Varney in Mexico

When President Roosevelt ordered all domestic airmail contracts canceled, Walter T. Varney telegraphed Postmaster General Farley that he could and would fly the entire U. S. airmail in 20 ships for the postage alone. Though the Varney offer was not taken up, it was not the proposal of a crackpot. In 1925. Mr. Varney got the first private contract to fly U. S. mail in the Pacific Northwest on a line which he later developed into the Salt Lake-Seattle system and sold to United Air Lines six years later.

Since no one can now read the future of private U. S. airmail operations, Mr. Varney has turned his attention one Republic south. One night last week a Lockheed Orion of his new Lineas Aereas Occidentals roared into Los Angeles, completing its first 1,700-mi. trip from Mexico City in 10 hr. Lineas Aereas Occidentales (Western Air Lines) will operate three planes a week over the route with five Orions used on Varney Speed Lines (Los Angeles-San Francisco).

Fare from Los Angeles to Mexico City on L. A. O. is $105. Mr. Varney hopes to get a mail contract from the Mexican Government. To date, that concession has been the monopoly of Pan American Airways, which flies the Mexican mail from the capital to Brownsville. Tex. and Miami, and, through an affiliate, to El Paso and Nogales. Mr. Varney believes he can shoulder Pan American aside if he has the right politicians working for him. If he does, it will be a man-sized job. for Pan American is so deeply intrenched at home and in 32 other countries that not even President Roosevelt cared to tamper with its mail contracts.

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