The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-23
DR. COOK RETURNS ID
 Ills NATIVE LAND Famous Arctic Traveller Ar rives in New York City GIVES OUT INTERVIEW Reporters Are Not Satisfied With Type written Statement Handed Out
 Hut Ply the Doctor With
 Questions
GIVES OUT INTERVIEW

New York, December 22.-Dr. Fred A, Cook came back to his native land today on the steamship George Wash ington as calmly as if there had never been a north pole controversy. He looked well and said little; in fact, a typewritten interview handed to re- porters embraced all he had to say ) with the exception of the necessary formalities of conversation thrust upon him by interviewers. Of far more dra- matic interest was heated controversy among the steamship passengers con- cerning the impression he had made upon them. The doctor still asserts that he believes he was at the pole. Here is his statement in part:
 Dr. Cooks Statement
 "I have no statement to make other than that which have carefully pre- pared and which Is now being pub Ilished. Any interview I might give would necessarily be fragmentary and doubtless misleading also, so I shall not now give out any interviews and any purporting to come from me will not be authorized. I spent weeks care- fully preparing my story and have fra nkly said In 1t all that there is 10 say. Every charge against me is taken up and answered in it's proper place in my narrative
 '.I will say, however, that I was in the United States less than a month ago. I arrived in Quebec on October 29, went to Troy, N. T., then to New burgh and Poughkeepsie. I was in the two last named cities about three weeks writing, revising and correcting proofs on my story. I registered .un- der an assumed name because I was very busy, too busy to receive my personal friends and newspaper men. No other precautions were taken to keep my presence concealed l stayed at leading hotels and took an auto mobile ride each day. I was in New burg most of the time. I left Pough- keepsie on the night of November 23, and went directly to Halifax, where I sailed for Europe on the same steam ship line, on the same steamer, and just a year from the time sailed from the same port when I left America in 1909.
 'a do not know what my plans for the future will be. I have no plans whatever for going on the lecture plat form. I have not returned to Amer lea with the intention of making money out of my Arctic experiences. Money did not prompt the writing of my story, as I have seen suggested in certain newspapers. As I have said, I have come back solely for the purpose of rehabilitating myself and my family by setting matters right with my coun- trymen."
 Views of Passengers
 The argument among the George Wash ine erfo xxyIn tha tors sympathizers aboard wished it un- derstood that he was received with no shadow of discrimination by other pas sengerS. His enemies wished 1t made clear that he had been summed. The minute the newspaper men, who had gone down the harbor on the revenue cutters, stepped into the saloon representatives of both sides descended on them. Persons who in ordinary circumstances dodge pub licity as they would the plague swooped down on the reporters and fairly button holed them in their eagerness to present their case first.
 The doctor himself was spared the em- barrassment of this hubbub. He met the reporters at the ladder when they boarded the ship, perfectly poised with a steady hand and clear, straightforward eye for all of them. It was the same Dr. Cook, a little less tanned and worn then when | same lock of hasr hanging down over the forehead the same reticent half smile atld the me stubby moustache.
 Tn half an hour, gentlemen. will have statement for you. Just make your selves at home in the ladies' saloon," he said, and led the way himself.
 >While the dispute in the ladies' saloon boiled more temperate-minded passengers elsewhere found time to tell without heat fNwt, +rf,, a1,Dav Bremen, they said, wearing full beard, but had 1t shaved off on the first day out. His name did not appear on the passenger list at first but was placed subsequently, Herr pr. Frederick A. Cook-on supple mental list issued. He was an unostenta- tious passenger, playing cards in the evenings with a few friends and neither seeking nor avoiding attention Once, when the toasts were going round before bedtime and 1t came his time to make it and it came his turn to name a health he was quick to propose the stars and stripes-a toast that none could refuse.
 Traveller Questioned
 The typewriter interview which the doctor put out did not satisfy the re- porters. They piled him with questions, but to almost all of them he parried: That has already been covered in the statement you have," or, "I shall answer that in full In the series of articles that is now being published"
 '"Then you will not submit to cross-ex- animation on what you have already pub lished?" he was asked.
 "No.'' said the doctor firmly, and then qualified It.
 At least not now, and only in my own time and way" he added
 "You have written this, doctor: After mature thought I confess that do not know absolutely whether I reached the pole or not do you believe that you did?'
 q still believe it."
 "Does your uncertainty at all extend to your ascent of Mt McKinley?' Not in the least l shall have a re- ply to make to Prof. Herchel C. Parker's latest attack on my ascent of Mt. Mo- Kinley in a few days-probably next Monday"
 Believed in Records
 Did you still believe in your records when you sent them to the University of Coper hagen?"
 'Oh, certainly"
 "Thcn, why did you call Capt. August w. Loose to aid you in compiling them?"
 That will be answered in the next in stallment."
 You have also written, doctor, Most positively and ernphatically I am not a thief. Most certainly there was no plan to hoax. the world to my own financial profit, but if you now admit doubt of