The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-04-04
TO FLOAT AT POLE.
OUR FLAG FIRST FOR THE Elk
IRENE NORTH.
Evelyn Baldwin's Pans to Make n Dash
70 the North Pole--He VIII Take the
franz Josef Land Route -Exuiorer,x
Confidence. =

Inc vessel chosen by Evelyn B.
BALDWIN for his proposed dash to the
north pole has been named the Am
erica. The expedition will be distinct
ly American. If the dauntless captain
VINO mas quietly and unostentatiously
oeVotea many months to preliminary
study and investigation before en-
barking upon what he feels will be
the voyage of his life, in more senses
than one, reaches his goal at latitude
~ degrees north and stands on the
spot beneath the north star, where
lhere is neither east nor vest it will
De the stars and stripes which will
there be first unrolled and frozen. Mr..
BALDWIN is now in Washington re-
crultlng the party for his expedition
says the Chicago Chronicle His idea
OF polar exploration is diametricaljy
opposed to that of Lieutenant Pearv
SO lar as the personnel of such a party
10 concerned. feary has said the
greater the party the greater the dan
ger OF accident, and necessarily of de-
lay. Wo men, the right two men,
can go north over the ice faster and
iarther than 2,C00," he is said to have
asserted. Baldwin thinks that polar
exploration is like any exploration,
ana that in the union of a moderate
number OF strong, active, hardy men,
there is greater strength. He admits
however, that like a war fleet. such
party is only SO strong and SO fast
DIS lts weakest and slowest member
lhere Will be about thirty in the Bald
"ln-Alegier expedition, but there VIII
pe none but the hardest. Mr. Bald
WIN mas been very reticent in regard
TO MS plans. After his return from a
three months visit in Europe to
gather information of all sorts" as
ne sad when he started out, he would
make no definite disclosures in regard
to the plan which the expedition had
adopted. 1t was only through the an
ilouhcement OF Capt. Bernier, who has
oeen chosen TO lead a Canadian OK
pedllon, that he was CONSIDERING an
overland voyage by sledge from Franz
josef Land, that it became known that
the FRANZ josef Land route had been
CHOSEN by Mr.. Baldwin. The English
and Scotch newspapers, in comment
ing upon Begnier's change OF plan.
cehsured the Canadian captain most
severely for what they termed an en-
| cfoachment on the declared plans of
the Baldwin-liegler expedition. Since
inns statement it has transpired that
MI. Baldwin, after long and careful
study OF all the known charts of ocean
currents, has decided to ALLOW the Am
| erica to be frozen Into the drift ice
( somewhere in the neighborhood of
hlGiz Josef Land. The explorer has
confidence which amounts almost to
| certainty IN his mind that the shin
VIII sooner or iatar ba swept across
the unknown seas within strjkjna die
| lance of the pole. Mr. Baldwin hav-
Ing settled in his mind the quesyiyl
OF reaching the pole, is now possessed
| by fear that Lieut. Peary will get
there before him.
The long list of efforts, wish their
recorded failures or only partial sue
cess, is sure to arouse doubts in the
minds of even the most sanguine as to
the ultimate success of the Baldwin
ziegler expedition in reaching the
long sought goal, but it is striking
commentary upon the character OF
Mr.. Baldwin that those who know
him most intimately, and have dis
cussed his plans with him with great
est care place implicit faith in the ex-
petition to do all that is possible to
man.