Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1909 — SHADOW CAST ON COOK'S ACCUSERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHADOW CAST ON COOK'S ACCUSERS

Clurje of Affidavit Makers Is Doubted Io Copenhagen. BRADLEY KEPT IN THE DARK Paper Which Printed the Stories of Loose and Dunkle Is the Paper That Furnished Funds For Peary and It Demanded Sworn Statements and Documentary, Evidence That the Men Had Been In Communication With the Explorer Before Publishing Anything About Faked Observations. Copenhagen, Dec. 10.—A summary of the affidavits of persons claiming to have aided Dr. Frederick A. Cook in the preparation of his polar data was read here with amazement Scientific circles are inclined to be incredulous regarding the charges, and Bode persons, among them Dr. Carl Burrau, the astronomer, consider them

■o improbable that their effect will be to strengtheibconfidence in Dr. Cook. “Passages in the story telegraphed here,” said Dr. Burrau, “give me the impression that the matter is thoroughly untrustworthy. ' “Take for instance the statement about Capella. Capella neither rises nor sets in the polar regions, but re- ' mains fixed over the horizon. In order to make observations at the north pole a more extended and a more detailed knowledge is necessary than is enjoyed usually by the average ship’s captain. “It will, however, be easy for the university to determine the truth or .otherwise of the charges.” The committee of six under the presidency of Professor Ells Stormgren, the astronomer, which is to examine the north polar records of Dr. Cook on behalf of the University of Copenhagen, will begin its work at the end of the present week. Affidavits of two men asserting that Dr. Cook hired them for $4,000, with promise of an additional bonus of SSOO to one of them, to fabricate astronoml cal observations and calculations of latitude and longitude for submission to the University ?f Copenhagen, were published in the New York Times. These men—George H. Dunkle, au Insurance broker, and Captain August Wedel Loose, a seaman, admit that their reason for making the affidavits known to the public was that the explorer only paid them $260 for their work. .- -■

DR. COOK AND J. R. BRADLEY.