I would like to add a note of explanation concerning how these articles came to be written. Brother Willis has mentioned how we met in Parkersburg. At that time I asked if he would allow anyone to answer his charges and accusations. I said I thought they should be answered in the same place where they were made. He replied that he would do so if we would provide equal space in a publication agreeing with us. I told him that in the first place I am in no position to provide him such a hearing. And secondly I do not feel obliged to do so. It is in the paper he edits that the accusations have been made, and it is there they should be answered.

He then said he would allow no reply. But by that evening he had apparently changed his mind, for he submitted to me two signed propositions. Interestingly enough he had placed me in the affirmative, but he had signed the negative. Finding these unsatisfactory I rewrote them and sent them to him. These are the propositions we are now discussing.

Brother Willis has implied that I challenged him to this debate. Actually at the time of our meeting I had not envisioned the exchange which he proposed. I had thought only that in fairness he should allow someone to answer in his paper the challenge he has thrown out to all who disagree with his opinions. It was in that spirit and with that intent that I agreed to this discussion.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XI: 10, p. 2
July 1967