The Sauk Centre herald., 1930-04-24

Three years after delivering from
his pulpit in the Linwood Boule-
ward Methodist Episcopal church
one of the bitterest indictments OF
Sinclair Lewis that has come from
the pulpit, DR.. William l.. Stldger'
now pastor of the Copley Metho-
dist church of Boston, wrote a let
ter of apology to the famous au-
thor.
That letter and Lewis's reply
were read here Sunday by the Rev
7. M. Birkhead in his morning SER
mon in the All Souls Unitarian
church.
DIR. Stidger in his letter to Mr'
Lewis said he would repeat the
apology publicly in Kansas CITY
.Iate in March" DR.. Stidger has
made three speeches in Kansas
CITY in the past two days without
making such an apology.
In explaining why he had mace
the letters public, Mr., Blrkheao
said:
"Stidger accused Lewis of being
drunk while he wrote Elmer Can
try. Mrs. Birkhead and 1 were
with him when he wrote the book.
The inference was disagreeable. II
Lewis was drunk, it appeared we
were parties in the orgy. A few
persons left my church because
they believed what Stidger said
was true. On my own behalf and
on behalf of those friends who
stayed with me, believe these let
etrs should be made public"
The letter of DR.. Stidger:
Dear Red Lewis: I want to do
what I should have done long ago
and have always known that my
sense of fair play would compel me
to do-and that is to apologize to
you for saying that you were drunk
all the time you were writing FL
mer Gantry.'
"Now that that is off my chest I
feel as if a mountain had been re-
moved. 1 had no right to say that
either privately or publicly. 1t was
poor sportsmanship. It just wasn't
cricket. You know it and you have
been damned decent about it, and
I honor you for your attitude
toward what I said. said it in the
midst of a terrible disappointment
about that book and in the heat
of a public pressure which natur-
ally focused directly on me because
you had been in my home so much
preceding its outlining and writing.
You will be your usual liberal self,
I am sure, and forgive me for that
weakness and that injustice to you.
Il am writing this letter first of
all to be fair. Second to relieve
my mind of a feeling that I may
have done you an injustice. Third,
because 1 like you and feel lonely
without your frienship. Fourth,
because do not want you to think
that Bill Stidger would do an un-
just thing and not remedy it when
he saw that he had done so. Il
valued our friendship, not because
you were and are Sinclair Lewis
the writer, but because you were
and are Red Lewis, one of the most
likeable rascals ever knew in all
my life.
"And, also because I have come
to believe that that book had its
place, and that you were feeling
toward an evil and type that JUS
titled an Elmer Gantry' being
written. I do not claim to know
anything about the book as work
of art, nor do believe that Elmer
is typical of my profession-but'
since you wrote that book ] have
been doing a little honest investi-
cation of my own and have found
worse characters in the ministry
than you painted in him.
"Such an apology as am making
just between us personally, so I
am going to make it publicly in the
very city where I made the public
statement. I am to speak there the
last of March and shall make a
public apology there. would pre-
fer to have nothing said of my in
tentions until I do that for, I am
afraid that if it leaked out that I
intend to do that, the women of
the Young Matrons' club who, by
the way, meet in Birkhead's church,
might cancel my engagement be-
fore I got a chance to do it.
want to do it. shall not be COM
pletely happy until do.
This may all seem like so much
of what Betty calls boloney to
you, but was never more subject
or more humble in my life It is
not easy to do, and I know with