Communication

[We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest.]

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

The question for the debates with Yale and Princeton is announced in the midst of the examination period for the first time in the history of intercollegiate debating. This unfortunate contingency is due to a conflict in the dates of the spring vacations at the three universities. If the question were announced at the regular time the debates at New Haven and Princeton would occur when the whole college audience would be absent on vacation. The solution of the problem is to be regretted but is hardly avoidable.

It is evident as a consequence of this handicap that it is doubly incumbent on members of the University interested in debating to come heartily to its support at the present time. The coaches for the teams have done their part by allowing eleven days time between the announcement of the question and the first trials. It is for the undergraduates in their turn to enter into the trials in as great numbers and enthusiasm as if the question had been announced after the beginning of the new half-year.

The Debating Council has done what it could in an informal way to urge men to enter these trials. In its behalf I should now like to make a public appeal to all men in the University interested in public affairs and public speaking to come out for our debating teams. We have heard much of late of the poor condition of debating here. However that may be, there are already some signs that a true, general interest in debating and public speaking is returning to us. An opportunity is now presented to many who have declared a concern for the interests of debating to give color to their words by entering vigorously into the present trials. The present is a critical year for our debating. Victories this year would go far toward restoring us to our old position of supremacy. That position, we are sure, is a matter of pride to undergraduates as well as to graduates, as it surely is a source of prestige with the general public. E. R. LEWIS '08.