Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-19
KENT CLUB PRIZE DEBATE.

KENT CLUB PRIZE DEBATE. Esrisht Speeches by Prospective Ju-
 rists-Two New Haveners Competed The Standard of Excellence Very
 Hfgh-The speeches Frequently App
 plauded-The Award of Prizes.
 The Kent club prize debate in Osborn hall l last evening was listened to by large au- dience. MT. Cummings, the vice president, presided. The speeches were much above the average, and were in the main extem- poraneous. Many bright hits were made. and applause frequently greeted the speak CTS. The judges, Rev. Dr. Munger, Lieu tenant Governor Merwin and Colonel N. G. Osborn, awarded the first prize of $50 to MT. Aiken of Rutland, Vt, and the second prize of $30 to MT. F. s. Bishop of this city and MT. w. T. Henry of Texas. The excellent speeches of Messrs. McQuaid, Cuff and Steele must have made the mat ter of judging extremely complicated.
 The subject for debate was: Resolved, That the efforts of political reformer to remove political abuses should be carried been identified"
 MT. McQuaid opened the debate for the affirmative as follows: In popular form of government the government is carried on by rule of the majority. Parties are a convenient and necessary means of ar irving at the will of the majority. Fur thermore, parties are associations of men who are willing to sacrifice some part of their own judgment to the judgment of rartv Oroo nj uof fiorc vuhinh raf1aet tho iSaoo of large masses of men. All | real reforms have been conducted from within the party. A notable illustration is Tilden's reform of Tammany rule in New York. The real objection to parties applies not to the essences of the 1 parties, but:to political excrescences in the shape of intricate political machinery. The argument that the individual strikes a more effective blow when the energy of his will is directly applied upon party management at the polls than when his energy is dissipated in transmission through the jointed parts of the by doing away with the complications that place men at the mercy of the manip- ulations of the party managers through l the instrumentality of nominating conven- 1 tions, where party managers have not 6 constituency of 10, GOO to handle but 500 delegates. We want adherence to party principles, not to party men. True fidel- ity to party does not involve the sacrifice of individual opinion in the shape of in- l dependent judgment as to the character o1 the men who have been put up to repre-
 sent those principles. Men should leave
 party from principle not on principle
 Loud applause
 Mr. Sturgeon said: When parties di
 vide on great questions of right ani
 wrong it is the duty of the individual te
 vote according to the dictates of his con
 science. One with God is g majority. Tn,
 parties to-day refuse to grapple with thu
 great questions of right and wrong. Bu
 on personal aggrandizement the party
 leaders shirk the questions. All the Rrea
 reforms in our political history have beer
 made outside of the great parties. Th' , momentous question of slavery was pu
 off by temporizing and compromise
 brought forward by politicians.
 The next disputant was MT. Henry, wh
 said: "The gentleman who has precede, me must know that every moral and DO litical reform has had it's growth and de
 velopment in political parties. The part is an instrument to the people. It , necessary that they should be advanced b
 managers who have the time to use in tn l direction of it. It is the duty of ever member of the party to work for the sue
 cess of the policy of his party as outlines by its leaders. If these independent [ should form @ party of their own wha
 warrant have we that in ten years the would not be as corrupt as the party the lefta Let the honest man go to work i
 the caucus and urge his neighbors to nom , nate honest men as candidates. Then
 unless we admit that the majority of tn
 people are not honest, politics must b purified and elevated" [Applause.]
 The president of the club MT. Steele followe
 in the negative. Political abuses, he said, are a
 most entirely due to ths corrupt practices of tn
 poHy rafnr M he g m th 1rln of the party because he has not the time that th
 managers have and his straightforward methoo ] cannot cope With those of Quay and Dudley an D The independents, by holding the balance
 d they Rs put If
 snfs n them they & put taeE t- them, too IContin1ed applause.I '0'' n Mr Aiken, on the affirmative, endeavored | dispel the good impression made by Mir. Stee
 and set the current of opinion back again to h c side: The independent, at the outset, must allie r ate himself from his friends and destroy th' l Fellowship of feeling that he might turn into J. potent influence for reform Whom in the pre-
 ent attempt of the advocates of free silver if l overrun the democratic party with their wilde, u who have left the fold of the party or those WI > have stood by its coiors' Concessions, not to II
 differing opinions If others are necessary to tf
 acSomRIis5ment Sis of aay great work [Appauss s question, Mr Cuff, said The gentlemen, as yo .. doubtless know, are to speak not only to " y prize. I think that none of the speaker
 yet on either side have understood the questio !. Tor forty years, ard tnen something in his Ii B led him to become prohibitlonist. You ce
 party to the da Laugh erJ So the pointI would make is tn ,e one party for another. We do not mean to st - ! that every good or honest man must be an ind o pendent and change his party periodically; b y what we do content against is the common pra tice Of the who casts eve
 manner of approbrious epithets on those who
 not agree with th-m Loud applause:] c. MT. H. A. Hill, who was appointed within ,e week to speak on the question, closed the deba
 for the affirmative as follows: The reasons f
 dependent method IS impractical; third becau y feeling of sympathy that is aroused by woT m Xii. ?, together for a common end. The cause of Il VI Pharisees. The gentlemen from Virginia made 't beautiful oration on slavery, but nothing W & eyer done for it's suppression until the opponen
 ~GEH paesy J, has made use of the beautiful little simile of u ,f l titing board. The trouble of it is that there a. not one little child in the middle, but q goo
 s n tns nd Sn M y ! speaker wants to come up does not come u .d | kApplause.]
 u MT. Bishop concluded the debate. The gentl
 men of the affirmative have confused the reforl !" CT and the independent. think am an ind d | pendent, but no oue did ms the honor M calling me a reformer. The reform y. | directs his efforts at correcting abus @, by arousing sentiment in his fave .k The reformer at work in the party must t by the nature of things politician. Let p D. the reformer in New Yors city He is g dem 70 | crat. He joins an assembly club and signs t
 pledge to vote the regular no :inees and to ob
 the dictates oI the central committee. When at has d ne this, and we remember that the centr Il committees is a sec ct organization, our reform T will have but little opportunity to correct abus q. m his own party. The same is true of the repu B. l lican party. Colonel George Bliss says that u " l republican primaries are carried by the use c- fictitious names by the party managers [Lol applausel.
 ANNUAL MEETING
 o.
 IS | Ofthe New Haven City Burial q ron n