Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-31

6uL Il6T Three UlhStc1S UOlOAy Kept Oki
across the top of the world and made
Pole Loses Privacy.
This time the world felt that the
North Pole had at last lost some of its
esoteric privacy. Too many pairs of
human eyes had now looked down upon
it for there ever to hang about the
spot that fine cloak of mystery which
makes so much for the romance of geo.
graphical discovery.
The second leg, from the Pole to Bar
row, was somewhat more stimulating
than the first. 1t cut straight through
the great blank space on the map due
north of Alaska.
Wrote Ellsworth in describing his feel
ing as the Pole was left behind:
Ahead lay the biggest unexplored
area. What would it reveal-a lost
continent, island, or what? Although
we were weary from lack of sleep, these
questions animated every man aboard
to state Of constant watchfulness and
expectancy"
But, alas; they were doomed to dis
appointment.
Hour after hour passed." he went
on, "but there was only the same gilt
tering surface, rifted by wind and tide
into cracks and leads of open water +"
chaos Of broken ice fields and pres
sure ridges of ice blocks, upturned as if
giants had waged war with the polar
ice"
And yet the Norge did not cut a
Swath everywhere, for from time to time
she passed through thin vapQrs of frost
smoke that obscured the pack on either
side, and sometimes even that directly
below.
So it was that when Wilkins set forth
in the Summer Of 1928 to fly through
the southern edge of this unknown area,
from Barrow to Spitzbergen, there was
still hope that the new land might be
found therein. The flight eliminated
series Of misfortunes in previous
years. Its success was therefore all the
more glorious. 1t was piece of superb
navigation, aside from a perfect bit OF
plotting, that brought him and his in
! tiny island of Spitzbergen from over
the shoulder of the globe.
Continent Theory Secuted
Thus one of the two ambitions left
| flight-was fully successful. But the
second-that of exploring the great un-
known north of AlaSka-was only par
TALLY so. However, wilkins, as well as
those In the Norge, saw enough to make
1t sure that no large continent lies In
! that million miles of blank space or
the map, though there is enough left
still unseen to hide number of stable
| islands.
This. then, is the primary geograph-
ical work left to be done in the Polar
Seattle complete exploration of the
| unknown polar areas which still total
close to the original 100000 square
| miles.
In addition, there is the never-ending
search for abstract scientific knowledge
that must 60 on in the polar regions
tor many years to come. There is little
of romance to this latter work, and its
profit, If there be any, is far more likely
to accrue to future generations than to
ours
At present Fridtjof Nansen, dean OF
Arctic explorers, is in this country to
raise funds for a great international
Arctic expedition during the Spring OF
1880: He proposes to use the dirigible
| Graf Zeppelin, which visited this coun-
try last Summer. He win fly directly
to Spitzbergen and make a series of
flights back and forth across the polar
basin until 1t cannot be said that any
portion Of it remains unexpiored.
Eansen is the typical scientist in
that he keenly feels the urge to gather
'coSnic knowledge so long as mans
knowledge of nature is incomplete. His
IS the same spirit that animated Fara-
day and scores Of other early physicists
from whose obscure laboratories came
the abstract knowledge which we today
are using in our radios, our dynamos,
our airplanes, our X-rays, long after
the physicists are dead.
hansen Holds Study Vital.
Blind devotion of this sort in the
cause of truth is seldom understood and
never fully appreciated by material
public.
1T is of vital importance to study the
physical conditions in these northern
regions" says hansen. 1.-THE. circula-
ton of our atmosphere is due, mainly,
TO the heating of the air by solar radia-
ton in the warmer regions and its cool
ing in the colder ones, especially in the
polar areas. To try to discover the
laws governing the circulation of our
atmosphere without knowledge of the
polar regions and their physical condi-
lions is comparable, therefore, to the
action of man attempting to study
the laws by which water circulates in
the heating apparatus in house with
out knowing anything about the radia-
tors that emit the heat"
And he went on to add that we must
know these laws before we can put to
full use our meteorological systems that
must mean as much to commercial fly
ing as well as to many other forms Of
human activity.
A third great line of inquiry that
NanSen will follow will be that of a
transpolar air route-that is to say, a
short cut by air from Europe to Asia
across the North Pole.
Much has been written on this sub
ject, just as much was written and said
about the Suez and Panama Canals for
many decades before either was dug.
The facts are simple enough. America
is Europe's great trade rival. A regen-
Grated China and rapidly growing
Japan combine to make a market of
gigantic proportions. Europe must now
send its goods about LOCO miles to
reach the Orient. # line of dirigibles
or planes were operating across the
North Pole this distance would be cut
about 5000 miles.
Diversion of passenger service would
be even more certain. The business
warrior is a practical man. He is not
going to travel from New York to Chi
cage by way of Niagara Falls-unlesS,
perhaps, he Is on his honeymoon. Like
wise he will not cross two oceans and
the Isthmus of Panama when he, can
hop to his Far Eastern market in few
hours.
Military Value Is Cited.
Military facts are more simply por-
tentous. In war between the United
States and any European or Asiatic
power the polar air route must come to
play conspicuous part. We can block.
ade the seas. Sea travel is slow and
must move to and fro over more or less
definite lines. But could we in the
same way cut a myriad possible routes
across the Arctic waste, an area three
times the size Of a continent? Scarcely.
Contrary to rumor,' the climate DOGGY
ie MT eroi,1O RI, l1rny0 aYsv SORT ~ T1pr.