The Stough Charges.
On motion of Mr. Maynard, a committee of the board not residents of
Knoxville, was appointed, and the case
of the professor, charged by Rev. H.
W. Stough with teaching immorality to
his classes, to examine the record and report their finding to the board, with their
recommendations in the premises. The
committee named was Bolton Smith, of
Memphis; H. Clay Evans, of Chattanooga and Hon. W. P. Cooper, speaker
of the Tennessee house of representatives, of Bedford county. After fully
considering all the correspondence in the
case, and all evidence the committee
made the following report, which was
unanimously adopted:—
"Your committee having read the statement of Reverend Dr. Stough, and the
correspondence with him, as well as the
statements of Mrs. McGranahan, Mrs.
Knox, Mrs. Dodson. Mrs. Crafts and
Mrs. French, furnished by him, and subsequent correspondence with these ladles
from the president of the university, finds
that Dr. Stough's statements are in no
sense supported by the letters furnished
by him, and we feel that he should have
withdrawn his statements as soon as he
saw these letters.
"Having examined the newspaper re-
port of the lecture of Professor Schaeffer
in The Knoxville Journal and Tribune of
June 20, 1913, prepared by Mrs. L. Cro-
zier-French, we feel warranted in relying upon the latter, written when the
lecture was fresh in mind, rather than
on the former statements prepared three
years later. We do not in the least suggest that the ladies' statements are not
the result of an absolute desire to be fair
to Professor Shhaeffer, but merely that
the report of Mrs. French, being commendatory in tone, is incompatible with
the belief that the statements now alleged were in fact in her mind when the
article for the paper was written. When
to this was added the denial of Professor
Schaeffer, that he ever held or expressed
such an opinion, and the denial of Pro-
fessorf (sic.) J. C. Pridmore, Miss Ruby
Franklin and Mrs. J. C. Pridmore, who
were present at the lecture, that any such
statements were made, we feel the accusation of these ladies to have been disproved as conclusively as it is possible to
disprove statements made after the lapse
of three years.
"Besides, the charges are so enormous
that we could not find any man of clean
life guilty of them unless the evidence were conclusive, and no one can claim
this to be true in this case.
(Signed)
"BOLTON SMITH, Chairman.
"H. CLAY EVANS
