ARMY & NAVY: Fleet Problem 12

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Yale and emerged a campus idol. Yale done, he went to Harvard, studied harder than he had ever previously found necessary and emerged a sufficiently learned lawyer. Thence to his native Cleveland where he lived as if no other city existed. He had by this time married Louise Harkness (Standard Oil heiress) who has borne him three daughters. A clerk in the famed law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, he argued small jury cases in court as intensely as if they had been national issues. With great personal enthusiasm he invested in various local enterprises and took with grave responsibility a big local bank directorship. He bought a modest estate in green, pretty, outlying Chagrin Valley and took to horse —polo-wise (foxhunting was a trifle slow). For years he never touched airplane. Nor did it occur to him to travel to Europe. There was plenty of work, fun, people in Cleveland.

But his environment did widen. First it was the State of Ohio when he went to the Legislature. Something had to be done about aviation, now a public matter. So David Ingalls took once more to the air. The State adopted his aviation code in one magnificent sweep. Next, it was the Nation, when, in the first fortnight of the Hoover Administration he was called to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air. More exactly, this new environment is the Nation's Navy, for David Ingalls does not scatter his attention. All the force of his irresistible enthusiasm is given to the particular team he is playing on. Believing that Army Aviation (directed by his Yale and Wartime friend, Frederick Trubee Davison) had received more than its share of public support, he immediately set out to equal the score.

He traveled about the country making speeches. He sent a great airfleet to demonstrate over New York and New England last year. He went before Congress, won its favor, got larger appropriations for his service. He pushed the Navy's technical development, argued for more dirigibles. Result: Naval aeronautics todays stands higher, in efficiency, effectiveness and popular esteem, than ever before.

Anything David Ingalls does must be done much better than the average. He does not always come up to this standard. He plays first-class bridge, but has to acknowledge with a touch of pain that his chess is not so good.

Intense desire to excel plus artless popularity is a rare combination. With it and with much besides, Assistant Secretary Ingalls is regarded by Elder Republicans as the kind of energetic, intelligent young man of whom the G. O. P. can make good use in years to come.