The evening times., 1899-08-21
Polar FooIishness.

Another expedition is search OF the North
Pole has failed. In this case there was GER
tainly reasonable hope of success. Walter
WeIlman was a man of some experience,
great determination, and much imagination;
he had picked men and a good equipment.
He returns disappointed. as have all who
went before him-if they returned at all.
The argument of these explorers seems TO
be that it will be triumph of science and
human enterprise-German, English, Nor
wegian, or Americana the pole is reach
ed. But TO the thoughtful ii may seem
that there are other scientific triumphs
more TO be desired than this particular one
The pole has existed in lonely seif-suffl-
cheney since the birth of time. 1t can well
afford to wait for few hundred or few
thousand years more before receiving the
greeting of any son of man. When it is
found it viii be of no especial benefit to
humanity. There are other things TO which
the attention of scientific men might be
turned, which would prove of inestimabie
value TO the race.
What We really need is living interest
in scientific methods applied to known re-
gions, which are suffering from the bar
barism of a plutocratic greed. Govern
ments might well spend money in saving
forests doomed to destruction, in preserv-
ing animals rapidly becoming extinct, in
studying the characteristics and customs
OF vanishing tribes of savages, in making
the temperate and tropical zones fit for
man to inhabit. Suppose the money spent
in attempting TO discover the North Pole
had been spent in trying to abolish ma
laria?
| One of the crying needs of this country
at present is the preservation of our for
ests. Yearly the Adirondacks are ravaged
/ by forest fires; yearly the vast forests of
/ the North are being ruthlessly cut away
by ignorant and unscrupuious lumber deal
ers; daily, before the eyes of an indignant
people, the grand Palisades of the Hudson
, are being reduced to mass of shapeless
ruins This country is suffering economi-
cslly, physically. and esthetically from the
determined rapacity of few men who de-
sire to heap up dollars for themselves, that
they may enjoy what they call wealth. 1t
/ is time that science and government Joined
hands 10 stop this thing. Future genera
tions will curse the men who destroyed the
q, forests and dried up the rivers, and gave
the country once watered by abundant
| streams a climate of frost and scorching
heat, alternating with capricious irregular
ity. They will say that the people who
allowed the Palisades to be destroyed and
the most beautiful regions of the earth to
be desecrated were barbarians. If they dc
not hold this opinion, they themselves will
be degenerates.
There are hundreds of things which sci
ence may do for the good of mankind. and
for which money, time, determination
skill, and patience are needed; things fol-
which governments might well grant
money and honors. The scientific man is
the hero of this century. Ii is he who has
alleviated pain, cured disease, secured to
the poor innumerable comforts which were
! once only TO be had by the rich, bridged
| rivers, tunneled mountains built cities
made the sea a highway. All these things
have come TO the world of today through
the agency OF the man who studies the
laws OF matter. And it does seem as il
some of them We're more glorious than the
discovery of little, barren spot of the
| earth's surface, hemmed in by ice and Sc
cured against intrusion by barriers of fear
full cold.