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[[stamped ON TOP RIGHT]]DEC 30 1918[[/stamped]]

^[[Life membership in the National Geographic Society [[underline]]1919[[/underline]]]]

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EIGHT HONORED FOR GEOGRAPHIC WORK 
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[[sub-head 1]] One Imported Insect for Fig Growing, Another Planned North Sea Mine Barrage [[/sub-head]]
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[[sub-head 2]] LOST INDIAN CITY DUG UP[[/sub-head]]
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Washington, Dec 29 (Special). - In recognition of services "for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge," eight men have been awarded life membership in the National 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, bequeathed a fund of $5,000.
The eight men honored are: William [[underline]]H. Holmes,[[/underline]] Rear-Admiral Joseph Strauss, U.S.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 been awarded, those being to Hiram Bingham, Alfred H. Brooks, William H. Dall, George Kennan and Henry Pittier.
Reasons underlying the choice of the eight men reveal fascinating narratives of geographic achievement, ranging from the introduction of the insect which made California fig-growing practicable to the studies which made possible the laying of the North Sea mine barrage.
One of the recipients, Professor Griggs, was included for discovering something new to the eye of man on this globe, the Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, in Alaska.  Another, Mr. Cook, had a part in digging up a lost city, Machu Picchu.  It revealed such pre-Columbian secrets as its magnificent monuments, and the hanging gardens where it is thought the humble potato originated.
It was Mr. Swingle, whose name ever will be associated with the American raising of Smyrna figs.  Until he introduced the insect necessary for fertilization 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 lands and introduced the date palm, pistachio nut and other plants of Mediterranean orgin into the United States.
Checking Germany's U-boat warfare by the North Sea Mine barrage is universally accounted to have been a major factor in the Allied victory.  Preliminary to this gigantic task a needful element to the success of the operation 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 turret system of mounting guns on battleships, his part in the blockade of the Cuban coast, his experimental work in torpedoes and his writings on ordnance and ballistics.
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 explorations in Alaska, forty years ago.
No less important than the increase of geographic knowledge, the National Geographic Society has always held, is its diffusion, and on this basis recognition was accorded to Frank G. Carpenter.
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