Debaters Gorman, Olson Win Prizes In Coolidge Contest on Tideland Oil

Gerald W. Gorman '54 of Lowell House and Frank A. Olson '53 of Dunster won awards in the Coolidge Prize Debate yesterday afternoon. The prizes, about $160 each, were awarded to the top two debaters of six finalists arguing "Resolved. That the tidelands oil fields should be the property of the individual states," in Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Gorman, president of the Debate Council, took the negative, along with Hugh J. Schwartzberg '53 and Richard A. Levin '54. Olson, John A. Mishimen '54, and William J. Foote '55, argued the affirmative.

The judges for the debate were McGeorge Bundy, associate professor of Government; George K. Gardner, professor of Law; and Frederick Packard, Jr., associate professor of Public Speaking. The judges called the debate a tie, one of the few times this has been done.

While the debaters were arguing yesterday, the Senate passed a bill deeding tidelands to individual states. The Coolidge topic, however, is an academic one and will be argued again Friday night when the negative team meets Yale in the Lamont Forum Room. The affirmative team goes to Princeton Friday for a second debate on the same subject.

The six finalists in yesterday's debate had been previously chosen from an entering field of 20 in a competition held earlier this term and judged by Walter C. Carrington '52 and Caldwell Titcomb '47.