AFFIRMATIVE WINS IN BOTH PRELIMINARIES OF INTERCLASS DEBATES

The preliminaries of the interclass debates were held last night at 7.30 o'clock, in accordance with the following schedule:

Freshmen, affirmative, vs. Sophomores, negative, Smith Halls Common Room; Juniors, affirmative, vs. Seniors, negative, Harvard 6.

The subject of both debates was: Resolved: "That Harvard should limit intercollegiate football to one annual contest with Yale supplementing it with the Oxford system of intramural contests". In both debates the decision of the judges was unanimous in favor of the affirmative. The experiment inaugurated by the Harvard Debating Council of having the audience render a decision upon the merits of the case while the judges decide solely upon superiority of presentation has produced an interesting result. The audience at the Freshman-Sophomore debate, numbering in all about fifty students voted by a ratio of three to one in favor of the affirmative, thus agreeing in their decision with the judges as well as throwing an interesting and wholly unexpect- ed light on student opinion on the matter of intercollegiate football. The audience at the Junior-Senior debate was too small to permit a similar experiment.

The debates were close and well presented with a great deal of sound argument on both sides. The Freshmen showed up especially well under the leadership of their captain, W. S. Stone, who presented what was probably the best considered and most logical case in either of the two debates.

The order in which the members of the teams spoke follows:

Juniors  SeniorsW. T. Howe, captain  R. H. CrismanM. S. Silbert  L. B. Young, CaptainI. G. Bieser  S. J. FeltensteinFreshmen  SophomoresH. M. Hart Jr.  E. A. SmithH. C. Davidson  B. G. BeckhofferN. S. Stone, captain  G. E. Barton Jr., captai