By DR. FREDERICK A. COOK
For three years I have sought in various ways to bring about a National investigation of the relative merits of the Polar Attainment and the unjust propaganda of distrust which followed. Such an investigation would do no harm if the original work and the later criticism has been done in good faith. Why has it been refused? To take the ground that it is a private matter and that the Government has taken no official part in the Polar race is to a.s.sume a false position. The injustice of this evasive policy is brought out in my telegram to former President Taft--and again in my letter to President Wilson. To compel such an investigation and to appoint Arctic explorers as National experts has been my main mission on the platform. Much against my will I have been forced to adopt the usual political tactics of getting to the voters to force action by Congress and the official circles of Washington.
When in 1911 the bill was introduced in Congress to retire Peary as a Rear Admiral with a pension, I supposed that this would automatically bring about a thorough scientific examination of the merits of the rival Polar claims. And such an investigation I then believed would surely bring about the only reward I have ever claimed--The appreciation of my fellow countrymen. It was however, as I learned later, a bold Pro-Peary movement fostered by lobbyists whose conscience was eased by drippings from the Hubbard-Bridgeman Arctic Trust, but I still believed that the dictates of National prestige were such that the usual white-washing and rail-roading process could not be adopted in a question of such International importance. I did not begrudge Mr. Peary a pension if honest methods were pursued to adjust the bitterly fought contention in the eyes of the world. My friends made no protest in Congress. As matters progressed, however, I saw that such men as Prof. Willis Moore and others of his kind--men I had previously trusted as honest, really proved themselves, double-faced, political back-scratchers. Then I changed my tactics. When one"s honor is bartered by thieves under the guise of friends--and when these thieves are part of a government from which justice is expected--Then one is bound to uncover the leprous spots of one"s accusers. I am glad to note that Prof. Moore, the President of the National Geographic Society, has since been exposed as being too crooked to fit into a berth of the present administration.
There are others whose long fingers have been in the Polar-pie who will also meet their fate as time exposes their flat-heads.
To call a halt on this National Humbug where only official chair-warmers and political crooks served as experts, I sent the following telegram to former President Taft:
COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT TO FORMER PRESIDENT TAFT
Omaha, Neb., March 4, 1911 The President--The White House, Washington, D. C.
When you sign the Peary bill you are honoring a man with sin-soiled hands who has taken money from our innocent school children. A part of this money I believe was used to make Arctic concubines comfortable. I am ready to produce others of the same opinion. Thus for twenty years while in the pay of the navy, supplied with luxuries from the public purse, Peary has enjoyed, apparently with National consent, the privilege denied the Mormons.
There are at least two children now in the cheerless north crying for bread and milk and a father. These are growing witnesses of Peary"s leprous character. Will you endorse it?
By endorsing Peary you are upholding the cowardly verdict of Chester, t.i.ttman and Gannett, who bartered their souls to Peary"s interests by suppressing the worthlessness of the material upon which they pa.s.sed.
These men on the Government pay-roll have stooped to a dishonor that should make all fair-minded people blush with shame. This underhanded performance calls for an investigation. Will you close these dark chamber doings to the light of justice?
In this bill you are honoring one, who in seeking funds for legitimate exploration, has pa.s.sed the hat along the line of easy money for twenty years. Much of this money was in my judgment used to promote a lucrative fur and ivory trade, while the real effort of getting to the pole was delayed seemingly for commercial gain. Thus engaged in a propaganda of hypocrisy he stooped to immerality and dishonor and ultimately when his game of fleecing the public was threatened, he tried to kill a brother explorer. The stain of at least two other lives is on this man. This bill covers a page in history against which the spirits of murdered men cry for redress.
Peary is covered with the scabs of unmentionable indecency, and for him your hand is about to put the seal of clean approval upon the dirtiest campaign of bribery, conspiracy and black-dishonor that the world has ever known.
If you can close your eyes to this, sign the Peary bill.
(Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK
The telegram was received but not acknowledged--the Peary bill was signed. But the false a.s.sumption of Peary"s "Discovery of the Pole" was eliminated from the bill. There is therefore no National endors.e.m.e.nt of Peary; though he was given an evasive Old Age Pension which the newspapers quoted incorrectly as an official recognition of Peary"s claim to polar priority.
I now appeal to President Wilson and the present administration to make some official endeavor to clear our National emblem of the stain of the envious Polar contention. To that end I have written the following letter:
AN APPEAL TO PRESIDENT WILSON
(COPY OF A LETTER)
Chicago, May 1, 1913
Honored Sir:
I appeal to you to forward a movement which will adjust in the eyes of the world the contention regarding the rival Polar claims. The American Eagle has spread its wings of glory over the world"s top. It would seem to be a National duty to determine officially whether there is room for one or two under those wings.
The graves of our worthy ancestors are marks in the ascent of the ladder of lat.i.tudes. Hundreds of lives, millions of dollars, have been sacrificed in the quest of the Pole. The success at last attained has lifted the United States to the first ranks as a Nation of Scientific Pioneers. Every true American has quivered with an extra thrill of pride with the knowledge that the unknown boreal center has been pierced and that the stars and stripes have been put to the virgin breezes of the North Pole. The unjustified and ungracious controversy which followed has wounded our National honor; it has left a stain upon our flag. Is it not, therefore, our duty as a Nation to dispel the cloud of contention resting over the glory of Polar attainment?
I have given twenty years to the life-sapping task of Polar exploration--all without pay--all for the benefit of future man.
Returning--asking for nothing, expecting only brotherly appreciation of my fellow countrymen, I am compelled to face an unjust battle of political intrigues by men in the pay of the Government. My effort now is not for money nor for a pension, but to defend my honor and that of my family. The future of my children demands an exposition of the unfair methods of the arm-chair geographers in Washington. However, I do not ask the administration to defend me or my posterity, but do ask that the men who draw a salary from the National treasury be made answerable for a propaganda of character a.s.sa.s.sination, among these is Prof. Willis Moore and others of the so-called National Geographic Society.
The National Geographic Society with Prof. Moore as President is responsible for the false interpretation of the rival Polar claims.
This society is a private organization used mostly for political purposes; for two dollars per year a college professor or a street-sweeper becomes with equal facility a "national geographer."
It is, therefore, not "national" nor "geographic," and when this society poses as a scientific body, it is an imposition upon American intelligence, and yet it is this society, with the well-known political trickery of Prof. Moore, which has attempted to decide for the world the merits of Polar attainment. An investigation of the wrong doings of this society will quickly bring to light the injustice of the Polar controversy.
A commission of Polar explorers appointed by National authority will end for all times the problem of the rival Polar claims. There is an abundance of material on both sides by which such a commission could come to a reasonable conclusion. The general impression that the Polar contention has been scientifically determined is not true. There has been no real investigation into either claim. Such an investigation could only be made by Arctic explorers, and to bring about this end I would suggest the appointment of an International Commission of such men as General A. W. Greely, U. S. A., Captain Otto Sverdrup of Norway and Professor Georges Lecointe of Belgium. Their decision would be accepted everywhere. Greely and Sverdrup have each spent four years in the very region under discussion, and Lecointe is the Secretary of the International Bureau for Polar Research and also director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Such men will render a decision free from personal bias, free from National prejudice and their verdict will be accepted by the Nations of the world.
Though I am an interested party I insist that my appeal is not altogether a personal one. In the interest of that deep-seated American sense of fair play, in the interest of National honor, in the interest of the glory of our flag, it would seem to be a National duty to have the distrust of the Polar attainment cleared by an International commission.
Respectfully submitted, (Signed) FREDERICK A. COOK To the President, The White House, Washington, D. C.
Thousands of requests similar to those reproduced below have gone to various officials in Washington. Such appeals demand action.
Chicago, May 7, 1913 Mr. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
Rear Admiral Peary wears the stripes of the Navy, he is drawing a pension of $6,000.00 per year from the tax-payers--The National dictates of honor compel such a man to be clean morally--honest and upright officially. Dr. Cook has publicly made charges against Peary which relegate this Naval Officer to the rank of a common thief and degenerate. In his book, "My Attainment of the Pole,"
(Mitch.e.l.l-Kennedy, N. Y.) there are specific charges made which call for an investigation. These charges have remained unanswered for three years--Why?
In the Polar controversy the flag has been dragged through muck, and this dishonor seems to rest upon a man for whose actions you are responsible.
The American people have a right to demand an investigation into the intrigue of the Peary Polar Propaganda, and as one believing in justice at the bar of public opinion, I ask that you take steps to clear this cloud in the eyes of the world.
Respectfully, FRED HIGH Editor of _The Platform_, The Lyceum and Chautauqua Magazine, Steinway Hall, Chicago.
Chicago, May 22, 1913.
To Congressman James R. Mann, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
The conquest of the North Pole has lifted the United States to a first position as a Nation of scientific pioneers. The controversy which followed is a blot on our flag and it is a slur at our National honor.
From the Government purse and from private resources we have spent millions to reach the top of the earth; it would appear therefore to be our duty as a Nation to adjust the Polar contention in the eyes of the world.
If Dr. Cook has reached the Pole, a year earlier than Peary, as most Arctic explorers believe, then the seeming endors.e.m.e.nt and the pension of the Naval officer is an injustice to Dr. Cook and an imposition on the public; if both have reached the Pole then there should be a suitable recognition and reward extended to each. As one of thousands of American citizens, I beg of you to forward a movement which will bring about a National investigation into this problem, with a suitable provision for a proper recognition.
Respectfully, CHARLES W. FERGUSON, Pres., The Chautauqua Managers a.s.sociation, Orchestra Bldg., Chicago.
CAN THE GOVERNMENT ESCAPE THE RESPONSIBILITY?
BY FRED HIGH
While the Danes were royally entertaining Dr. Cook on September 4th, 1909, telegrams were being showered upon him by all the world. The King of Sweden sent this message: