The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-01
LETTER TO AUBURN
UNIVERSITY ALUMNI WRITES or
 FOOTBALL.
Afessrs. Ferguson and Cabanies Declare Varsity Football Eleven Has
 Yielded Every Point to the

1fessrs. Ferguson and Cabanies Declare Varsity Football Eleven Has
 Yielded Every Point to the
 Birmingham, Oct 31-CSpecial)--1T following letter has neen sent to Thom- as Bra-~. of the Auburn alumni, by Hill Fergus and Jelks Cabaniss. of the State University aaumni in refer ence to the football game of which SO much has been said heretofofg:i
 october s1. 1908. .Mr. Thomas Bragg. Auburn. Ala. Ky Dear Sir:
 We regret to .-dvise you that it vii te absolutely impossible for the Uni -sity of Alabama to make arrange ments to play you on November 2i, as you suggestt ! In your last letter.
 We have game with the Haskeli Indians schedt led for that date, and even though they are Indians. we feAl that their contract should be protected, unless they are willing to release us. which is not the case. In addition to this, a large number of season tickets have been sold in Tuscaloosa and, the people there Ire unwilling to give up the only game they will see. Our prop osition to .r- - you any time after Manufacturing stiH holds good and we hope your faculty will give you the permission to play as ours has done Your letter tntirnated in several ways that Alabama's s altitude fin these negotiations has not been sincere which forces us toS call your attention to the following iGacts.~ tA sfs
 We in good faith signed an axree- ment with Mr. Hubert Dronnen, a rep resentative named by your BirminR4, ham Alumni, binding each team to play game this fall and agreeing on all of the details. Your Alumni thought, this agreement perfectly fir to both par ties, but you made Mir. .Drennen reeede from the contract.
 We would then have been perfect ly Justified in calling off all negotia- tions, but we really wanted to play the game if possible. So we took up the matter with you.
 We yielded your contention for an eastern umpire. although we believed, and still believe, that there are plenty of men in the South with all the ne- cessary ability and integrity to give each team a fair deal.
 an expense account of $s,50 per day For each man while in Birmingham. sitnougn we were advised that you tel to board your men at $3 a day
 We yielded your demands that you should be allowed expenses for twen- ty-two men. although eighteen or nine- we thought that ample.
 Tn other words, you have been on the defense ever since these negotia- tions opened making us yield every we made an earnest effort to trans fer or cancel the Georgia game on November 14 and the Indian game on November 21, and got the faculty to allow post season game. in our ef- forts to furnish you with q satisfac- tory date.
 we were especially anxious for this game to be played for the reason that we thought 1t would be a good money maker. and the athletic associations of both institutions are sadly in need of funds.
 While We would like to see Ala bama win the game if it Is played. the fact that the odds have been against us from the beginning cut no figure in these negotiations.
 ''You will remember that Alabama went through seven or eight years of very decided defeats at Auburn's hands before we began our winning streak five years ago. We always took our medicine, however, and didn't balk' on technicalities and vnimportant points and we don't think anybody who knows Alabama's athletic record will think that your apparent strength this year makes any difference at all to Alabama in declining to play you on November 21. r
 Tt is with regret that we find our have failed, and the matter Is closed so far as We are concerned.
 Yours very truly.
 Hill Ferguson.
 "Jelks Cabaniss..'