Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-04-16

rapher as the ideal type OF a sentie-
man. whereupon this Southern lady
became exceedingly wrathy, ana ue-
nounced Commander Peary with
wealth of invective which is not USUAL
L., found outside of the torrid zone.
So far as Governor Brown VI
Georgia is concerned his attltuue ~
chara ctcristlc of the man, VINO Is VI
exceedins:y small c4libre Il cheap anu
narrow tigpt '!'l;s man can see h'
good coming ont ut the North ana
looseS no opportunity to peil'''' '''''
disparage the men Of TINS sec''o'''
Had Commander Peary been " 'oo"'i
ern man l,e would have had no more
ardent aulliirer than TINS Sdii'c N'o'
crnur Rrnvn It is unfortunate that
a man with these little narrow sec
tioual prejudices should pe III tiie en-
ecutiv.. office of a great state, but such
iq ,;ooreia.s misfortune. At first GER
tain very much prejudiced men on the
Committee on Naval Affairs in the
H,tiup,I House were disposed to de
,,.,L that Peary submit his proofs
tn thn University Of Copenhasen'
Apparently there was no reason for
,bis except tie fact that faker Cook.
in order TO gain delay while he Went
uoon tic lecture platform. had seen
at to tic I'D his records III Denmark
After while it daWned upon these
light weights of the naval committee
that they would make mistake IN
assuming this attitude, and they
then demanded that these proofs be
submitted to them and they would
either pass upon them themselves OF
select a commission to do this work.
They made d great handle of this
and unfortunately the general public
did not understand Solnc of the facts
that we're behind this demand The
committee, controlled as it is by the
naval bureaucrats at the National
Cn1ital. has shown itself anything but
friendly to Commander Peary. No
one suppcses for one moment that any
one Of those men has any special
qualifications to pass upon the rec
ords of a polar expedition. 1t was
suggested that this cornmitte" would
appoint q commission to do the work
for them, and the names mentioned at
the Capital for this commission were
Admiral Schley. who was the last man
to desert the Cook cause, and Com
mander Greeley. who wrote the intro
duCtion to Cooks book. with another
third member of the expedition equally
fair co to Commander Peary. OF
course all this was d mere cheap,
subterfugc to turn down
an American who had Won enduring
honorS for his country. 1t was the
nimsieSt kind of an excuse. All the
world knows that when Pcary returned
home he brought his proofs directly
to the American Geographical Society,
the recognized authority Oh cXplora =
ton in this country. These records
were scrupulously AMI thoroughly ex-
amned by a competent committee Of
this society which established beyond
question the fact that Commander
Pearv had discovered the pole. With
the weight of Sucll an endorsement
given him from the proper source
from which such an endorsement
should come to any American explorer
Commander Peary could not in de-
c.ncy lave been asked to submit these
same proofs to u committee of Con-
grcss. especially as he was restrained
from making his records public
through a binding contract which he
had entered into with his publishers.
We trust that in spite Of the actor
of the Naval Committee Commander
Pea,y's case may yet get upon the
know that there are many Americans
in that body who stand ready to show
deserve. and We believe that if his
case Shal! come TO . vote there he
members.