THE PASSING OF ORATORY

The sterility of American colleges in the production of speakers of rare capacity can be attributed in part at least to the insignificant place of debating in undergraduate life. The neglect of forensics may be caused by the fact that the universities in this country are not traditionally, as they are in England, training grounds for the nation's statesmen. Although American universities cannot be made replicas of the English in this respect, there are other means of inciting brilliant men to rescue college debating from the nadir into which it has fallen.

At Harvard the general lack of interest has driven the debaters to speak outside of Cambridge. The annual debate with Boston College which is to take place-tomorrow may seem like an exception to this, but it really carries no significance since the audience is not for the most part drawn from the University. Accordingly, Harvard with the other universities can well afford to give some attention to the subject.

One specific cause of the apathy toward debating is the exclusive choice of political subjects, topics which often afford more opportunity for matching statistics and specious "debating points" than for matching careful thought, fine language, and ready wit. The discussion of subjects in the fields of fine arts and history as well as in politics would tend to draw more, and perhaps abler, men into debating and to arouse general undergraduate interest.