SIR,--I have perused several reports of your speech, and with one
exception they all agree that the word "the" was used and not the
word "a." _The Wastepaper Gazette_, with which I think you are
identified, is the only one which has printed your version of the
speech, and I must therefore decline to accept your statement. Of
course had the indefinite article been used it would have destroyed
any ground for complaint. As you are attempting to evade the
serious issue between us I can only conclude that your methods
indicate the "blustering artifice of the rhetorical hireling."
Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall always maintain this
view.