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DECEMBER i7, 1909"
The Commoner.
"Copies'
7 r v-rTJVscvv '
MAYOR-ELECT GAYNOR of New York ad
dressing the Southern Society of New York
at its annual banquet, talked upon municipal
government, saying: "The long lino of ofilcials
and bosses who have made themselves million
aires out of the government of this city, somo
of whom live abroad and imprudently visit us
occasionally now that the statute of limitations
has outlawed their villianies is a disgrace to the
morale of the community."
DR. COOK, the Arctic explorer, is said to be
in a sanitarium in Massachusetts. In the
meantime the attacks upon him continue. The
New York Times prints sworn affidavits by
August W. Loose, a pilot and navigator, and
George H. Dunkle, an insurance broker, that
Dr. Cook promised them $4,000 for their aid
in preparing the polar records of his journey,
which are now in the hands of the University
of Copenhagen. The Times also reproduces
what purports to be the fac simile of a penciled
memorandum, directing the preparation of ob
servations all the way from Swartevaag to the
pole. They frankly acknowledged that their
motive in making these affidavits is the alleged
failure to pay them the full sums said to have
been promised. The Times further adds that it
is impossible as yet to say that the observations
calculated by Captain Loose and which he al
leges he supplied to Dr. Cook, are those actually
delivered by his secretary, Mr. Lonsdale, to the
University of Copenhagen. To establish this
point it would be necessary to compare Captain
Loose's narrative ;with the report received by
the university. ''"
IN SPITE OF THE New York Times' attack
upon Dr. Cook,- Copenhagen dispatches say
that faith in the doctor is unshaken among the
Danes. The following "is taken, from the same
dispatch! "Walter Lonsdale, secretary to Dr.
Cook, who brought the explorer's records to
Copenhagen, also declared that the accusations
published in New Y6rk and London against Dr.
Cook were totally unfounded. He said that the
papers delivered to the University of Copen
hagen contained the original observations made
by Dr. Cook during the expedition, without
alterations. Mr. Lonsdale further stated that
the explorer's report was founded on these and
dictated by Dr. Cook to him, no other person
having anything to do with it. Loose and
Dunkle, Mr. Lonsdale added, were guests at the
Waldorf-Astoria during the explorer's stay there,
but Dr. Cook's acquaintance with them was
slight."
HENRY WILLINGTONT WACK, who is said
to be Dr. Cook's personal lawyer, has,
according to New York dispatches, severed rela
tions with his distinguished client and Dr.
Cook's enemies are making much of this event.
Captain Loose, who iff mentioned in the New
York Times stories, gave to an Associated Press
correspondent this interviews "I went to Dr.
Cook thinking I could help him. A short talk
convinced me he was jgnorant of some of the
essentials of navigation. My task enlarged, but
that was no question for me to debate so long
as I was paid. Now that tho payments have
ceased and the doctor has disappeared, I speak
out. I supplied the figures. They were grate
fully received. What use of them was made is
bound to appear. A short talk with Dr. Cook
convinced me that he knew almost nothing
about navigation. He was ignorant of some of
the essentials of the science. At first I con
sidered it at leaBt likely that Dr. Cook had got
near the pole, say to 89 degrees or within sixty
jnlles of the pole. Even his observations would
have given him that accuracy. Later I was
forced to change that opinion. A person not
especially accurate might have thought himself
at the pole when only within sixty miles of it,
but as I got deeper into the matter I began to
suspect that Dr. Cook was never out of sight
of land. Please notice that I have never said
that Dr. Cook is about to submit my calcula
tions to the University of Copenhagen as his
own observations. ' Dr. Cook never intimated
uch to me. I -was working for pay then and
was indifferent on that point. Now I havon't
nhm ?0dKmy p?y' doSt express kn S
Sook Whn? r htw Dr Cook wroto UP Sis recorS
books. Dr. Cook never allowed mo to insnoct
his original record or, indeed, any more of thwn
than has been published in the newspapers "
taPDrinnk. 8a,d tYl WriUng wn;?PaocSda
f Coks, reports of his observations did
?imit n? a 8kUfUl attompt t0 deceive?" Tho
J. iJ i rrr T?rG so groat that th0 recording
of seconds would not be of the slightest value
in adding accuracy, declared the captain. "Still
?niyrl? . l added' "Dr- Cook could .have
nut k?hpm V8 in8trum?nts- seen the seconds and
Sf tint m1d0.wn conscientiously, if in ignorance
he thSn Ji? !i f ImPrJanco-" As t0 whothor
now tw h !t PS?ibl, .for Dr' Cook t0 declare
now that these calculated observations by Cap-
2.2 008 were simply for comparison of his
own, Captain Loose said: "Dr. Cook will prob
ably say this, but why did he need any such
calculations and reckonings backwards as I
f0T Im,? Why did h0 nGed any one to
make calculations for him if ho is a navigator
and mathematician and if he went to the polo
and took careful observations on tho way to
and from the polo?" '
O
STUDENTS OF government and of current
events may be interested in the following
article which appeared in a recent number of
the New York World: "The gift to 'Fincy'
Conners of $2,000,000 in stock of tho United
States Independent Telephone company by Dem
ocratic gtate Committeeman Thomas W. Finu
cane of Rochester is to be investigated by the
Davis legislative committee. Conners got tho
stock 'because he was politically iniluential and
owned two newspapers.' Chairman George
Davis, who is a neighbor of Democratic State
Chairman Connors in Buffalo, said yesterday
the committee would undoubtedly take the mat
ter up soon. Chairman Conners was in the city
yesterday in connection with the stock trans
action, it was rumored. 'It is a legitimate mat
ter of inquiry for our committee,' said Chairman
Davis yesterday. 'Persdnally I think Connors'
influence was greatly over-estimated when its
value was placed at $2,000,000. Tho real ques
tion is, did Conners divide that $2,000,000 with
other persons of influence?' Thomas W. Finu
cane, a close personal and political friend of
Conners, told about the gift at the recent trial
of a suit against the company. Finucano said
he had joined in a syndicate with $1,000,000 to
buy a franchise for an independent telephone
company to enter tho New York field. They
purchased for $250,000 the franchise of tho
Mercantile Electric company, which operated a
private burglar alarm system in the Equitable
building under a franchise obtained from the
old board of electrical control in 1894. This
franchise, with the small equipment of the burg
lar alarm company, was sold to the New York
Independent Telephone company for $41,000,
000; that company selling it in turn to the
United States Independent company. At that
time Conners was in New York negotiating for
the franchise of an independent telephone com
pany. Finucane said Conners subscribed $200,
000 to this syndicate, but never paid in any of
the amount. Later he says he gave Conners
$2,000,000 of the stock because of his influence
and his newspapers."
FOUR PATIENTS, three of them children,
were operated on recently In- New York
City with all senso of pain abolished by the
method of stovaine and strychnine offered to the
scientific world by Dr. Jonnesco of Roumania.
A New York World report of tho operation says:
"The remarkable Roumanian, Prof. Thomas
Jonnesco of Bucharest, gave his first demon
stration in this country yesterday morning at
the Hospital for tho Ruptured and Crippled,
Forty-second street and Lexington avenue. Ho
anaethetized four patients, three of them chil
dren and the fourth a woman of thirty-five
years, with stovaine, while half a hundred keen,
critical American doctors, six of them women,
looked on from the amphitheatre, following
every move. Dr. William Mayo, one of the noted
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Mayo brothers of Minnenota, rankod by somo
as tho foremost Burgcona of America was tho
stra Ionnlab ?? Who watchod oTmon.
strat on. Up had como half way acroHH tho
country to witness it, and when it was Tt an o d
he congratulated tho groat foreigner warm to
?"fP congratulations with an &
rMn rfCB!?r i donioHtcato at Rod ot
To'ihi ""' whoro tl,c MayoB have tholr hospital.
To tho newspaper men who askod him for an
opinion Dr. Mayo declined to talk excusing
himself on the ground that ho dldn' 'know any
th ng about tho anaesthetic, but Prof. JonnoMo
said, through Ufa secretary: 'I feel t at I SS
MYvnhiad nolhl,B,,or honor th thlB which Dr
voT de'enlv ' Pr'n? V h,B ,,rc8onc &1 It
very deeply. Prof. Joiuiohco did not onoratn
Ho simply applied the anaesthetic The opo?
ating surgeons wore tho Glbney brothers Dra
Virgil and Homer, and Dr. William Coloy hernia
reTarkamo0 aV,r f tho 8 molft
bov ! ' h lyoIu"eHt ot tho four was a
from JnVnnm d a yotlrB of "So. Buffering
mlE na th1"0 pa,raly8,- H whimpered Just a
little as the noodle punctured his spine, and for
LT7l0?twll0th0 Blmrp '""Co touched his
heel, but the rest of the time ho laughed and
when ho was asked, after it was over? how ho
felt, ho replied In a voice that carried to ovory
Thhir i lvr0m' ,'' f5el a11 rIfihL' l fco1 flnS?
The third boy was deeply worried for fear that
the doctors wore 'going to do something' to him.
Jjven while ho worried over something ho bo
ieved impending, Dr. Coloy finished the opera
tion for hernia Tho youngster lay on tho table
as calmly as If he were In his own bed, looking
at tho physician with big, unwinking eyes, feei
ng nothing though there was au Incision several
Inches long n tho region ot hla abdomen. Prof.
Jonnesco said that not ono ot tho patients had
felt any pain, and that was tholr own tostimony.
Somo sceptics present doclnrod that It romatnod
to bo seen vhothor stovano had any effect on
tho spinal cord, which would talro sovoral
months to determine Prof. Jonnesco was asked
about these posslblo after offects and ho said
thero would be none and had never boon."
SPINAL ANAESTHESIA Is no new thing and
Prof. Jonnesco does not say it is. Hr'. J..
Leonard Corning, an American surgeon,, is said
to have been the first to suggest It and Drs. Bier "
of Berlin, Tufiler of Paris, Morton of San Fran
cisco, Matas of New Orleans, George Fowler and
William S. Balnbrldgo of Now York City have
all used it. The World's report adds: "But
Dr. Jonnesco uses stovaine, combined with
strychnine, to stimulate tho heart action and
that is a new solution. As he explains his
method there are 'two essential points of nov
elty: the puncture is made at a level of tho
spinal column appropriate to tho region to bo
operated upon; an anaesthetic solution Is used,
which, owing to tho addition of strychnine, is
tolerated by the higher nervous centers.' Prof.
Jonnesco prefers stovaino to tropa-cocalno or
novocain, though he admits that the latter are
equally efficacious and equally harmless. It was
a strange scene, tho operating room, with its
white interior, the white robed nurses and sur
geons and tho semi-circle of tense watchers on
the raised seats. Grouped about tho patients
were half a dozen of tho city's most prominent
surgeons. Besides the Gibney brothers and Dr.
Coley there were Dr. John Walker, who was
associated with the late Dr. Bull, and Dr. Clar
ence McWilllams. Prof. Jonnesco and his sec
retary conversed together while the patients
were being prepared. Tho professor is a man
of middle age, with a deeply lined forehead, thin
hair turning to gray over the temples and a
keen eye. He prepared his solution in tho oper
ating room. Tho necessary quantity of sto
vaine, a colorless liquid, was first introduced
Into a glass tube provided with an India rubber
stopper and sterilized In the auto-clave. The
strychnine solution was mado by dissolving five
to ten centigrams of neutral strychnine sulphate
in 100 grams of sterilized water in a glass-stoppered
bottle previously sterilized. An ordinary
Pravaz syringe was used, provided with a needlo
for lumbar puncture. The little patient of four
and a half years was first wheeled out on a
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