The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1909-09-24


lin OF the Arctic Club of America
at it's banquet at the Waldorf
Astoria, and in the presence of some
OF the most distinguished men known
to the scientific and geographical So
cletles of the nation, DR.. Frederic
COOK this evening made a most not
able speech. The explorer made but
the slightest reference to the stric-
lures made by Commander Pearv and
MS friends upon him, but his remark
that explorers could not tell before
nand what they intended to do when
they started out upon a quest. and
then, If successful, the world could
learn all there was to know, was re-
ceived with hearty applause by the
men assembled about the festaI board.
The banquet, while ostensibly the
regular affair of the club, was really
designed in honor of the explorer OF
the pole, and Dr. Cook was the orator
of the day.
DR.. Cook said:
"This is one of the highest honors
ever hope to receive. You reDre-
sent much of the frigid explorers of
1oA OPO o1d ACdl ly oil OI CQ6 ATCC1C
explorers of America. Your welcome
is the explorers guarantee to the
World-coming as it does from fellow
workers, from men who know and
nave gone through the same expert
ence-it is an appreciation and a VIC
tory the highest which could fall to
the lot of any returning traveller. The
key to the frigid zone endeavor is
sustenance. There is nothing in the
entire realm of the Arctic which is
impossible to man. If the animal
fires are supplied with adequate fuel
there is no cold too severe and no
obstacle too great to surmount. No
important expedition has ever return
ed because of unscalable barriers or
impossible weather. The exhausted
food supply resulting from a limited
means of transportation has turned
every aspirant from his goal. In the
ages of the polar quest much had been
tried and much has been learned. The
most important lession is that civil
lied man, if he will succeed, must bend
to the savage simplicity necessary.
'The problem belongs to modern
man but for it's execution we must
begin with the food and the means
transportation of wild man. Even this
must be reduced and simplified.
"Candor compels me to say that the
effort of getting to the pole is not
question of physical endurance and
it is not fair to call it bravery, but
an understanding of the needs of the
stomach and knowledge of the limits
of the brute force of the motive power,
be that man or beast.
"Our conquest was only possible
with the accumulated lessons of early
ages of experience. The failures of
our less successful predecessors were
stepping stones to our success. The
real pathfinders of the pole were the
early Danish, the Dutch, the English
and Morse, Italian and American ex-
plorers. With these worthy forerun-
ners we must therefore share the good
fruits which your chairman has put
in my basket
"a similar obligation is due to the
wild man. The twin families of wild
folk the Eskimo and the Indian, were
important factors to us. The use OF
pemmican and the snowshoe which
makes the penetration of the Arctic
mystery barely possible has been bor-
rowed from the American Indian. The
method of travel, the motor force, and
the native ingenuity, without which
the polar quest would be a hopeless
task, have been taken from the Es-
kimo. To save man, therefore. who
has no flag, we are bound to give
part of this fruit.
"To John r. Bradley-the man who
paid the bills-belongs almost one
half of this fruit.
"The Canadian government sent its
expedition under Captain Bernier
900 miles out of it's course to help
us; to it, gladly pass the basket. In
returning, shriveled skin and with
cred muscles were filled out at the
expense of Danish hospitality. And
last, but not least, the reception with
open arms by fellow explorers you
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