i 
Ca 
EIGHT HONORED FOR 
GEOGRAPHIC WORK 
One Imported Insect for Fig Grow- 
ing, 'Another Planned North Sea 
Mine Barrage 
LOST? INDIAN CITY DUG UP 
Washington, Dec. 29 .(Special) .-In ; 
recognition of services "for the m- , 
crease and; diffusion of geographic 
knowledge,” eight men have been 
awarded life membership in the Na- 
tional Geographic Society. This was 
announced today. 
The conferring of this honor was 
made possible by the Jane M. Smith 
Life Membership Fund, created when 
Miss Jane M. Smith, Pittsburgh, be- 
queathed a fund of 900. 
The eight men honored are: Wiiliam 
H Holmes, Rear-Admiral Joseph 
~ ^tr atT^,"OT ? N.; E. W. Nelson, Frank 
G. Carpenter, Professor Robert F. 
Griggs; Walter T. Swingle, O. F. CooK 
and Stephen T. Mather. . 
Only five other life memberships have 
bpen awarded, those being to Hiram 
Bingham., Alfred H. Brooks, William 
H. Dali, George Kennaft and Henry 
Pitti6r. ' v( , 
Reasons underlying the choice of the 
eight men reveal fascinating narra- 
tives of geographic achievement, rang- 
ing from the introduction of the insect 
which made , California fig-growing 
practicable to the studies which made 
possible the laying of the North S<^a 
mine barrage. 
One of the recipients, Professor 
Grigjgs, was included for discovering 
something new to the eye of man on 
this globe, the Valley of Ten Thous- 
and Smokes, in Alaska. Another, Mr. 
Cook, had a part in digging up a lost 
city, Machu Picchu, It revealed such 
•^re-Columbian secrets as its magnificent 
monuments, and the . hanging gardens 
where it is thought the humble potato 
originated. ■ ' 1 
It was Mr. Swingle, whose name ever 
will be associated with the American 
raising of Smyrna figs. UiVl he intro- 
duced the insect necessary for fertiliza- 
tion of this variety at Fresno, \Cal., in 
1899, the imported fig trees grew but 
bore no fruit. Mr. Swingle also devised 
numerous improvements to microscopes, 
made agricultural explorations in many 
r lands and introduced the date palm, 
, pistachio nut and other plants of Medi- 
terranean orgin into the United States. 
1 Checking Germany’s U-boat warfare 
by the North Sea Mine barrage is uni- 
versally accounted to have been' a ma- 
jor factor in the Allied victory. Pre- 
liminary to this gigantic task a need- 
ful element to the success of the opera- 
tion was a study of the geography of 
the North Sea region— a study made by 
Rear-Admiral Strauss. 
Admiral Strauss already was known 
for his invention of the superposed'tur- 
ret system of mounting guns* on battle- 
ships, his part In the blockade of the 
Cuban coast, his experimental work in 
torpedoes and his writings on ordnance | 
and ballistics. 1 
Known to every student of animal life 
is the work of Mr. Nelson, chief of the 
United States Biological Survey. He 
has added to the information concerning 
animal life of North America from the 
time he conducted pioneer scientific ex- 
plorations in Alaska, forty years ago. 
No less important than the increase of 
geographic knowledge, the National Geo- 
graphic Society has always held, is its 
diffusion, and on this basis recognition 
was accorded to Frank G. Carpenter. 
r-*- 
