THE MAIL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Since the HYRC has used your advertising columns for the unique purpose of intemperate personal attacks upon myself and upon the integrity of the Liberal Union, may I be given the opportunity to set the record straight? These irresponsible charges of "publicity stunt" and "political charlatans" leveled at the HLU for its advocacy of a Coolidge-Dever debate were those that the CRIMSON had the good taste not to print in accounts of the planned meeting. The failure of the Republicans to induce Mr. Coolidge to appear at Harvard to debate the Governor appears to have called forth from the HYRC an employment of invective uncommon to political controversies among men of honest convictions. This stream of scurrilous charges cannot hide the following unalterable facts:

1. Fully three weeks ago, Governor Dever's office informed me that the Governor would accept the HLU's invitation to meet his opponent in a public debate at the University. Although he had had many more speaking commitments than Mr. Coolidge, he considered this engagement of such importance that he offered us two crucial campaign dates.

2. As reported in detail in the CRIMSON, on three separate occasions after this offer, candidate Coolidge declined the same invitation. In the face of the third declination by Mr. Coolidge to appear at Harvard, the best that the HYRC could concoct to cover their failure was a patently ridiculous invitation that their candidate allegedly tended to the Governor to debate aboard the Coolidge sound-ruck as it was passing through Harvard Square. The Governor's campaign managers considered this stunt "insulting," but reitorated the Governor's willingness to meet Mr. Coolidge in orderly debate at the University. Mr. Coolidge's managers continued to decline.

I wonder whether the above facts constitute "lame excuses . . . fakery had moral bankruptcy" by the HLU? Such charges are reflective of an unfortunate defensive state of mind engendered by the HYRC's embarrassment at their candidate's reluctance to appear at Harvard. How cynically can the truth be distorted to make it appear as the reverse? Roy F. Gootenberg '49, 2PA