The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-01-29
Editorial Comment
Amundscn, Cook and Pcary
New York Times)


No fault can be found with Captain Amundser
for visiting DR.. Cook in prison. The fact that the
man there after series of impostures ending
in crime did not destroy the claims and impulses
of old friendship Amundscn found DIR. Cook "old
and about worn out. He told me he was happy
and was doing needlework for pastime. What
a pity" This speaks we'll for Captain Amund
sens heart, but the real pity is that he is quoted
as tying to the verdict of history and OF
science, and tc maintain that DR.. Cooks claim tc
have discovered the North Pole is as we'll founded
as Admiral Pcary's. This can only make the
judicious greve and the learned world gasp in as.
constituent.
Captain Amndsen recalls not only his own for
mer travels in company with Dr. Cook whom he
found SO agreeable companion, but the fact that
he was in Copenhagen at the time when Dr. Cook
arrived there with what President Taft, with
judicial caution called the Assertion that he had
reached the North Pole. Amundsen declared it
impossible for him to believe that DR.. Cook was
faker. But another gentleman journeyed to Copen-
hagen a few years later and said to our Minister
there, Mr.. Maurice Egan: "Egan, if had been
Minister here when DR.. Cook arrived should have
done the same thing that you did, but knew all
along that he was faker." The man who said
this was Theodore Roosevelt
The truth is that what he knew, the world-or
at least every man in it capable of weighing evil
dence - came to know, Dr. Cooks pretensions were
net sifted in corner. They were examined by
scientific societies, tested by other explorers, SUBJ
mitted to the closest scrutiny in the press, chal-
lenged and denied by newspapers in form which
would have enabled him, had he had case fit for
trial and dared to press libel SUITS to recover large
sums in damages, with the result that his defense
broke down and he became object of derision
and contempt throughout the world. For Capta1i,
Amundsen now to endeavor to rewrite that long
melancholy record Of attempt to deceive is SIM
ply amazing. 1t will make his best friends anxious
to know what can have suddenly impaired his judg
ment and rendered an ordinarily reticent man SO
foolishy volube.
Dr. Cook. but it was and almost unforgivablc
Ter him in the same breath to try t, scredit Peary
The latter's claim to have attained the North Pole
was subjected to the same searching ordeal as DR..
Cocks, with the difference that Peary came ont
everywhere triumphant and acclaimed. His proofs
were accepted conclusive. He brought back
with him actual records, day-by-day astronomical
observations, net the incoherent. ottings which the
Danish scientists declared to be unintelgible and
which Dr. Cook afterward sought secretly to bolste.
up by purchased falsfcations Besides this differ
ence in scientific evidence, there was the great moral
gulf which separated Peary from Dr. Cook. II was
case OF 9 man OF lifelong integrity pitted against
man who had been exposed in one gross impos-
ture after another. That Captain Amundsen could
have ignored this vital distinction between the two
men passes belief. Happily. his utterances can at
this day do no harm tc the fair fame Of .Admirsa
Feary They can iniurs only himself. ". 81 Y