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Show power That lives jn debate. One night last week at tlie Salt Iake theatre, an affair cttTuc- off upon the stage mo ro wholesome iut-elleetuttlly -than the popular comedy. Those who-took part were not professional actors. Neither Nei-ther were they orators, in the sense? applied to elegant ele-gant elocution. They were bo,Vji, young men from the University of Cfah and from the Colorado College. Col-lege. The teams from- both schools engaged in a debating contest. The question of debate was the ever present: one of labor and the settlina: of. labor disputes. . T.hc .affirmative to maiutain and argue that the adjudication of e,uch disputes should be made a part of'ihe regular administration of justice. jus-tice. The negative"' to" deny 'and demolish the arguments ar-guments set Up by the affirmative side. - I The decision was given to the Utah boys, who j assumed the aft'iTilative position in the debate. But that does not matter. Directly it has no bearing bear-ing on the labor question; neither does the decision obscure the merits of the negative side. Listen-I Listen-I ing to these. boys, the Catholic could not help put- ting: this mental query to himself : Why is it we-hpar we-hpar of no debating contests among the students of our Catholic colleges? If such have taken place the fact has escaped our attention Some years ago in Butte the writer visited St. Patrick's parochial school. For his pleasure the pupils in the advanced classes engaged in a debate on the . Philippine question, which no one can deny has ttirfl alfQ 1K'. nfirl jj '-.Wv..,iiA' :i., Ta i i ... ui.mii.-u ain.i upijusin; J'oiiua. i WHS ail entirely impromptu affair, with no.preparation for elovutionary effect. - And .thU was what impressed the writer' most forcibly and favorablya happy relief from the monotonous drawl of big boys' voices getting off something "learned by heart.'' The writer left that building with' a new light illuminating his mind. For the first time' he was convinced of the superior excellence of the parochial paro-chial over the. public school, especially as these are maintained in Butte. - Tlie value bf debate .lies in its gift, of ready repby . fprqiCd ' :in ' ian$uage distinguished for strength rather-.than ornateness; aimed at the bull's-eye rather than scattered over a wilderness of thorns and- roses. An example of this was given giv-en in the last days of congress, in:the debate between be-tween .DalzelLpf-Pennsylvania and Bourke Cockran. Cock-ran. Reading the reports one might conclude that Dafzell-sat up nights-prjjaring an attack upon his adversary in w'ords committed to memory: After the old fashion, he'assumed that ho could thus take advantage of Cockran as the latter, unaware of his intention and blissfully ignorant of the nature of, the- charges, could only make, a lame- nd halting halt-ing defense. 'There is where Dakell made the mistake mis-take of his life. If Bourke Cockran is a great orator (and there appears to. be no "if" about it) he is" a-better "debater; That is to say,4f-his excellence excel-lence lies in the first, his strength-is )est displayed in the other, ': Those who read' his speech delivered a day pr twh-'bef ore, and then read the" debate published pub-lished in theiapers as.' he outcome of that famons speech, recognize the power of ready reply over sdt forms of oratory. ' " . " ; We" are beginning to think that oratory is out of date. The oratory that- is padded to consume time and bore .listeners has long iricc beeh- dc: clared intolerable. In our congress long speeches arc" delivered to empty benches, and very frequently frequent-ly speeches arc printed in the' Record of the housjo that are never :deli-ered by word of mouth. In England.today. tho mo-it. effective, speakers aro not orators" and. this, fact is the foundation for a frequent fre-quent generalization that in parliament now debat ing power is everything and eloquence is nothing. Great as is thepower of words, they are impotent if not. ready to be spokeu in apt reply, : Persons ambitioQ.s to become public speakers can; never ."attain their goal' by : committing addresses to mcmory. If they forget a portion, in some way the whole, hecomes telescoped. A Paulist. father, arid one whose success in missionary mission-ary work is emphasized by the strength of his short sermons, in -conversation with ' the writer advised ad-vised against the practice of young priests commit ting their, sermons to memory. , "First know how you will begin,?' : he said, "and. how you will end your discourse. Get the language fixed in your mind. Then go ahead with the confidence that the middle of the sermoi will take care of itself." This Paulist father, not uncharitably, but in the tnc that, goes : f or. warmer faith, ! remarked that long sermons had "a tendency to diminish church attendance 'a t the high mass. We believe he is Hghtv' After all, it is in human nature to ; rebel. ..' ..: . . ":, ". . .. |