After referring to Section 2(d) of the Act, which provides for competition, the witness stated, “With an unprecedented opportunity to preserve competition to develop the air transportation system and so provide adequate and economical service, the Board’s actions have provided for just the reverse.” One explanation of the Board’s action might be derived from the statement of C. R. Smith, chairman of American Airlines, one of the largest of the “Big Four.” “If the law of the land is to be enforced against the certificated air carriers,” he said, “it should have similar enthusiasm of enforcement against the irregular carriers who compete directly for the same business of air transportation. We cannot live with economic health in an atmosphere half legal and half illegal. If this business is to be regulated, all should be regulated.” It would be interesting to know just what significance attaches to the use of the word “against” in this statement. “If the Civil Aeronautics Act is to mean but little,” continued “C.R.,” “then let us return to the rules of the road which obtained before the Act was passed, when competition was direct and unregulated.” Had “C.R.” gone on to urge this course, he might have given a demonstration of the rugged individualism for which he is credited; instead he summed up, “We were in favor of the Act, we are in favor of the continuation of the Act, but if we are to abide by the terms of the Act, we ask that our competitors be bound by the same rules of public conduct.” Juan Trippe, president of the Pan American Airways System, stated the issue in similarly clear terms: “The fundamental problem, both domestically and internationally, is that although Congress intended to place the airline industry in the category of regulated public utilities, the airlines, while treated on one hand as public utilities, have, at the same time, been made subject to all of the competitive pressures proper and appropriate only in an unregulated industry. There is no precedent in American industry that I know of for such a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde arrangement.” After developing the principles under which public utilities are regulated and financed and suggesting that Congress should make up its mind as to whether or not they want to return the airline industry to its intended status as a regulated airline industry, Juan, like “C.R.,” mentioned the alternative of eliminating the relative provisions of the Civil Aeronautics Act and exposing the airlines to the full competitive force which exists and should exist in ordinary commerce. “There will be no real progress in the solution of the airline problems,” he summed up, “until this issue is met squarely. An airline can’t be a regulated public utility and a free enterprise at the same time.”