army Air Corps Mail Operation (AAMCO) to take over all air-mail flights in the United States. But not all routes were flown. The American Air Mail Cataloglists six in Indiana.After 66 major accidents, and the deaths of 13 Army airmen, the air-mail contracts were renegotiated with private companies, but with AM (Air Mail) designations, rather than CAM (Commercial Air Mail) designations.Covers flown on the Emergency Air Mail Flights are scarce, because no cachets were provided, and inscriptions on the covers were uncommon. This collection contains two Emergency Air Mail Flight covers (next page). They are for the eastbound flight out of Indianapolis, which was given the designation of 34K by the American Air Mail Catalog. Interestingly, both covers were mailed to the same New Jersey address. After some research in the 1940 United States Census, it was determined that the addressees, Richard R. Schaerer, and Madeline Schaerer, were children, a brother and sister. At the time the covers were processed, Richard was about four-years-old, and Madeline was nine. They were the only two children of Richard and Ida Schaerer, who had each been born in Switzerland. It is unknown who mailed the covers from Indianapolis to little Richard and Madeline, or why.