| Show er A b ut EN F 77 7 G polz 5 0 ae fc KA by PROEHL HALLER JAKLON UY do men risk their lives la in hazardous expeditions to the polar regions Is 14 there anything to be ba gained other than the satisfaction of their curiosity and the lure oll ob ad adventure which justifies to any P OL p reasonable degree the unending hardships they suffer not to mention the enormous costs involved and the long months of tion and study necessary even before a start Is made most of us regard a polar dash as a spectacular stunt full of thrills for the few who engage in it and anxiety and unea uneasiness sines tor for those who remain at home the use of exploring and charting new territory whose area is more than a mil fall lion square miles if this land Is only to be found burled buried under tons of ice centuries old it Is obvious ho however we ver with three costly expeditions planned and one already in the field that there Is some sound reason behind all this ef effort fort something more important than the charting of that spot on the map which now Is a blank marked unknown area fron from john tilghman rowland fellow of the american amerl an geographical society writing in the new york herald tribune comes some very logical reasons concerning the importance of 0 polar exploration he believes that we who live in north america have a vital interest in these great adventures A hundred yeam from now he it Is not unlikely that historians will view these expeditions lu in the same light that we now regard the epochal voyages of the fifteenth but and I 1 sixteenth centuries when columbus and magellan as aa well as many other daring navigators discovered covered dla those more temperate parts of the earth paved the way for colonization and thus changed the history 0 of the world we must realize that the age we live in is an age of rapid transportation both of persons and things aad and ideas distances have been annihilated by mans ingenuity and journeys which not so were reckoned in days day 3 and weeks are ion long g ago now thou thought gilt of 1 in n terms of hours and days it took our forefathers thirty days to cr cross oss the at itic we speed across lt today ay in from five to seven even days in luxurious luxoria us ocean palaces or hop across in an fill airplane plane in less than two days the barriers between nations have been broken down and man finds the world today a wilch much am smaller iller place than the world of yesterday now mr rowland asks us ua to glance for or a mo ment at the above map which although not drawn accurately to scale 90 will serve our purpose do you notice how all the countries of the northern hemisphere are grouped around the arctic ocean theres russia siberia and canada facing each other across the diameter or of the arctic ocean ordinarily WO we think of 0 them as aa being widely separated the up tip of alaska nearly touches siberia norway find and sweden by this route find fad themselves not at all so BO distant from rom the far east as they have hitherto supposed its ita realty just a hop over that part of the horizon which lies lie under the pontoons pon of the larger airplane in the above picture thus the arctic ocean to truly a new mediterranean geologically as old as time but strikingly new as ft a factor in the affairs of men on this ocean europe asia aela and america all have frontage which if the climate of 0 the arctic were reverted reversed would have been bordered long ago with thriving cities cloea and chipping centers centera imagine this ocean tree free of ice so BO that it offered no obstacles to the passage of ships immediately new trade routes would be opened vessels both freight and passenger which now ply between european ports and those of asia via the suez and panama canals or around the cape of good hope plowing through endless miles of the worlds widest oceans would take a new shortcut short abort cut across the top of the world sailing northward between greenland and spitsbergen they would steam quickly across some place not far from the pole and descend into the behring strait after hold ing their course southward for a few days they would reach the ports of korea china and japan enormous in fuel time find and distance would be effected not to mention the item of fuel economy short lines of communications would spring up also between canada and russia alaska and norway and northwestern europe and siberia the arctic ocean would be alive with ships and those nations would realize that their arctic coasts were by b far the most important they possessed this mr rowland nl says would mean not only commercial but military readjustments on a huge scale for in the future whoever controlled that ocean would hold the key to world trade of 01 course nobody expects the climate ot of the arctic to undergo tills this radical change but there Is the possibility however that within a relatively short time we shall produce ships of a kind that will recognize no ouch euch barrier as the arctic offers tor for the good reason that ice Is no obstacle to a ship navigating the air we have the assurance of aviation experts that polar air routes are feasible and that such flights can be made if someone will explore the entire arctic basin and find out in particular the nature of the great unexplored area this done we can expect the day when giant planes will fly from engano to japan in forty eight hours such a trip would require a speed of not more than miles an hour how can this unknown area be explored northward from alaska in the center of the arctic ocean lies a million square miles of territory the nature of which we know nothing the arctic ice bars ban out ships dog teams cannot cross it for the distances are too great here and there the edges have been scratched by our adventurous explorers explore ra who have been forced to admit that this mighty area defies penetration the one remaining way to conquer this region Is through the air two years ago the chances against the airplane were heavy but today with better steering instruments improved planes and motors and a better knowledge of arctic conditions the chances are strongly in favor of the air rout conditions most favorable for the flight are found in the early spring the day Is twenty four hours long thick snow underneath instead of melted snow and open water affords adequate landing fields and in april and early may the arctic air Is less obscured with fog than at any other time of year what explorers want most to find in this unknown area Is solid belld earth it land la Is there and it it offers safe landing places for aircraft its discovery will be an event of worldwide world wide imo importance ortance it will permit the establishment of supply bases lighthouses and radio stations to guide the pilots of kofl future air liners linen with fuel and food near at hand no airship ever would be more than a few hours from help in this polar desert and the risk of such travel would be cut in half those who have visited the arctic tire are inclined to believe that such auch land exists they have watched the behavior ot of tides idea and currents in the polar basin which would indicate the presence pre tence of 0 land they have seen been migratory birds fly straight out to sea just before their nesting season and disappear over the tar far horizon discovery of land there would have an important tant military significance station a fleet of speedy bombing planes upon the new land and they would command an international area alaska and northwestern canada would be completely at their mercy and only upon these planes supply of fuel would rest the file security ot of great britain central europe scandinavia and japan no other spot on the earth Is equidistant from so many important points place one point of a pair of dividers on this unknown area and the other point somewhere on the fortieth parallel of latitude in the northern hemisphere using the first point as a center you can describe a circle which for the roost most part will include the worlds greatest cities and economic enters centers ot of course it may be argued that a flying base in such it 11 far northern location would have value only at certain seasons reasons but it Is also true that aggressor nations generally choose their own time to strike it Is not without the bounds of imagination to foresee the world threatened by some predatory atory power which had acquired the new land all nations in the last few years have begun to show increasing interest in their arctic possessions conada canada has declared sovereignty over till all lands between tier her northern coast aud and the pole yet not a few of them were discovered by explorers sailing under the flag of the united states this new principle of sovereignty ought to give the alie united states a title to all lands lying north of alaska but it cannot be belled upon to have this effect those who have studied the problem ur uro 0 o that the united states and canada join forces in these matters the right of a nation to the territory it discovers Is not yet outlawed and if new discoveries tend to disrupt world peace pea re somo definite policy such as internationalization of tm now land must be agreed upon this year america will be represented in the babli to the pole commander richard 11 byrd of the united states navy on leave who commanded the navy flyers in the arctic lost last summer has chosen spitsbergen as a hopping off place prom from here he goes to the northernmost point of land in the world A promontory in greenland after a base has been established at this place he will return to spitsbergen for additional fuel and supplies lie he will then return to the greenland base and fly to the pole then either to spitsbergen direct or via greenland as circumstances dictate this expedition has been financed by such buell men as john D rockefeller jr vincent astor thomas F ryan richard floyt of new york edsel ford and congressman FrothIng bain ot of massachusetts and several others Explain explaining in g the do details t a ol of the expedition in an article in the new york Y ork times commander byrd said my plan Is to do the he flying in a series of legs of about miles each careful calculation indicates that with the three motors the chances are about NO to I 1 against breakdown due solely to motor trouble on any single leg of the flight on our flights on the macmillan expedition last year we operated near water because we could not safely land on the he ground it was august and the snow enow had largely melted away flying in the tha spring he b bevc vc we will carry skits and will land and take oby skiing on the ground the oba tive of our first flight will be the ant landing field we can find on peary land the he north elmost land in the world it Is f at the extreme alorth up tip of greenland about miles northwest of spitsbergen we will stop at the first spot on peary land that promises good skiing for the plane here it Is our intention to deposit 1000 pounds of gasoline food and supplies then we purpose to fly bade back to king KIDEs bay load up and return to our peary land air base our exploration of unknown areas in the arctic begins with our flight from spitsbergen to peary land most of the region between the two places la unexplored after our second flight to peary land we will be ready to make the attempt to fly to and aroun around ill the north pole our objects are to explore the unknown stretch of about abouL miles from peary land to 1 the he pole find and possibly to accomplish the sporting feat of reaching the pole from the air froth from our projected base in peary land it Is approximately miles to the pole if we reach the vicinity of the pole our instruments Instrument a will enable us to determine while in flight our location within a margin of twenty miles to make sure that hat we have bave reached and passed the pole we will make a wide circle around it this elide circle would he be less than miles in distance but it auld would be a complete circumnavigation of the glo globe b e |
