Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-13
AMUNDSEN STICKS AT IT

LIVERY true lover of sportsmanshir
- and adventure will wish the best
of luck to Roald Amundscn. the hnunt
the Tcril of the ice in his attempt 10
reach the North Pole.
With the discovery of the South Pole
and the North Magnetic Pole already to
his credit, and with the added fact that
h" is an independently wealthy man.
Oh" wruli naturally think that he wrld
be content TO settle down in case and
hOnors he has already won.
But Amundsen is Of the stuff of the
ancient Vikings and tho life of ease is
not to his liking.
There is just one reservation that
Americans may justly make in their
good wI.n's to him. Some time ago he
va, credited with a statement tending
70 throw some doubt upon the validity
Of Pearv's claims 70 having reached the
North Pole. 1t is most sincerely to be
hoped that he will not. upon his return
to civilization. start a controversy that
cGn result in no good
The Cook fiasco has not yet been
forgotten BY those vino are interested
in polar exploration. The Norwegians
were the first to dispute Cook claims.
and probably for this very reason the
Danes ~"claimcd the pretcnder and de-
Tended him valiantly. No two nations
of the earth are more jealous of each
other than the Danes and tho Nor
wegianS.
Some NorwCgianS today will not
admit that Scott. that intrenid Eng
lishmap. ever reached tho South Pole.
Yet when SCOTS body was found,
frozen and starved beside the bodies of
his two companions in their tent on the
ice of the Great Barrier. his diaries and
notes gave full descriptions of the cairn
mark and instruments and papers left
at the Pole by Amundsen.
This diary, one Of the most tragic
human documents in existence. fully and
freely admits that the NOrwegians got
there first, and it tells in graphic, terse
sentences the keenness Of the disap-
pointmcnt that the English party suf-
fered after their terrible experiences on
that awful 700 mile trek over the ice
and up the Beardmoro Glacier to the
Pole. only to find that they had been
forestalled by the SCandnavians whom
they had seen on the edge Of the Ear
ri"r at the beginning of the summer.
Amunds"n won Scott and four of his
companions paid with their lives 70;
the privilege OF proving that they had
been beaten by their rival; but they did
not whimp"r or try to prove that the
Pole was somewhere else than where
AmuRdscn located il. They admitted
that their OWE ,ghts proved that the
Norwegian was light.
In the case Of he South Pole. such n
location as this is permanent and al.
WAYS subject 10 further investigation
because tho lower end Of the carth's
axis is located upon mountain some
$500 feet un"vc the level Of the sen.
But the North Pole is floating ice.
No permanent mark ran be placed there.
for the ice is always drifting. Amund
sen may come back and claim that
Peary never got there. but it will be
impossible for him to prove it and such
controversy would do no one any
good.
Peary's claims rest upon the unani-
nous approval Of scientific men who
have exhaustively examined all OF his
records and proofs and found them
nawless. II is too late now to lessen
the fame Of man who certainly sacri-
feed enough and endured enough to
ontitlo him to his share of the glory
of the north.