Stand By For The Facts
As the Bible Banner goes to press N. B. Hardeman's last blast in the Gospel Advocate appears. The fact that he has resorted to the old campaign of calumny is evidence of utter defeat and complete frustration on the issues. We deplore the necessity of replying to his personal attacks but the source from which it comes leaves no alternative—honor and equity require it. The next Bible Banner will answer this latest "sleuce of slander."
As the press is held for this insertion, I wish to make the following statements:
1. It is not true that I called upon N. B. Hardeman to help me out of the financial misfortunes of 1934. My letters to him were written at his solicitation. He entered the matter at his own suggestion with plans of his own formulation for the editorial management of the Gospel Advocate then, and for the control and operation of the Firm Foundation later. I hold documentary evidence to sustain this statement.
2. It is not true that I suggested or approved any suggestion to settle my just debts on the basis of fifty percent discount or any other discount. I hold evidence that I had previously assured every creditor a one hundred percent settlement, if I lived long enough to accomplish it. This assertion of N. B. Hardeman's is wicked. Through all the years, until very recently, he has never even intimated such a thing. It is wholly uncalled for now. I deny his charge with all of its implications and imputations absolutely.
3. It is not true that I schooled a son at Freed-Hardeman College on N. B. Hardeman's charity. Ten years ago I sent a son to his school—he attended the school four months only—and the costs were agreed upon and paid, value received in full and in advance, understood and acknowledged by N. B. Hardeman himself at the time. This is the cheapest thing that he has done or said in all of his contumelious scoffing. It reveals the real stature of the man—how little he actually is. It proves that he will stoop to anything, nothing too low for him to do, to discredit us.
4. It is not true that I have been the mere object of N. B. Hardeman's grace. The record holds the evidence that on the very pecuniary basis he puts it, I have done far more for him and his school, directly and indirectly, than either he or it has ever done for me. His attempt to put the matter on such a basis is but further proof of his own mercenary mind. I feel deeply ashamed of the whole unworthy and unholy thing. But it will serve as a warning to anyone who has ever accepted a favor from him, or is about to do so, that he will use it to either control you or crush you, if he can.
5. It is not true that the war question was "the beginning of what has resulted since" —unless in this statement he is confessing instead of accusing. All during the war I received letters from him of commendation, praise and appreciation. If he is sincere now, he was hypocritical then, and his attitude was feigned. No change of attitude on my part nor supposed "refusal" to take a stand on his part was the beginning of anything that has happened since. Nor did I attack Brother Hardeman—he is the aggressor and the attacker. It was first in the dark, but now comes in to the open. He tacitly tells us why—it is because he has been pushed off the fence on both the "war question" and the "church-college" question; he fell on the wrong side, the side he does not really want to be on. He was put on the spot. He was "lined up" against his will. He is mad about it. So with anger and malice aforethought he is prosecuting his present attacks.
6. Nothing in N. B. Hardeman's closing eruption of his pent-up animosity is true. It is a perversion of truths and half-truths which make the whole of the graceless thing an ingenious torturing of facts, resolving the entire attack into a fusillade of falsities.
Since this job has to be done, though unwanted and undesirable and unpleasant it is, we aim to make it complete. I will disclose the real reasons for the Brewer-Hardeman attacks—the true background of it all. Stand by for the next Bible Banner.