TO THE MAT

The contest between business and culture for supremacy in college education has found disputants in every part. Not a talk feet but veers around to this topic; not an academic address but makes some pronouncement. This informal nub of undergraduate discussion will be raised into a formal issue tonight. Its implications must be thrashed out, its data studied, its diverse questions reduced to the ultimate opposition of educational purposes.

It is significant that the debate has been selected as the best fitted vehicle for clarifying this clash. The ridicule, which once fell upon the annual rantings over "The Pen and the Sword" is gone; a conversational attitude and a willingness to discuss questions of real interest have won back the prestige of debate.

Since the days of the Sophists, the world has sought for its uses men trained to defend and attack acutely, to overcome logic with logic. Today the needs of a tumultuous world are greater than ever. If the University is aware of the benefits which training in debate confers upon the individual and upon society, it is surprising that this branch of education has so long been denied official encouragement and active support.