Monday, April 16, 1934

This evening us kids played ball. I got hit by a motorcycle. Had the doctor. Hurt my knee, side and foot. Helen's was here.

The Air Mail Act of 1925 (Kelly Act) authorized the postmaster general to contract for domestic airmail
service with commercial air carriers. It also set airmail rates and the level of cash subsidies to be paid to
companies that carried the mail. By transferring airmail operations to private companies, the government
 effectively would help create the commercial aviation industry. Various routes were designated and
contracts for carrying the mail over these routes were then awarded to many different private air
service companies. The Contract Air Mail routes became known as CAM's.

After a series of crashes by the original contractor between Chicago, Illinois and Minneapolis,
Minnesota, with interim stops in Milwaukee and LaCrosse, Northwest Airways took over the
routes on October 1, 1926. NWA was incorporated on August 1, 1926 as a Michigan corporation
 formed by a group of Detroit and Twin-Cities businessmen using borrowed aircraft.

NWA immediately purchased three Stinson Detroiter aircraft (see above) capable of carrying the
mail and three passengers at 85 mph. On April 16, 1934 Northwest Airlines was incorporated,
 replacing the former Northwest Airways.