Seniors Win Debate from Juniors

The Seniors last evening won from the Juniors in the first of the interclass debates. The question for debate was "Resolved, That trusts are a beneficial out-growth of economic conditions in this country." The affirmative was upheld by the following men for 1903, speaking in the order named: R. Ernst, J. J. Mahoney, A. J. Hammerslough. The speakers for 1904 were: F. W. Catlett, I. Lippincott, D. A. McCabe, who spoke in the above named order. Each speaker was allowed twelve minutes for his main speech and five minutes for rebuttal.

The Seniors argued that while trusts in their present condition are attended with undeniable evils, still the system as a whole is better than that of cut-throat competition from which it stated the trust had sprung through a natural growth. The Seniors submitted that the trust should be considered not only as it exists today but also from the standpoint of the ultimate condition which in the course of natural evolution it will attain. The Juniors objected to this interpretation, arguing that the consideration of the question should embrace only the trust as an actual condition of the present. The Juniors then attempted to prove that the trust raises prices while increasing profits from which it alone receives the benefits; also, that it exerts a vast corruptive influence on politics and that by its very nature it precludes the existence of any natural checks.

The judges were Dr. A. P. Andrew, M. Seasongood 3L., and E. R. Perry 3L.