Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-13
Alistellanruus 8eading.
PEARY IN CLOSE PLACE.
Naval Affairs Committee of the House
DeveIons Interestino Facts.

Naval Affairs Committee of the House
Develops Interesting Facts.
Admitting that the north pole is just
as much lost as ever and that all fu-
ture attempts to find it must be inde-
pendent enterprises unaided by his own
work, Capt. Robert E. Peary, the Arc
tic explorer, answered a cross-fire OF
questions at a hearing before the house
committee on naval affairs last Tues
| day. He told how he wanted the glory
of the polar achievement for himself
declining to let any member Of his ex-
pedtion, other than the negro Henson,
| go on the last dash with him; how his
publishing contracts had precluded
him from testifying before the COM
mittee last spring and how members
of his expedition had been prohibited
from writing about the trip.
Capt. Peary was asked to throw
light on why, as naval officer, he
made no report to the navy depart
ment. Mr.. Roberts asked him If II
was not customary for an officer 10 re-
| port on matters for which he was de-
tailed. Capt. Peary said he had made
some report to the coast and geodetic
survey and had advised the navy de-
| partment of that fact. 1t was his i'm
preston that the superintendent of the
survey had made report to the navy.
| l,,,
said there was a letter Of his on file
somewhere asking secrecy for his writ
ten report to the survey as to sound
| ings, etc.
why, being detailed to get certain
information for the government, did
you ask the government not to use this
| information until later?" insisted Mr.
| Roberts.
II would rather not give the infor-
nation except to the committee" re-
piled Capt. Peary, who objected to tes-
tifying in the presence Of newspaper
representatives. He was given permits
sion to file his reason in writing.
why did you not take white men,
bers of your party with you on the
final stage of your trip northward, so
that they might be creditable corro-
borative evidence?" asked Represen-
tative Roberts of Massachusetts,.
IN this first place." replied Capt.
| Peary, II have always made the final
| squirt, with one exception, when Lee
was with me, with one man and the
Eskimos, because the man took with
me (Henson) was more effective for
combined demands of extended work
than any white man. The pole was
| something to which 1 have devoted my
| life, for which 1 had gone through such
hell as l hope no man in this room will
ever experience and 1 did not feel that
| | should divide it with a young man
| who had not the right to it, that had
Capt Peary was asked by Mr.. Rob-
erts If any injunction Of secrecy had
been made as to what members OF the
expedition might say. He replied that
members of his party were not free TO
| write or to lecture after their return
except with his written permission, eX-
planning that they were paid for their
services. Mr.. Macon of Arkansas, in
terpected that Capt. Peary was also
paid for his services through the salary
paid him as naval officer.
Capt. Peary, replying to repeated
questions as to the results of his Arc
tic trip, said that he had not yet pre-
pared such a chart as would enable
any one to follow in his footsteps to
the pole, but he imagined" that he
had data by which he could prepare
such a chart He said the position of
the north pole could be determined just
the same as the equator, but the trou-
BILE was the comparative low altitude
of the sun, which never gets higher
than %! degrees above the horizon
For that reason ordinary observations
could not be relied on with accuracy.