AFFIRMATIVE WINS IN UNION SOCIETY DEBATE

Debating last night on the subject "Resolved that New England should secede from the Union," the affirmative, represented by Richard W. Sullivan '38 and John L. Calvocoressi '38, was awarded the decision by a vote of 36 to 18 over the negative, represented by Francis Keppel '38 and J. W. Kaufman '38. This was the first of a series of bi-weekly debates sponsored by the newly formed Union Society.

Sullivan, the first speaker for the affirmative, argued that New England pays considerable taxes and gets nothing in return. Keppel, stressing Professor Merriman's concept of unity, emphasized that the United States is held together by a common language and common cultural aims and stated that New England by itself would not have adequate defense. Calvocoressi then declared that New England is culturally distinct from the rest of the country and called the Middle West a parasite fattening itself from New England. Kaufman, the last speaker, begged the audience to pity New England if she secedes, since she cannot be self-sufficient. He closed his speech by painting a picture of rats emerging from Boston Harbor, surmounting the City Hall, and finally "perishing from starvation after they had consumed the rotting corpses in the moss-covered streets."