Imperial Valley press., 1912-12-14
National Geographic Dinner

tory OF banquet giving will take place
H.: Washington the evening of January
IL, when the National Geographic So
P! ciety will give its eighth annual ban
quet. Here the intrepid Amundsen and
the undaunted Peary, the two men who
conquered every obstacle that had
thwarted generations of explorers and
discovered the north and the south
lpOleS, will meet in the presence of
the members of the organization from
many parts of the country, one as the
guest of honor and the other as The
|traStmaster of the evening. Never be-
fore in the history of dinner giving has
such a thing taken place, and it is
only recently that such an event has
been possible. Norway and the United
States will jointly celebrate the splen-
did achievements of their gallant ex-
plorers whom the perils of eternal cold,
perpetual snow and never disappearing
ice could not battle in the quest Of
the poles.
This is not the first time that Capt
Roald Amundsen has been honoered by
the National Geographic Society. De-
cember ii, 1907, he was awarded the
| ISOciety'S gold medal-One of The rarest
trophies in all geographic honors for
| the discovery Of the northwest passage
He will now be awarded special gold
medal for his achievements in south
polar exploration, and it will be placed
| in his hands by the man who has
stood at the other end of the earth
| himself medaliSt of This organize
tion. Many hundreds of society mem
bers. the president of the United States,
| the members Of the cabinet. The jus
| tices Of the supreme court. the diplo-
matte corps. members Of the senate
| and house of representatives represent
ing the sOciely's membership in every
state and territory and Il number nf
foreign @eographers will witness his
unique ceremonial.
| The National Geographical Society
| is forum from which many Of the
worlds greatest achievements have
been first officially proclaimed in Amer
lea. Here came Shackleton to tell of
his approach to the south pole. Here
came Peary to tell of his conquest of
! the almost insuperable difficulties thai
| lay between civilization and the north
lpoie. Here came Roosevelt to relate
the story of his great expedition into
| Africa. No matter how great has been
his ach h;evement or how full his name
as result, no discOVerer or geOgra-
pher has not felt hOnored by an invi-
tation from the National Geographic
ciety to tell Of his work under the aus
pices of the society.
| And well it might be 50. for to-
day the National Geographic Society
is the most extensive in its member
| ship and the richest in its scientific
projects and resources among all the
| geographic organizations, of the world.
| With membership of i65. 900 rcsid-
ing in all parts of America and reach
ng to all parts of the world. no 9th ar
organization anywhere nearly ap-
| prUdchcs il II that respect: and with
| q sinking fund Of nearly two hundred
| thousand dollars. a fund That does not
| tat MT hn off nf ,.l
hut the contribution of thousands and
| tens of thousands of American citizens
| who thus testify their interest in geo.
| graphic matters. no other Organza-
| ton approaches it in the character Of
| endowment
Next year the society will celebrate
| the first quarter century Of its exist
| cnGe, and Il great effort is being made
| to- bring the total membership up TO
100000 by that time. Growing "A
thousand fold in 23 years is an achieve
| ment Of which any organization might
he proud, whatever its character or its
| aims. And, if the National Geographic
Society reaches its coveted 100000
| mark next year, it will have grown 4
| thousand fold in 25 years, for when
it was organized in 1888 it had about
| 200 members.
The society was not always the pop =
! ular geographic organization that it is
today. At its beginning it was a So
ciety of technical geographers. Els
membership had not yet come TO real
iZe that il 5 not only the technical
geOgrapher who has a deep and abid-
| ing interest in the world we live in.
They had not come to understand that
there are hundreds of thousands Of
people who have as deep an interest
in geography as they, and that the in
terest Of other hundreds of thousands
might be quickened. Neither had they
realized that the people of the nation
u ara paodv IN focfifx- IN osr iptaracf in