Show AN UNWARRANTED CRITICISM A recent article in the Deseret News under the title Is Debating a Success at the University ity and signed Student rather indicates that the writer believes debating is not a success success' But how is the success of any college activity to tobe tobe tobe be measured Can it be done by a comparison of the number of students who enter the tryouts with the number who might enter but do not By such an estimate football was a failure last fall for only seventeen candidates entered th the tryouts for eleven positions As far as student indifference to d debating bating is concerned the criticism is perhaps warranted Unfortunately however indifference toward intellectual intellectual intellectual intel intel- contests is not confined to the University of Utah even Harvard suffers from the same affliction But student indifference rence in an an activity is n no indication I of its failure On the other hand handan an examination of the figures will show that the popularity of debating is steadily Increasing in spite of a manifest indifference on the the part ofa ofa of ofa a great many students In the year 1908 09 the debating classes contained on only eleven members 1909 10 the membership had increased to twenty and the present year shows an enrollment of for for- ty-five ty an increase of over four hundred per cent in three years 1 From these classes dome most of the menI men I L- L who compose our debating teams The fact that we have only three debates scheduled for this year as against four our last year is not due in any measure to indifference for this condition is slowly improving but it is due to a policy of concentration concentration con con- on for greater efficiency The probability is that next year we shall not participate in more than two intercollegiate debates n 0 |