jienée,
Yotume VI. No. 30
NEW HAVEN, CONN.,
YALE LOSES IN DEBATE.
Superior Form and Style of Princeton
Wen Wins.
Yale met Princeton in an intercol-.
legiate debate in the College Straabs the best of the three.
Hall Friday evening, May = %cakd
fered then the first defeaStreet
recent debating \\“hodin and suf-
The debate 'wasdéféat since the
est fromegtitoeom” began here.
audienwas full of life and inter- :
thoithe start to the finish. Theat the
which was quite: laxechowed
ough considerably below thahetarguments
arvard debate just a year a
keen appreciation dfhelps,
the debatesi, was the presiding officer, and
‘ton. agieared upon the platform, accom-
i101
ex-minister to
panied by the six speakers, soon after
8 o'clock. Without any delay he read
the question: “Resolved, That the
power of the Speaker of the United
States House of Representatives is
detrimental to the public interest,” and
announced that Yale was to defend
the affirmative and Princeton the
negative. He then introduced the first-
speaker.
From the nature of the question Yale
had the burden of the proof on her side
and faced the difficulty of demonstrat-
ing the value of a theoretical and un-
tried system, while Princeton’s position
was to defend the present system and
pick flaws in Yale’s proposition. The
two teams met fairly and squarely
upon the main issues, and no misinter-
pretation of the question occurred.
THE YALE ARGUMENTS.
Edward H. Hume, ’97, first took the
floor, as a representative of Yale. The
aim of his speech was to show the
evils that follow from the combination
of the powers of a party leader and of
a moderator in one man. These func-
tions, which reside in our Speaker, are
elsewhere exercised separately. In the
House, however, it was claimed that
the functions of party leadership dom-
inated the speaker’s conduct as presid-
ing officer, and lead to great unfair-
hess in his power to decide questions
of order and in his control of recogni-
tion.
The Yale argument, after the first
Princeton speaker, was next taken up
by Herbert W. Fisher, 98. He directed
his attack against the Speaker’s influ-
ence in abolishing debate. He claimed
that by using his moderator’s powers
to gain his party’s ends the Speaker
had transformed the House from a de-
liberative body into a legislative ma-
chine. He argued further that the
haste in passing Majority measures,
framed in the secrecy of committtees,
and subject to no criticism, resulted in
bad legislation. Sectional feeling is
caused by the undue suppression of
the minority, and the educational and
informing power of the debate is lost.
Edward L. Smith, 97, summed up the
chief Yale arguments that had so far
been made; showed how the work of
deliberation had been gradually forced
out of the House into the Senate, any
criticism of which would apply doubly
to the House, and then set forth a
proposition for a better system in the
House. His object was to separate
the functions of party leader and mod-
erator. He proposed that the former
be thrown upon a natural leader of
the majority on the floor of the House
and that the Speaker be made a
strong and impartial moderator.
The Yale team work, in these first
speeches, was especially strong and ef-
fective. The arguments were brought
out with much clearness and in a logi-
cal sequence but lacked some in force.
ee Re Oey a ee a NR
The Century Company’s offer on t
last page is worth sh: ly ae a
was uncertain of himself once 6
and had a tendency to
Mr. Fisher’s argumeé
incisive and convint®
ner of speakingpincrton’s ANSWERS.
his words v
The speakers were none of th
tinctively strong debaters:—?+
ments, when DHE of ‘fiém dis-
clinched so as | if ;
their validity fivts: , Their argu-
1 mice ‘Stated, were not
ence, .Mto téave no doubt as to
MARY in the minds of the audi-
“Wr. Smith’s presence was per
me
twice
fast.
Mi et “the most
iae,, but his man-
areacked in dignity, and
spoken too fast.
The negative argument was taken up
by Howard H. Yocum, ‘98, of Princeton,
who immediately followed Mr. Hume.
He aimed to show that the powers of
the Speaker had been a natural growth
and that they were thoroughly consis-
tent with, even necessary for, the suc-
cessful conduct of business under our
system of government. The Speaker
must be not only a moderator, but also
a leader. He must, therefore, have the
power to offer political rewards and in-
flict political punishments. Otherwise
his power would be nothing in Ameri-
can politics.
Princeton’s debate was carried on by
Nathaniel S. Reeves, 799, who argued
that the Yale attack applied, not to the
powers of the Speaker, but to the whole
committee system of the House. He
claimed that the experience of one hun-
dred years had justified the powers of
the Speaker, who was bound to give the
minority a fair consideration and dis-
charge his duties well, or else he would
be punished at the end of his two years.
His power of recognition was neces-
sary in order to make a selection of the
excess of unimportant bills that are
brought up for consideration.
Robert F.. Sterling, ’97, closed Prince-
ton’s argument. He first picked to
pieces Yale’s proposition of a division
of the functions of the Speaker, claim-
ing that there would be friction be-
tween the two men and that the man in
the chair, having control of the rules,
would gradually absorb power in the
same way that the Speaker has done it.
He further, claimed that the Speak-
er’s influence was against the disinte-
grating tendencies of the committee
system and that the country owed much
to him for keeping the House to its
alloted task and controlling the pass-
age of good bills. He further asserted
that the intelligent public opinion was
the best remedy for the evils in the
House and that the sober second
thought of the nation upheld the or-
ganization of the House.
The form of the Princeton speakers
was much superior to that of the Yale
men and their manner of talking was
more convincing, although their argu-
ments may not have been any stronger
in themselves. The close of Mr. Ster-
ling’s speech put a new attitude upon
the debate, which had seemed at first
to be Yale’s.
THE REBUTTALS.
In the rebuttals Yale weakened dis-
tinctly. Her debaters repeated large-
ly what had already been said, and on
some occasions they seemed to lose con-
fidence and be uncertain of their argu-
ments. Mr. Fisher’s answers to the
Princeton arguments, which took the
form of denials rather than genuine ar-
guments, were spoken too hurriedly to
be effective. Mr. Smith was, on the
other hand, too slow in his delivery and
was choked off in his final attempt to
show that the development of the
Speaker’s powers had been in the wrong
direction, and that the present system
was detrimental to the public interest.
inasmuch as it stood in the place of
something better.
Princeton made her attacks upon the
Yale situation all the more incisive and
destructive. Mr. Sterling in closing
practically clinched the matter. He
maintained that there was no middle
course of government between the cab-
(Continued on eighth page.)
“THURSDAY,
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1897,
Price Tn Cenrs.
A. E. Fraser, °98, T. S.
C. L. Avery, Jr., ’97, L.S.
E. H. Hume, ’97.
H. W. Fisher, 798..
E. L. Smith, °97.
YALE DEBATERS AGAINST PRINCETON.
is [From a photograph by Pach.]
DIVINITY YEAR ENDING,
The Commencement Exercises—A 997
T. S. Issue of the Weekly.
The Rev. Dr. A. J. H. Behrends, of
Brooklyn, will deliver the anniversary
address before the Theological School on
Sunday evening next.
The Commencement exercises will be
held on Wednesday, May 19, in College
Street Hall. The speaker will be Dr.
Henry Van Dyke, of New York. Messrs. ’
Rall, Knapp, Rice’ and Merrill of the
Senior Class will deliver addresses.
Following these exercises, which will
be held in the forenoon, will be the
alumni dinner and the meeting of the
alumni in the aftergoon in Marquand
Chapel. The officers of the Alumni As-
sociation are: President, Dr. T. T. Mun-
ger, 00; Vice-President, Rev. D. M.
James, ’88 ; Secretary, Rev. H. A. Bridg-
man, ’87; Treasurer, Dr. W. J. Mutch, ’85.
The next issue of the Weekly will con-
tain an exhaustive review of the year in
the Divinity School, with something on
the outlook for the next year. The arti-
cle will be illustrated with a large half-
tone plate of the graduating class and
the Faculty of the Divinity School. It
will also contain sketches of the individ-
ual members of the graduating class.
ee
Prize for Original Music.
William Woods Chandler, 96, of New
Haven, a student in the Musical Depart-
ment of Yale University, was recently
awarded the prize for an original com-
position for the organ, offered by the
Connecticut Music Teachers’ Associa-
tion. Mr. Chandler had among his
competitors some of the best known
and successful composers of the State,
but the award of the judges was unani-
mous. The judges were Messrs. George
Chadwick and Arthur Foote of Boston,
and Prof. E. A. McDowell of New York,
all representative American musicians.
_The composition is a theme and varia-
tions with a concluding fugue, worked
out with much ingenuity. Mr. Chan-
dler will play his composition at the
Composers’ concert of the Connecticut
Music Teachers’ Association, on Mon-
day the 17th.
John A. Porter Prize Subjects.
The subjects for the John A. Porter
University prize essays for 1898 are giv-
en below. The prize is of the value of
$250, and was established in 1872 by the
Kingsley Trust Association. Any per-
son who has been pursuing a regular
course for a degree in any department
during the current college year, may
compete for it. The subjects for 1898
are as follows:
1. The English Occupation of Egypt.
2. Tennyson as a Theologian.
3. The Radicalism of Euripides.
4, Student Life at a Medieval Uni-
versity.
5 A Russian Statesman — Prince
Gortschakoff. oS
6. The Influence of Scenic Upon
Dramatic Art.
7. The Power of the Federal Exec-
utive Respecting Foreign Relations.
8. The Scope of Sanitary Authority.
9. Absolutism in Municipal Govern-
ment.
10. Plutocracy and Democracy.
11. The Relation of Right to Law.
12. Literature and the (American)
Civil War.
13. The Future of Opera.
14. Social Selection: Types of char-
acter, Standards of Behavior, Fashions
of Opinion, etc., Favored and Estab-
lished by the Fluctuations of Predomi-
nant Notions in Literature, Conversa-
tion, etc.
Essays are due on May 1, 1898. In-
quiries concerning subjects and other
matters of the competition may be ad-
dressed to Drawer 8, New Haven.
++
Base Ball Umpires.
The managers of the Yale, Harvard
and Princeton baseball nines have
agreed to put all selections for umpires
in their championship games in the
hands of the President of the National
League. He will appoint them from
the league staff, and their identity will
be unknown till they come on the field.
ts
The first half-rater race was held Sat-
urday afternoon at Morris Cove. The
Yehl, sailed by B. Clark, ’98, won in
2 hours 6 minutes, the course being six
miles in length.
