The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-20
JUDGE SANFORD REFUSES TOCALL
 STATE ALUMNI
Declares Association Has No Right To Dictate
 To Trustees
(State Capital Bureau.)

| MONTGOMERY, Ala, Dec. 19. - Judge w. H. Sanford, president of the | Auburn Alumni association, in letter today addressed to five Auburn alumni of Birmingham, declared that Tit would seem to me the height of impropriety for the Auburn Alumni association to undertake to dictate to the board of trustees who should be president or professors at Auburn or to undertake by resolution or insurrection to force a president elected by the board to resign" The functions of the Auburn Alumni association do not include responsibility for the administration of the college, Judge Sanford stated.
 The letter was addressed to Henry DeBardeleben, Joel F. Webb, Dan s. Martin, Jere Gwin and Charles F. De Bardeleben of Birmingham, and was in reply to a letter signed by them, ad- dressed to Judge Sanford.
 Following is the text of Judge Sam ford's letter:
 Samfords Letter
 "Your letter addressed to me as pres ident of Auburn Alumni association and published in the daily press of the eighteenth has been read by me. l assure you the temptation is very great to answer you in kind, but I have never vet resorted to personalities or indulged in recriminations in discussing ques- tions of a public nature. To do so proves nothing, admits the weakness of the cause you are trying to present and arouses resentments sometimes hard to overcome or forget.
 q may be, as you say, a novice as Il. I,,f I hn Q tions of the Auburn Alumni association do not include a responsibility for the administration of the college. That duty is fixed by law in a board of trus- tees appointed by the governor of Ala bama and confirmed by the senate. Nor does the Auburn Alumni association own or control the college, notwith- standing some recent large contributions made by some of its members in more or less unsefish desire to aid its growth. The association is a body composed of a group of men and women who re ceived at least partial education at | the hands of those who, throughout the years, have taught within the halls of | the institution, maintained and guided by the state of Alabama.
 | "These facts being true, it would seem to me the height of impropriety | for the Auburn Alumni association to undertake to dictate to the board of trustees who should be president or professors at Auburn or to undertake by resolution or insurrection to force president elected by the board to resign. + I felt that even a partial responsi- bility for the management of the college at Auburn rested upon its alumni asso- citation. 1, as it's president would take such steps as in my own judgment were proper to ascertain the will of the association and then to act upon the result. Until such authority is so vested or until the trustees have re- quested it, decline to lead the associa ton into a situation from which it would emerge with no credit to itself or benefit to the institution it is de- signed to serve.
 II note in your letter your pledges of disinterested loyalty to Auburn aud your claim that by your contributions to a recent drive you saved Auburn college There may be those who would debate this question with you, but I will not, am simply reminded of the quotation from Shakespeare, Me thinks the lady prOtesteth too much." :" But even this great service, granting the force of all you say, does not divest the board of trustees of the control of