Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1905 — PEOPLE OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PEOPLE OF THE DAY

Eqaitable Life Society SqMbNe. Melville E. Ingalls, who was a member of the H. 0. Frick committee that investigated the affairs of the Equitable Life Assurance society, has long been regarded as one of the leading railroad men In this country. Mr. Ingalls is a native of Maine and is sixty-three years old. He was the son of a poor farmer and earned his first money teaching school for sll per month. He managed to save enough to enter Harvard law school, and after graduating began the practice of his profession in a small town in Maine. Later he went to Boston, where he achieved success. Like Chauncey M. Depew, Mr. Ingalls stepped from his law office into

the presidency of a railroad. Some of his Boston clients were stockholders in the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette railway, which became bankrupt. They sent Mr. Ingalls to Cincinnati as receiver, and he made such a success that upon reorganization of the property he was elected president That small road became later part of tte Big Four system, of which Mr. Ingalls was president for many yean. Last January he retired from active management and took the position of chairman of the board of directon. Like Mr. Depew, be is a representative of the Vanderbilt family, which controls the Big Four. His greatest coup as railway president was the formation of the Joint Traffic association, In which most of the railways east of the Mississippi were pooled. The supreme court of the United States broke up this pool by a decision. Mr. Ingalls has four grown sons and one daughter. He has acquired much wealth. Cincinnati is bls home, but he spends much time at the Waldorf-As-toria, New York. Peary, the Explorer. Commander Robert E. Peary, who since 1886, when he made his first voyage to the frozen north has been almost continuously engaged in arctic exploration, will sail from New York during the first week of July for his last attempt to reach the north pole. He places much reliance on his new ship In accomplishing his purpose. This ship, the Roosevelt, was built in Maine at a cost of $125,000. She is 180 feet in length and is equipped with powerful engines and large She is rigged as a three masted schooner, but Commander Peary will depend more 00 steam than sail. He hopes on this trip to reach the northern shore of Grant Land this season, and then next summer set out on sledges for the final DOO miles that stretch over the ice to

the pole. He has installed the wireless apparatus on the steamer and engaged his entire crew. “I know that when I return to New York two years after my sailing from there I shall bring the good news that I have at last discovered the pole," said Mr. Peary recently. "I have received a telegram from President Roosevelt In which he extends to me the good wlshes'of the American people. Under those circumstances can I be unsuccessful? Never." Mrs. Peary and daughter Mildred will accompany the explorer. Peary’s new ship Is equipped with two deck houses, which will provide ample quarters for him, the officers of the ship and the members of the scientific staff. They are portable, so as to permit of their removal to the shore.

MELVILLE E. INGALLS.

ROBERT E. PEARY.