News

Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber

News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard

News

‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative

News

Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter

News

LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard

COMMUNICATIONS.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON:-In your article of Friday on Elocution, 1 would suggest that you have neglected to make mention of a very important element in the making of a good speaker. I refer to that practical work which is of such great value in attaining all of the essentials of a finished orator; for there are but few professions in which there is so great advantage in early experience as in the law, to which your article chiefly refers.

How, then, is this practice to be obtained? In many ways. But we at Harvard have not only many ways, but the way, and that is the practice of debate. The importance of practice in debate as a factor of success to a lawyer is so great that no one who is studying for that profession should consider his curriculum of study complete without arrangements for this practice. The Union is the chief means of obtaining this exercise here, and it ought to be attended by many more than it is. All of the speaking that a lawyer has to do is directly of the nature of that which constitutes a debate. There is a point to be maintained by one party and attacked by another; or perhaps two parties are striving to establish two opposite conclusions. The same is the case in the ordinary practice of a lawyer; and there are in debate the very best opportunities for the formation of a good style of delivery, of a habit of rapid and exhaustive reasoning, and of that self-possession which is so essential to success. Let me recommend, then, through your columns, the opportunities offered by the Union, not only to those who are studying for the law, but to all, without exception, who expect to live through their college course; for there can be no man who will not be benefited by this practice of debate, whatever his calling or condition of life.-'87.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags