The courier-index., 1919-06-27
Board Stands By
 President FutraE

|
 Little Rock, June 22.-The board of trustees of the state university
 at a late heur last night completed it's investigation of charges preferred
 against President J. c. Plural by
 the Arkansas Profitable Farming Bu.
 reau of Little Rock and adopted a | resolution as follows:
 Resolved that this board unani-
 mously expresses it's absolute conf
 dence in the baility of our president
 and that from our personal knowl- edge of the affairs of the university we express it as our sincere belief
 that the university has progressed
 more in the agricultural world under the leadership of President Plural than any other similar institution. !" G. P. Stocker of the engineering
 department of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi,
 was elected professor of civil en- gineering to succeed Prof. J. J. Knoch, who resigned.
 Lieut.. J. s. Waterman, now sta- toned at Camp Pike, was elected to the faculty as an instructor in the
 economies department. Mrs. c. W. lKinkeiman of Fayetteville was. n anx-
 ed to succeed Mrs. Jesse Warner as
 matron of the clubhouse for the faculty. The building will be on the university campus and will cost about $6,000. The faculty will con- tribute to the fund.
 President Plural gave out the fol- l lowing statement tonight: "The &C.,
 count of the meeting of the board of trustees of the university as pub- Gshed in a Little Rock morning pa- per is entirely misleading.
 'In addition the report casts iru- putatiOns on the honor and integrity of members of the board of trustees who conducted investigations and the veracity of members of the uni
 yersity faculty who gave testimony. "There was large mass of testi-
 mony brought out concerning the
 Little Rock management of the Profitable Farming Bureau, which Che account suppressed. So damag- | ing was this testimony that the men
 who came to the trustees with their
 complaint that the president of the
 university would not cooperate with them, retired from the field alto gether, although offered by the trus- 1 tees every opportunity to present their case with the assurance that tnA ha ,a
 long as they wished
 "This meeting of the trustees was called several weeks ago at the re- quest of administrative officers of the university and government agri- cultural extension forces to hear
 complaints made by the extension forces against the Little Rock man- agement of the Profitable Farming Bureau. The claim was made that these managers had interferred with the extension work and to stir up trouble between extension workers
 and the people. That they had put
 on foolish campaigns of agricultural promotion in which incorrect and
 harmful information had been given | out, resulting in losses to farmers and business men of Arkansas, and
 that these campaigns had been so
 handled as to throw on the shoulders of the extension forces the blame in part at least for failures and losses incurred, that the members of the
 extension forces had been so intimi-
 dated by the dictatorial and threat
 ening policies pursued that they
 were actually afriad to tell the
 fa-sers publicly the plain truth in
 regard to the false doctrines that
 were being preached.
 | "Whether these charges were
 proved by the testimony adduced IS for the people of Arkansas to de-
 eide when they read the evidence.
 It was at my request that the hear
 ing was open to the public, it was
 at my request that the full evidence wos orde~a@ rhlished and will be spread ever sEe state. And it IS
 my request that the people read the evidence in order that they will
 know the truth, I wish to say em- | phaticudy that we have no ngnc | with the business men and bankers of the staCe, some of whom have
 been misled by the propaganda sent
 out. They have been cooperating
 with us nobly. This issue IS joined
 with the Little Rock management of
 the profitable farming bureau, and
 no amount of canoufage shall be permitted to cloud it.
 "I note these gentlemen are going
 to take the matter to the people.
 That is where we want it to go.
 And hereby invite E. J. Boaeman,
 chairman of the Arkansas Profitable
 Farming Bureau of the Little Rock
 Board of Commerce to meet me on
 the stump anywhere and everywhere
 in the state and discuss the issue involved.
 | --O-----~-
 I HEICT AT HAAn