Part 55 (1/2)

”A BRILLIANT DEED, OF WHICH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAY RIGHTLY BE PROUD.”

The American minister to Denmark made Dr. Cook's visit state business and joined in the effort to share Cook's honors. Dr. Cook paused in the midst of all this splendor to cable the following message to our President:

Copenhagen, Sept. 4, 1909.

President, The White House, Was.h.i.+ngton.

I have the honor to report to the chief magistrate of the United States that I have returned, having reached the North Pole.”

To which President Taft cabled the following reply:

Beverly, Ma.s.s., Sept. 4, 1909.

Frederick A. Cook, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Your dispatch received. Your report that you have reached the North Pole calls for my heartiest congratulations, and stirs the pride of all Americans that this feat which has so long baffled the world has been accomplished by the intelligent energy and wonderful endurance of a fellow countryman.”

WILLIAM H. TAFT.

Was President Taft speaking for the American people when he called Dr.

Cook's achievement the pride of all Americans? Were we ready to share Cook's joys? Share his honors? If so, then in all fairness, should we not share in his trials and tribulations? Are we like the crazy base ball fan who cheers a pitching hero when he wins and insults him with all kinds of vile epithets when he loses?

For one I shared in that thrill of pride and was glad to know that I had had dealings with Dr. Cook before he went in search of the Pole, consequently, I felt in honor bound to withhold any hasty criticisms that I might feel tempted to hurl at Dr. Cook. All who joined in his praises should insist upon it that he be given a chance to disprove every charge that has been brought against him, that he be given a chance to explain his every act before we join in the cry to crucify him. ”Crucify him, or give us the most contemptible coward, moral leper and political crook that has lived in our time,” if Dr. Cook's charges are true.

Believing that this is a matter that ought to be fairly settled by competent and orderly methods, I have written to several congressmen and senators, and the following correspondence speaks for itself:

Chicago, Illinois, May 7, 1913.

Hon. Wooda N. Carr, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

Dear Sir:

I wish to ask a personal favor of you, one that I think the public is interested in and one that I think the world ought to know more about.

It is the Cook-Peary controversy. I have given this considerable thought and study. I have heard Dr. Cook lecture a number of times and have talked to him personally and tried to find out from every angle the facts as to whether or not his story is true. So far I have been unable to find a flaw in any of his statements, and Mr. Peary by his actions has given every evidence that Dr. Cook is telling the truth.

Therefore, as a citizen who is interested in the larger affairs of this country, and as the editor of The Platform, which is devoted to the Lyceum and Chautauqua movement, I am asking whether or not it would be compatible with fair play and our sense of justice and real national dignity to take this controversy out of the hands of individuals and settle it by an official tribunal, or by a commission of arctic explorers.

I shall be very glad, indeed, if you will inform me of what steps could best be taken to bring about the settlement of this controversy.

If there are any authoritative facts developed along this line, I will be glad to know where to locate them as my sole object is to learn the truth.

Under separate cover I am sending you copy of The Platform which contains Doctor Cook's letter to President Wilson, which I hope you will read.

Yours very truly, (Signed) FRED HIGH.

House of Representatives, U. S.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., May 13, 1913.

Mr. Fred High, 602 Steinway Hall, Chicago, Ill.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 7th inst., regarding the Cook-Peary controversy, received. I do not think it would be possible to get Congress to interfere in this matter. It is a question of little concern to many who discovered the Pole, or whether it was discovered at all. It seems to be a personal matter, the settlement of which should be determined by the persons interested.