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The latter move brought protests. The American Association of University Professors conducted an inquiry and found much to condemn. They admitted that his policies were constructive, but found an ulterior note. They suggested that Dr. Marvin was playing to Interests.
It was at this point that Dr. Marvin stumbled over the microscopic detail. In Tucson one Woodson D. Upshaw, started to publish a weekly newspaper the Independent, circulation 400. Hardly pausing to hang up his hat, Editor Upshaw had made his presence known by a vociferous attack upon the local gas corporation, demanding and helping to obtain a big rate reduction. After that the Independent had no mere "acquaintances." It had friends and enemies. It became a daily. And Editor Upshaw's next good fortune was a letter from a biologist at the university, a mixture of sarcasm and grief that referred to Dr. Marvin as "His Nibs."
By some means, not yet explained, the "His Nibs" letter left Editor Upshaw's office and came into Dr. Marvin's hands. Life became increasingly unpleasant for the letter-writing biologist, whom Dr. Marvin was powerless to dismiss since he was a Federal biologist.
Editor Upshaw told Tucson about the "His Nibs" letter episode and began saying Dr. Marvin was unfit to head the university. He said it very loudly.
Then came Dr. Marvin's friends, the Tucson merchants. He had made them believe in him so thoroughly he could not now stop them from threatening Editor Upshaw (whose circulation was still only about 400) with an advertising boycott if the Independent did not "lay off" Dr. Marvin. Advertising boycotts, of course, are to small newspapers what persecution is to small religions. They kill or cultivate. Editor Upshaw demanded Dr. Marvin's resignation, was boycotted and the Independent's circulation quadrupled. Editor Upshaw was no longer a quidnunc but a martyr and a St George. The railroad brotherhoods backed him. Independent advertisers rallied to him. The Tucson Ministerial Association gave tongue with him. All demanded an investigation of Dr. Marvin's activities—and got it.
When the regents met for this investigation, Dr. Marvin had the comfort of knowing that Chancellor E. E. Ellinwood, general counsel for the Phelps Dodge Corp (copper), had called the meeting with reluctance. The regents deadlocked on Dr. Marvin's reappointment and those who voted with Chancellor Ellinwood for reappointment had the bad sense to hold up the appointments of other faculty members. It was a most dismal charivari of pedagogical politics. And after the gubernatorial primaries, Governor George Wylie Paul Hunt of Arizona, ex-officio a member of the board of regents and a winner at the polls despite opposition from Chancellor Ellin wood, called another investigation.
When drawling, sunburned youths from Phoenix, Globe and Flagstaff went back to their classes last September they found a Dr. Marvin shorn of power. With Governor Hunt's vote swaying the balance, the regents had constituted themselves executors of the university with Dr. Marvin retained merely as agent. Governor Hunt won the November elections, was in a position to appoint anti-Marvin regents in the places of pro-Marvinites when their terms ran out. Dr. Marvin, knowing well what would happen at the next regents' meeting, resigned. With him resigned Chancellor Ellinwood