DEBATING PLANS

Work in the University, Sophomore and Freshman debating clubs is now well under way. The University club, organized last year by the consolidation of the Senior and Junior class clubs, held its first meeting of the year last Tuesday and elected W. H. Davis '05 president. W. H. Keeling '07 is president of the Sophomore club and H. H. Buckman '08 of the Freshman club.

The policy of all three clubs during the year will be to emphasize and encourage impromptu speaking to a greater degree than heretofore. A series of addresses by prominent men is being arranged for the meetings of the University Debating Club. Among those who have consented to speak is Lieutenant Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., '81. These meetings will be held every Wednesday evening in the Assembly Room of the Union, and will be open to all members of the University except Sophomores and Freshmen.

The fact that the Senior and Junior debating clubs have been included in the organization of the University club and consolidated with it will not interfere with the regular interclass debates. On the contrary, the consolidation affords an excellent opportunity for Seniors and Juniors to practice for their class teams or for the University teams. Trials for the interclass debates will be held during the last week of this month, and the debates themselves will take place sometime in December From each class first and second teams of three men each will be chosen. The Sophomores will speak against the Freshmen and the Seniors against the Juniors, the winners being awarded silver cups.

The final interclass debate, between the two winning teams, will be on some question in French politics, and will be the occasion of the presentation to the best individual speaker of the Pasteur gold medal, founded by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1898.

The Freshman-Exeter debate will be held at Exeter in April. No other outside debate for a class team has yet been arranged, but if interest warrants, one will be arranged for the Sophomore team.

Both the intercollegiate debates are scheduled for the spring, that with Princeton at Princeton in the latter part of March, and that with Yale at Cambridge, in May. As in former years, the Coolidge prizes of $100 each, derived from a gift of $5,000 presented by Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge in 1899, will be awarded to the best speaker in the trials for each of these contests. The questions and the dates of the trials will be decided by the University Debating Council. This body, composed of men who have spoken in intercollegiate debates, has the supervision of all the debating in the University.

An effort is being made to secure the establishment of a permanent endowment for debating in the University. In the past the expenses have been met by the sale of tickets for the intercollegiate debate held in Cambridge, but this in- come has varied greatly from year to year. A second endowment, smaller than that given by Mr. Coolidge for the individual cash prizes mentioned above, would realize a definite sum with which to purchase cups for the class and University contests, and, in addition, would allow the University debates to be made free to members of the University.

Copies of the "Debating Annual," containing the history and development of debating at Harvard, as well as a full account of the present organization in all its branches, may be obtained by application either to F. B. Wagner 3L., Wadsworth 13, or to W. M. Shohi '06. Thayer 26.UNIVERSITY DEBATING TEAM AGAINST YALE IN 1903-04.