A DEBATING UNION.

In spite of the result of the triangular debate, for which the Harvard teams deserve hearty praise, there is no question that public speaking in the University is at a low ebb. This is due to a lack of support, which in turn results form a natural hesitancy to undertake the laborious and technical preparation of a difficult question with no assurance of participating in a contest commanding anything like widespread collegiate interest or support. Under the present system, with a debating association existing simply to train two intercollegiate teams, a general lack of interest in debating is inevitable.

In view of this situation, the present endeavor of the Speakers' Club to form a confederation of all College organizations interested in public speaking, appears to be a step in the right direction. Such an association should provide a common forum where undergraduates may discuss the problems constantly arising in University life. It would, moreover, establish a freer, larger, and more pleasant training field from which to draw the University debaters, and, best of all, it would accustom many men to speaking in public.

There are at present ten organizations interested in some form of public speaking. And these debating and political clubs lose in effectiveness because they have many members in common, or else stagnate individually because they represent only an isolated view of some absorbing question. Informal debates among these club members on topics of common interest should enable them to reach conclusions of moment and should prove stimulating to each organization engaged.