Evening Star Newspaper, May 27, 1926, Page 7

BERNIER Scouts LATE POLAR FEATS Canadian, 20 Years in Arctic, Says No Land Will Be Found There. Special Dispatch to The Star. TORONTO, May 27.—From the com- fortable Artic-bedecked home on the heights of Levis, looking out on_ the mighty St. Lawrence, the blue Lau- renthians and the northern lights be- vond, Capt. Joseph Bernier, vetera Arctic explorer, is following this year’ nnprecedented _invasions of polar the large island the Russians are now calling Lenin JIsland, Spitzenbergen and Franz Joseph Land. “When that shelf ends there is a sudden drop into water which we Know to be very deep from the sound- ings by Peary near the Pole and from the Jeannette and Nansen's Iram uuring their drifts. The Fram in re. gions near the Pole discovered a decp ocean basin with depths as great as 530 feet.” “apt. Bernier is not impressed with the argument that because birds flv north from Alaska there must be land in Branfort Sea. These birds might fly right across the polar basin or ‘they’ mignt change their course, following the drift of the ice to light on the known lands where they have ‘| been actually observed. Scouts Drift Theory. Neither does he find confirmation of the land theory in the fact that the polar ice arift is west and never north. That is due, he believes, to the earth’s rotation. The ice peak is like a revolving disc. Moreover, a cask once piaced in the ice off Wran- | kel was eventually found on the south- east coast of Greenland. He does nut place credence elther in Peary’s alleged discovery of “Crock- ert Land” ur Cook's discovery of “Bradly Island,” a photograph of which he brought back. “The Americans,” Capt. Bernier went on, “are very keen on discover- ing land. 1 am sure they will not find any between their Alaska lines of latitude that lead to the Pole. The deep water hegins not far from the north coast of Alaska. But Canada has plenty of Arctic land, and If they are sr_keen about it we could, no doubt, lease them some.” BEING BORN EXPENSIVE. Cost Now. Averages $541, Woman b Economist Estimates. ¥ Specia! Dispatch to The Star. RERKELEY. Calif.. May 27 “high cost of being b y has something to do with the falling off in the birth rate, according to con. clusions drawn by the Ilcller Com- mittee on Economic Research in Cali- fornia. In grandma’s day one could enter this world for less than $100. Today jio arrive in a decent, self-respecting manner, one must pay five times that amount—an average of $341.95. This average was computed after months of investigation by Dr. Jes- sica_Piexotto, head of the University of California Department of Soclal Economics, and her assistants. regions with keenest interest and sympathy as far as adventure is con- cerned, but with a degree of skepticism | and reserve respecting the possible discovery of new Arctic territories. Capt Bernfer's attitude toward these foreign polar expeditions is tvp- ical of all Canada. As far as exist- ing geography is concerned, Canada has a virtual monopoly of Arctic lands. She has no objection to other nations discovering and acquiring other Arctic territories, provided they stay out of her domain, but that there is any substantial area of un- discovered land anywhere in the Arc- tic seas is gravely doubted. Canada does not expect her Arctic monopoly 1o be broken. Canada regards current polar ac- tivity as something more than a series of adventures with vague scientific objectives. Land for flying bases, which uld be within s fiving distance of nearly portant capital in the north &phere, is a much more co Jective. definitely avowed the expedition leade Comdr. Byrd Shows Canada’s Stand. . some of including | On this phase of p 4 Manitoba ['ree Press observes: “So long as the anticipated discov- eries lies within the nativnals’ own Arctic spheres, such acts of po klon may be proper procedure if they happen to come within the ®phere of another country—of Can- ada, say—the act s one of aggres. sion directly contravening this Do- minion’s declaration of sovereign rights over all ‘known’ and ‘un- known’ land lying anvwhere between It and the ‘North Pole.’ " Canada bases her Arctic clalms not only on “discovery and occupation,” the time-honored formula, but has in- troduced a new principle for the ap- pointment of Arctic territory. As far back as 1907, Canada formally laid claim to evervthing right up to the Pole lving between 141 dezrees west, which the boundary with Alaska, to 60 degrees. which is between Cana- dian Ellesmere Land and Greenland. In other words, Canada regards the polar regions a large pie, which should be divided into sectors as a pie is sliced, each country taking the plece adjacent to it. Under this ar- rangement only three countries have an interest. They are Russia, Can- ada and the United States—by reason of Alaska. Principle Is Unchallenged. The Canadian Parliament last year reaffirmed its sovereignty over all lands known and unknown between her northern coast and the Pole, thoughenot a few of the known lands were originally discovered by Ameri- cans and others. Though the prin- | ciple has not been formally accepted by other natlons, it has mnot beén | challenged, and from the United States it has seemed to have re. celved some sort of tacit support. Last Summer, it is understood conferences were held between the | Canadian steamship Avctic and Amer- | ican vis 4 pelago. According to Bernier the question as to whether ije Visitors had any right there was settled once and for all in the negative. It is noted that this vear none of the polar expeditions is using Canadfan terri- | tory as a base, although the Canadian Cape Columbia is only 400 miles from the Pole as compared with Kings 850 miles and Point Barrow et Rubber Heels in Japan. About half of the leather shoes used by civilians around Kobe are fitted with rubber heels. But as only a small proportion of the Japanese wear foreign style clothing with leather shoes, the actual number of people using rubber heels is small compared with the total population. Woodpecker Tree Friend. Because he reaches with his long tongue into holes bored by beetles, and extracts the beetle grub there- from, the little woodpecker is looked upon by foresters as a great friend of the tree. These beetles leave a kind of embroidery of grooves on the bark and the woodpecker destroys thou- sands of beetle Recognition of the soundness of the | fe sector” theory of polar sov- ereignty probably had much to do with the somewhat ignominious with- drawal of both Canada and the United ates from their adventures on angel Island, which under the theory will remain with Russia. Water Question Settled. Canada not only owns the Arctic Archipelago, but holds sovereignty ! over the great inland ocean, Hudson Years ago Canada’s ownership s Lody of salt water was con- tested. Was it a mere clausum, a closed sea, or an international body of water on Wwhich all nations had equal rights outside the 3-mile limit? The issue as to Hudson Bay was settled when Canada collected license fees from the whalers who used to fre-| quent it If Canada has a great Arctic heri- tage It is due largely to Capt. Bernier. He has been a veritable watchdog of Canada’s Arctic interests. He has | been denied the glory of spectacular achievement. He planned to drift | 1o the Pole on a theory of Arctic| currents, which he still believes is | sound. In 1906 on an official Govern- | ment trip, after passing through Lancaster Sound and Melville Sound, | the northwest passage lay open before | him. “T could have been the first of men | to make the passage,” he said the| other day, “but the government had ; expressly forbidden me to attempt it, | and I had to turn back. I could havs | gone.” i Twenty Winters in Arctic. ' But while Bernier's name does not rank in fame with those of Peary | (wh claim Bernier always has| doubted) or of Amundsen, who is a warm personal friend, he probably is the world’s greatest authority on Arctic information. Twenty Winters | he spent in Arctic darkness in addl- tion to numerous Summer expedi- tions. His home s a museum of | Arctic curios and documents. | There Is no new conunent at the North Pole, according to Capt. Ber- | fier, and he held this view long before | the recent reports made by Amundsen | and Comdr. Byrd. The Polar Sea is | not even dotted with islands. On his maps he calls attention to a faint waving line which indicates the end of what is called the continental shelf. There the ocean bottom falls ab- ruptly into the deep abyss of an al. | most bottomless polar chasm. When the ancient mariners feared that ff they contlnued north they would | eventually fall over an immense | precipice into the bowels of the earth, | they had some irkling of polar facts. s In this view the top of the earth 5 a great well filled with salt water and covered with a 1id of ice. 1t 1s unlikely that land would come up suddenly from great ocean depths. The ocean has a habit of shoaling as it approaches land. i New Islands Possible. H ““There may be new islands,” Capt. Bernier said recently, “in the unex. plored portions of ~the continental shelf which extends for hundreds of miles from ths main northern shores of Eurove, America and Asia. The Jeannette discovered new ones during her long drifi. The ocean off the continents is comparatively shallow and contains all the Arctic islands we | know of. the great group of the Can- adian Archipelago, Wrangel TIsland | end the fringe off the Siberian coast, Bay of this of “Get light. BEFORE YOU THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, MAY 27, IN RABBITBORO—Dad Remembers Those Happy Days. READING ‘ ) NOW THE PRINCE BACHELOR ' HERMIT JES' CANT BEAR NEWSPAPERS Messin’ ’Round Crowds Also | Makes Him Nervous—Likes Women and Snakes. | Special Dispatch to The St ASHEVILLE, May and rattlesnakes do not ruffie the ure of Samuel F. Crisson, -year-old hermit. philosopher and | “snake doctor,” who lives in the heart of a mountain wilderness about 60 miles northeast of Asheville. But, in’ ‘round in a crowd of folk: some of the stuff they put in the newspapers these days jes' makes me so nervous I jes' can't do nothin'." The hermit lives in a rude cabl bullt of split logs in a cove on Arm- strong's Creek in a rugged moun region in the northern part of M Dowell County. The State recently built a good road through the section and it passes within a ‘few yards of the hermit's humble home. Lately, several tourists on sight-seeing ex- peditions in the mountains. stopped to see the “snak “I'm fer good roads.” he says. “a rec’on as how I was about the fust one to vote furJem in these parts.” | Here in the vast solitude of the great mountains the old man lives hap- pily in his rude home. His only com- panion is a house cat. His Ancestor Scalped. Since the days of the American Revolution Mr. Crisson’s ancestors have lived in the mountain cove where he now makes his home. Near his primitive hut is the site of an old fort ~ Women Rich Quick.” ¥ Get the facts THE RABBITS WAS A | looking Prince Albert coat 1926. OF built by early settlers in the moun- tains as a defense against Indian at- tacks. “My great-uncle's first wife was scalped by the Injuns near that place,” said the old man, “but he got him another one, I've always heard, and he wasn't long about hit.” At one time the hermit's ancestors owned a large tract of land near his cabin, where Wildacres is now being developed by the Mount Mitchell As- sociation of Arts and Sciences as a colony for artists, authors and scien- Mount Mitchell, the highest east of the Rocky Mountains, is v a few miles from Mr. Crisson's little hut. The other day a party of Asheville people stopped to talk with the old philosopher. As the car stopped near his cabin the old man came forward and gave the visito cordlal wel- ght,” he said, “git out and come in, Wears Frock Coat. “The philosopher, attired in a rusty- . which had been worn by one of his ancestors long dead, and wearing a tattered straw hat, ushered the visitors into his rude dwelling with almost courtly grace and with the cordial hospitality for which the mountaineers are famous. Catching snakes, selling their skins and selling the oil he fries from the meat of rattlesnakes Is a regular busi- ness with the hermit. He says he has aught more than 100 rattlers during the last few vears, besides other kinds of reptiles. He steals upon the rat. tlers, slips a string about their necks, brings them home alive, he says, then keeps them in the “snake box™ until he finds use for them. “Naw—I haint afeard uf ‘em,” he said. “A rattler haint a-goin’ 1o hurt you ‘less he sees vou're, feard uf him. Then, ef he does, you watch out. T hain‘t never been bit by one.” AT Real Critics. From the Boston Transcript Girl (applying for chorus job}— Mothep says I sing beautifully. Manager—Bring me a recommen- dation from the. neighbors and I'll give pu a try-out. THE PIED-PIPER OF FINANCE —plays a wicked tune that may attract your doilars—a song of 100% return; It may be so. Possibly it is a sound investment; -but it may just be another scheme to take money from gullible investors. Your protection is in an investigation—the facts that will show the true INVEST — INVESTIGATE on any invest- ment offered you. We will help you. A report will be given you without cost or obligation - OF WAS 336 Evening 5 Telephone Main 8164 THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU HINGTON Star Building DORA DUMBUNNY, CAN YoU TELL ME WHAT ‘AS BACHELOR | HEARD MY DADDY SAY SO - AND MY DADDY KNOWS A LoT ! YES, Mis$ FLQPP A BACHELOR IS THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD : WELL ,OF ALL THINGS ' WHERE DID You LEARN THAT ? | doctrine of ‘equa! rights to all and This space donated by this newspaper for your protection. [ XYFN KELLAR PRAISES 'NARY FARM BILL Tennessee Senator Assails Coolidge’s Economy in Such Matters. By the Associated Press. The Republican and Democratic | parties were called on today by Sen- | ator McKellar, Democrat, Tennessee. to redeem their campaign pledges to the farmers by passing the $375,000,- 000 McNary farm relief measure. Declaring that something fs radi- cally wrong with agriculture, he said both partiés “ptomised in 1924, in or- der to get votes, to right the situa. tion."” ow, when they have the chance to do it, neither is doing it,” he charged. “Of course, the burden of it rests upon the Republican party because it is in power, but the duty rests on the Democratic party fo do its share.” He said he favored the bill, although | it has been branded as a “‘wildcat scheme, unworkable and visionary. | Just as all forward-looking measures heretofore passed have been called.” ‘We have legislated for all classes except the farmers’ he went on. ‘We must put them on an equality with all other classes of our people in order to carry out the Jeffersonian special privilege to none.’ " The tariff, he declared, is a detri- ment to the farmer, because it oper- ates on everything he buys and affects nothing he sells. Government aid is the only thing that can equalize the difference, he added. Assailing the administration's finan- { tion like this. If this is economn | | cial program, Senator McKellar ae| clared the President had ample money for the ‘greatest extrava.| gance” for Government bureaus, the Army, Navy and bonuses for foreign countries in the debt settlements, but | “has no money to protect the great | basic industry of agriculture.” “When it comes to appropriations for the farmers of the country, the President of the United States, Necretary of the Treasury a director of the budget are always ex- ceedingly economical.” he said. “They | are afraid that the Government can not afford it They see governmental ruin in the event of an appropria , then I say, God save the American people from such economy.’ Cat Lives 17 Days Shut Up. | The old proverb that a cat has nine lives has a believer in Mary Jane Dando, 5-vear-old Emporia girl, says | the Topeka Capital. While playing with her cat on a neighbor's hack porch -she put the animal in a tool box and forgot about it. Seventeen days later the neighbor opened the box and the cat crawled out. . s Kathleen Woodward, once a worker in a London -collar factory, has just completed writing a bi- | ography of Queen M of England. | Cash or Credit The Price Is the Same Special Colors. Pastel Shades Polka Dots Black & White Navy & White | which anpeared to be confined to a that he would leave again probabiy during the afternoon. The Buen Aires took off from Biscayne Bay at 7:33 o'clock this morning with ideal weather prevailing. Weather Bureau officials said the storm was centered off the lower coast and would not affect any towns i this region. DUGGAN FORCED BACK TO MIAMI BY STORM Argentine Flyer Encounters Vio- lent Winds and Rain on Flight to Havana. Race of African Pygmies. From the London Post. An English traveler and missiona W. J. Roome, brings back interesti stories of a race of pygmies living in a great forest in the heart of the Dark Continent. The men are usually less than 4 feet tall, and the women are nardo Duggan and his two compan- |still shorter. “They lve," declares ions in the seaplane Buenos Aires| Roome, “right in the heart of a were forced to make a hurried return | forest and are the wildest specimens to Miami at 9:45 o'clock this morning. [of bumanity existing today. On ap Duggan declared he was fiving at |proach they run like rabbits and hide an elevation of 3,000 feet when he |behind trees. They carry little spears went headlong into the tropical dis- and bows and arrows, and conduct a turbance, which threatened to cause |silent trade with other forest tribes his plane serious damage. He said he | “The pygmies are desperately dan dropped hurriedly to a low altitude |gerous. Many a man has died from just above one of the numerous Flor- one of their poisoned arrow They ida keyvs and retraced his course, are nelther nude nor r\lammmusgc.v and i G wear bark cloth or leaves. But, as He n outdistanced the storm, | Hear Patie COL B8 o they have sallow skins of ochre hue. By the Associated Pres . May Flying into ain and wind storm about 0 swutheast of Miami, Ber- small area, but he hesitated to risk the hop to Havana until he was con- fident the route was safe. He pro- nounced his plane in perfect condi- tion despite the strain, and announced “It takes more than a few straw hats to make a Summer,” shivers the Carthage Press man. Cash or Credit The Price Is the Same 2-Day ale of DRESSES Taken From Our Regular ¢ $25 & $30 Stock (g 2 and 3 button, single and double breasted models, in all the newest snappy and conserva- tive styles. ' Values $25 to $30 ~ Mep’s Department, 2nd Floor Pay Only One Dollar Have the Pleasure of Inmediate Wear, While Paying the Balance at Your Convenience ] Open Saturday Evenings Till 9 O’Clock