UNION DEBATING

Debating at the Union, followed by a general discussion, is an experiment that deserves all possible encouragement. It should not only stimulate interest among freshmen in topics of world-wide significance; in addition, it offers them a chance to practice the valuable ability of expressing their ideas clearly and convincingly in public. Moreover, such relatively informal discussion, if successful, should be of material advantage to the University Debating Council, which is at present suffering from lack of forceful speakers.

The present day is notable for a dearth of any other kind of oratory than the perniciously emotional. One has only to listen to the average political harangues, or to read the Congressional Record, to realize to what depths public speaking has sunk in America. Both our politicians, and those we like to call our statesmen, have no compunctions about dragging into any speech, whatever the occasion, Washington, Lincoln,--even God Almighty, who is invoked in the name of Republicans, Democrats, Irishmen, Poles, reactionaries and radicals. He who combines reason with emotion is indeed a rarity. The result is that no public speaker is taken seriously, with the possible exception of President Roosevelt, who alone seems to have learned the cardinal tenet of delivery, that the conversational, gently persuasive, is the most effective.

Any institution which gives promise of remedying this lack of first-rate speakers is praiseworthy. The great merit of the experiment now being practiced at the Union is that it gives the speakers experience. The nature of the audience precludes the possibility of old, stock oratory. What is of vital importance in the early stages of such an experiment is that the topics be wisely chosen, with especial regard to their timeliness and general appeal. For this reason, the first subject, Resolved, That the New England States secede from the Union, is valueless, an utter waste of time to all concerned. It is decidedly to the interest of both speakers and listeners that in the future fields of greater moment be explored, for only thus will the Union debates draw more than limited attention.