ssociate Editor

THE COLLAPSE OF A

WHITTIER PUBLIC LIBRAN

sity of Copenhagen COLOSSAL FALSEHOOD that Dr. Cook himself elected to be judged; the verdict of that court of decision, thus selected by himself, must be accepted by the world as final nd conclusive. The wonderful tales now put forth as to the cause of the disappearance of the original documents in the ase will have no effect on the mind of the public, because that public had already become wearied with a long series of inconlusive and improbable statements heretotore made. Dr. Cook had several months in which to prepare his case and submit it in proper form to that tribunal to which he thought fit to have it referred. The esult has been a total collapse of his laim, always based chiefly on his bare assertion that he had been the first to reach the North Pole. The committee of scientists to whom the University of Copenhagen submitted the claim report that what they received was, first, a narative of the expedition, essentially the ame as that printed two months ago in he New York "Herald" and prepared or the present purpose by Dr. Cook's ecretary, and, secondly, what purported > be a typewritten copy of part of Dr. Cook's original note-book. This alleged opy, they say, "does not contain any riginal astronomical observations whatever, but only results," and the committee eclare further that "the documents preented are inexcusably lacking in information which would prove that the astronomical observations therein referred to were really made; and also contain no details regarding the practical work of the expedition and the sledge journey which would enable the committee to determine their reliability." The committee's final

Thus, Dr. Stromgren, Director of the Astronomical Observatory at Copenhagen and chairman of the committee on the Cook claims, is quoted as calling Cook's actions shameless, as admitting with sorrow and indignation that the Uinversity had been hoaxed, and as saying that "it was an offense to submit such papers to scientific men." Rasmussen, a noted Arctic explorer who has favored Dr. Cook's claim, was called in as an expert by the University's committee; he is reported as saying: "When I saw the observations, I realized that it was a scandal. The documents which Dr. Cook sent to the University are most impudent. It is the most childish sort of attempt at cheating." Many others who have believed Cook's stories heretofore now admit that they are convinced that the claims are spurious, and that the best that can possibly be said is that Cook is unbalanced in mind or that he did not have scientific knowledge enough to know where he really did go, and that for a time at least he may have believed that he had reached the Pole. Those judges of evidence who are unable to concede even this much point out that there are many indications that Cook must have known from the first that his story would in the end collapse, and they believe that it was with this in view that he forestalled investigation in America by taking advantage of the enthusiasm naturally