I have taken the liberty of setting forth these details because of the fact that I am eager to have it understood that Collier's could never publish the kind of an article which was brought to your attention. Very truly yours, (Signed) William L. Chenery, Editor.
No reply from Liberty Weekly, Inc., in Chicago was received by President Lowell. Under date of January 12, 1927, Mr. Hubbard, in Astoria replied to President Lowell's letter of December 13, as follows: Astoria, L. I., Jan. 12, 1927.
My Dear President Lowell:
This reply to your note to me regarding my Princeton football article is very late, but I must ask your forgiveness on the score of illness.
I regret that I cannot comply with your request and have my article withdrawn. I say this for two reasons. First because, although I did not write the article in question with a view to capitalising it, I have accepted payment for it. Second, and most important, I most firmly and sincerely believe not only in that which I have written but in the support of the many Harvard men, in official positions and otherwise, who have endorsed and encouraged me.
I wish you to know that the idea of writing such an article did not originate with me. I wrote it at the request of and in close collaboration with men intimately connected with the football situation in Cambridge.
I would also like you to know that this article was shown to Mr. Roper, Dean Gauss, Professor Kennedy and President Hibben of Princeton because we decided to print it. I feel that they have been given every opportunity to reply in any manner they may choose and that I cannot in any way be accused of under cover attack.
The article will appear in Liberty in about three weeks. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Wynant D. Hubbard.
On January 15 President Lowell sent copies of his letters with the following note to President Hibben on Princeton: January 15, 1927.
Dear Mr. Hibben:
Having heard that Wynant D. Hubbard, a Harvard graduate, was writing an article for some magazine criticising the method of play of the Princeton football team, I wrote to him to ask him to withdraw his article and to the magazines which I understood might publish it, requesting them not to do so. I thought it might be useful to you to have copies of my letters, which I enclose. The first two concerns I wrote to replied that they should not think of publishing such an article; the third, which is to publish it, I did not hear about until the date of my letter.
I need hardly tell you how much I deplore such an article. Very truly yours, (Signed) A. LAWRENCE LOWELL