DEMONSTHENESIAN PEBBLES

The announcement that the Freshman triangular debaters will employ the "English style" of speaking is at once a tribute to the brilliancy of the Oxford teams that have met the University in the past two years and an evidence of their lasting influence. Until the Oxonians demonstrated that a debate could be both pertinent and entertaining, interest in debating and discussion at the University gradually deadened under the crushing weight to crystallized formalism. That the Council is attempting to train a new college generation of speakers in the English parliamentarian is perhaps the best indication of renewed spirit and vision.

But the Oxford debater is the product of the Oxford Union, rather than of few weeks of intensive training; and it may be doubted if without such an organization the American can attain the case and fluency of this British opponent. Recognition of this by the Harvard Debating Union has been less difficult than the achievement of its Oxford prototype's unique position. The reason are not difficult to find. Aside from fundamental differences in the organization of the two universities, there is the fact that the Oxford Union represents a combination of a great number of discussion groups where interests are highly specialized. Except for the Liberal Club, the Poetry Society, and the recreated Republican and Democratic Clubs such discussion groups are conspicuously absent in the University. The Harvard Debating Union therefore, labors under the handicap that it must rouse interest almost solely within itself.

The not unmeasurable success of the Debating Union gives rise to the hope that it may definitely success in introducing more spontaneous and informal discussion. The plans for liberalization of membership recently adopted are a first step. With the approach of Presidential elections and the consequent stimulus to argument the times favor a growth of interest; the arrangement of a series of pertinent topics for debate and a program of interesting speakers in perhaps all that is necessary for complete acclimatization of the Oxford institution.