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January 30, 1901

President Jordan,

Leland Stanford University,
Palo Alto, California:

Dear Sir:-

We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of
January 7th, as well as the letter of your committee of
three, of January 14th.

You state in your letter that you are ready to answer
all questions. May we venture to put the following:

1. - In the committee's letter of January 14th, it is
stated that he ''dissatisfaction of the University Management
with Professor Ross antedated his utterances on the
topics you refer to." How can this dissatisfaction of the
University management be made to agree with the statement
of the President, speaking for himself and the faculty,
and quoted in the public prints of November 14th as
follows: -

a.- Extract from a letter from. Professor Ross to President
Jordan: "it was a pleasure, however, to learn from
you of the unqualified terms in which you have
expressed to her (Mrs. Stanford) your high opinion of
my work and your complete confidence in me as a teacher,
a scientist, and a man."

b.-Quotation from a letter from President Jordan to Professor
Ross: ''I wish to express once more the high
esteem in which your work as a student and a teacher,
as well as your character as a man, is held by your colleagues."

2.- In your letter of January 7th, you say- ''His
(Professor Ross's) statement to the press does not assign
any of the true reasons." If the speeches on coolie immigration
and municipal ownership did not constitute any
of the reasons for his dismissal, why was the dissatisfaction,
which in your judgment antedated these speeches,
not manifested until immediately after the delivery of the
same? Why was the reappointment so dubious and tardy

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while Professor Ross had no intimation of his possible
non-appointment till May 18?

3.- In saying that Professor Ross does not assign
any of the true reasons for his dismissal, do we understand
you to deny the truth of Professor Ross's published
statement, containing quotations from your
remarks to him:

a.- That "he (Dr. Jordan) had heard from her (Mrs.
Stanford) just after my address on coolie immigration."

b.- That ''quite unexpectedly to him (President Jordan)
Mrs. Stanford had shown herself greatly displeased with
me (Professor Ross)."

c.- That "he (President Jordan) was profoundly distressed
at the idea of dismissing a scientist for utterances
within the scientist's own field."

d.- That "he (President Jordan) made earnest representations
to Mrs. Stanford."

4.- What are the real reason for the dismissal of
Dr. Ross? In your letter of January 7th, you say: For
reasons which will readily appear, it has not been deemed
advisable for us to state the reasons why Dr. Ross was
dismissed." Will you pardon us for saying that we fail
readily to recognize any such reasons? If the reasons
are that you fear to injure the personal reputation of
Professor Ross, may we venture to suggest that nothing that
you could do would be more calculated to injure Dr. Ross
than the insinuation that there are some secret reasons
which cannot be divulged. It is just because some such
innuendoes have been printed in the papers that our
committee address itself to you, in order to ascertain the
true state of affairs.

While we regret to prolong this correspondence, you
will readily see that unless we can give the members of
the American Economic Association some explicit reasons
for Professor Ross's dismissal other than those assigned
by him, they will naturally adhere to the opinion