The San Francisco call., 1895-07-20
HORR AND HARVEY.

Up to this time the Horr and Harvey
debate has not progressed beyond the
skirmish lines of the contest. The key to
the position of neither side has as yet been
assailed and it is too early to predict
which of the men will show the greater
mastery of the subject and come off VIC
torious when the final struggle closes
around the questions that are really vital
to the great issue.
In the skirmishing up to this point, it
appears from the reports that Horr is a
much ADLER debater than Harvey. His
long experience in politics and his practice
in extempore discussion on the floor of
Congress have given him an advantage
over his opponent, who is more skilled in
writing than in oratory. Thus it appears
Harvey has been unable to hold his willy
opponent to any point, while on the other
hand, Horr in evading issues has known
how to get in an effective blow and win
applause at the very time when he was
really lodging question.
An illustration of the tactics of the two
men was shown in the debate on the
charge that silver was demonetized as a
result of conspiracy. Harvey. instead of
directing all his argument to the one SUBJ
ject at issue, scattered all over the field of
politics and charged corruption here, there
and everywhere. Horr was quick to take
advantage of the mistake. He made q
brief, curt denial of the conspiracy story,
and then ran off into an impassioned de-
fense of Congress and the American people
from the charge of general corruption.
The passage in which Horr made his
evasive dodge and won applause in this
connection is worth noting. One para
graph of it is thus reported: ''Mr. Harvey
continues to rest his case upon an attempt
to prove that the human family is made
up of scoundrels; that there is no such
thing as honor among the people of this or
any other country. The infamous state
ment that every man has his price ought
to be branded on the brow of every man
who wilkauote it in earnest, because it is
lie against humanity, and is only equaled
by the other statement that there is no
such thing as virtue among the women OF
the United States or any other country"
Is it necessary to say this impassioned
outburst of virtuous indignation reused
the audience to thunders of applause? OF
course Harvey never said all men were
dishonest, and he said nothing at all about
women. Nevertheless, it is evident from
the reports that Horr's reply was consid-
cred a good hit. 1t certainly enabled him
to get over the trouble of meeting the con-
spiracy charge, for having warmed his
audience up by his eloquence he was able
to draw out more applause by adding: 81
want to say to the American people that
laws of this kind are never silenced by con-
spirators. There is no such thing as
great money power either in this coun-
try or any other country, that dominates
the people"
This specimen is fair example of the
way the debate has gone so far. Harvey
has been making all the argument and
Horr has been scoring all the points. Per-
haps something more instructive to the
people and more valuable as an elucida-
ton of the problem will be advanced dur
ing the debates next week, but as it stands
at present there is very little in it beyond
Mr.. Horr's display of skill in the clever
fence of controversial debate.