THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE 



(37 



crossed over, but his work is still with 

 us — and after congratulating Commander 

 Peary, I pay my respects to the repre- 

 sentatives of the many great governments 

 here tonight and will just in one sentence 

 sit down. When next, Mr President, 

 John Gilpin rides, may I be there to see. 



the; toastmaster 



Many of our guests are familiar with 

 the aims and objects of the National 

 Geographic Society ; all are not, and so 

 I shall introduce for a few minutes our 

 Professor J. Howard Gore, Professor 

 Emeritus of George Washington Univer- 

 sity, a member of the Board of Man- 

 agers, to tell you something of the aims 

 and objects of this institution. 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY — BY 

 JAMES HOWARD GORE 



In some future edition of the Book of 

 Proverbs it may be written : "Whoso 

 tooteth not his own horn, yea verily the 

 horn of the same may not be tooted." 

 The President of this Society must have 

 anticipated the wisdom of this injunction 

 when he asked me to be the horn soloist 

 for the Society. 



To our colleague. Mr Henry Gannett, 

 is given the credit of having originated 

 the flattering invitation, "Sit down five 

 minutes and tell me all you know." If 

 this idea was in the mind of our Presi- 

 dent when he asked me to tell all I knew 

 of the activities of the National Geo- 

 graphic Society in ten minutes I hope he 

 intends that I shall keep the change, for 

 it will not need so much time to traverse 

 in outline this topic, though its bounds 

 be the points in which the ultimate east 

 meets the ultimate west and the north 

 has the south for its antipode. 



That we exist is attested by a member-^ 

 ship of more than 50,000. and the ques- 

 tion as to why we exist must be answered 

 favorably by the thousands who each 

 year come into our ranks. 



I was greatly impressed a few years 

 ago by a set of drawings showing the 

 way in which geography is taught in the 

 public schools of Brussels. The first of 

 the series showed the plan of the class- 



room, with the position of the pupil's 

 desk. The second gave the floor-plan of 

 the building with special indication to 

 mark the room which was the entirety 

 of the first lesson. As lesson followed 

 lesson the pupil had located the building 

 with respect to the prominent buildings 

 of the city, the situation of the city with 

 respect to the other cities of the king- 

 dom, the outlines of the kingdom, the 

 place of the same in the continent of 

 Europe, Europe's place on the eastern 

 hemisphere, and finally a map of the 

 entire world. 



In this way the pupil oriented himself 

 with respect to his playmates and their 

 immediate surroundings with respect to 

 the great world of which they were parts. 

 But in the lessening scale the pupil, 

 though great in his own conceit, dwindled 

 as lesson followed lesson and the world 

 of which he formed a part grew vastly 

 in importance. 



The proper study of mankind is man — 

 not man in his littleness, in his finiteness, 

 but the house in which he lives, the town 

 in which he dwells, the land he calls 

 home, and the world over which he 

 roams. Each day's walk takes him to a 

 dififerent point and every day's journey 

 gives to him a new geographic position. 



The air he breathes is wafted along by 

 purifying currents whose movements we 

 strive to know. The water that slakes his 

 thirst follows courses whose meanderings 

 we want to trace; the paths he treads, 

 the roads he travels and the oceans on 

 which he journeys must find places upon 

 our charts. 



The purpose of our Society is to know 

 these things and to diffuse abroad our 

 knowledge. We seek new facts through 

 exploration and we scatter them over the 

 civilized world on the pages of the best 

 geographic magazine that finds a place on 

 the reader's table. 



Our aff'airs are directed by a board 

 selected from every walk in life fitted to 

 aid in our great endeavor. The ablest 

 business men of our city guide its finan- 

 cial interests. By their side sit those who 

 have explored the frozen regions of the 

 north and others who have labored under 



