Show DR DL i COOK OK DENOUNCED BY b j IVAL WJ 1 L WELLMA q I V 5 l lr i I r 4 I 4 c I S i 7 iT I WALTER WELLMAN SAYS STORY IS NOT TRUE Noted Arctic Explorer De Declares Declares clares dares That Cooks Tale Is Vague and Indefinite and Too Precise at Wrong Place DASH FOR THE LECTURE PLATFORM MADE QUICKLY Scoffs at Cooks Astronomical Data and Says That With a Nautical Almanac He Could Make Observations at WilL TRAVELED TOO SWIFTLY Washington Nov 28 Walter Wellman whose preparations for a conquest of the North Pole in an air airship airship airship ship were abandoned upon the an announcement announcement announcement of the claims of Dr Frederick A Cook and Commander Robert E Peary tonight issued a along along along long statement in which he analyzes the narratives of the two explorers declaring that of Peary precise workmanlike consistent credible in every particular and denouncing that of Dr Cook as a and andi an even deliberate imposture Cooks story is suspicious both in what it i does tell and what it does not tell Mr Wellman declares He is generally vague and indefinite but hut like most men of his class altogether I too precise at the wrong place Nowhere does his story ring true It Itis Itis Itis is always an approximation of ot reality Itself This Is true of his gure his Ills descriptions s of everything Those of us who have Had fad a share in arctic work and w wh have felt anxiety that no blot of fraud frau should stain the proud record of ot efforts e and ad sacrifice had a first hope that Dr Cook would be able to demonstrate his good faith I This has dissolved in analysis of ot his I story A second hope that he was the I victim of some hallucination or mental illness Ulness and himself believed he bad had been to the pole though of or course he heI I has not vanishes hes In tIle light of earlier and subsequent events There remains though one says It with keenest regret only the wretched alternative that the tha journey which he ho did make and the tha report which he gave of it ft were deliberately deliberately deliberately planned from the outset ou et The gist of ot Mr finding Is la lathat that with his meagre party and equip equipment equipment equipment ment Dr Cook could not possibly havo have accomplished the feat teat for which he claims credit that his astronomical data are too minutely precise to have been made under the claimed conditions in the field and that the explorers dash for the lecture and his ac ao acceptance of crowns of flowers placed upon his head by Innocent women and children before submitting his field rec records records records to scientific examination all aU con conspire conspire conspire spire to his discredit Sledging Is a Science Mr Wellman first attacks Cooks Ccok story of his journey He points out that arctic sledging is not a new ven yen venture venture ture nor an experiment but has been reduced almost to a science He pro proceeds proceeds to the proposition that the first thing to be done In advancing over the ice fields is the reduction to the mint mini minimum mum of or food and fuel tuel and secondi the organization of supporting parties that can be sent back from the dwindling dwindling ling main body until the few who are hardiest enter on the final struggle to the goal Mr lIr Wellman takes up a comparison of the supposed sup n ed achievements of Peary Pear and Ck He quotes from records to show that the former fonner took his ship to within miles of the pole advancing supplies and his party miles closer in the tho autumn and spring Cook Took he points out started from geographical mlle miles from the pole and went geographical g miles westward before turning northward according to his hi own story Peary Wellman continues mapped out his plans carefully for the advance adane and started with fifty or sixty men dogs and sledges He Hs Continued on Page Three |