The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-03
BANNER GOES TO BUTLER
FOR A SECOND TINE HER REPRE-
sENTATIvEs DEFEAT DE PAUw.
The Annual Orat0rica1 Contest IL
Held at Plymouth Church
The Arguments.

contest, for which the students have been
preparing for weeks. was held last night
at Plymouth Church, and for the second
time resulted In a victory for Butler, that
college having won the decision last year.
The subject discussed was, Resolved.
that the senators of the federal Congress
should be elected by direct popular vote. y
Butler had the affirmative and was rep
resented by Emsley w. Johnson, Orval z.
Mehring and Edwin e. Thompson.
The representatives from De Pauw were
NJ. d. Miller, Dan Pyle and ]. Elmer
Thomas The meeting was presided over
by Charles E. Coffin. The judges were T. F.
Moran, of Purdue; James A WOODBURY., of
Indiana University, and Rev. G. L. Mack
intosh. of the Fourth Presbyterian Church
Of this city, who served In place of Charles
A. futile, of Wabash, who was prevented
from being present on account of delayed
train.
Considering that 1t was college crowd
there was but little enthusiasm. Before
the debate began there were a few college
cries, emanating mostly from the Butler
students The lack of enthusiasm was
probably attributable to the fact that there
were not more than half dozen De PAW
students present, and there was no stim-
illus for the usual quota of college yells.
The Mandolin Club of the Manual Train
ing High School played a number of pleas
ing selections before and after the debates.
The first speaker was Emsley w. Johnson.
of Butler. who said that the provisions in
the Constitution in regard to the election
OF members of the United States Senate
were due to the aristocratic tendency of the
age in which 1t was drafted He said that
the people at that time had had no expert
ence with a republican form OF govern
ment, but that since that time the ideas Of
the people had been gradually extended.
and they now thought IT would be more
in accord with their rights if the senators
were elected by popular vote.
Mr.. Johnson was followed by NJ. d. Mil
Ter, Of De Pauw, who maintained that the
present form Of government should not be
changed unless it could be shown to be
defective. He said If 1t were shown to be
defective it would not be wise to change it
1t unless the proposed substitute was first
shown to be without flaws.
Orval L. Mehring. Buffers second repre-
sentative, said that the two political par
ties Of to-day were being dominated by the
bosses. and the only way to get rid of them
was to weed them out of the Senate by
giving the people the right to elect the
senator's OF the United States by popular
vote. He said that such men as Platt and
Quay could not be candidates for the
United States Senate If they had to depend
on the direct vote of the people. He said
that whenever the chances of jobbery were
lessened good men would have a better
change to'enter the Senate.
Dan Pyle, of De Pauw. said that political
science had passed judgment on the Con-
stitution of the United States, and 1t had
not been found wanting. He said he did
not believe the Senate could be dominated
by any set of politicians, and the senators
were not all corrupt. He said the legisla-
tor was just as pure as the politics in the
State from which he was sent.
Edwin Z. Thompson made the closing
argument for Butler. He said the under
lying principle Of all democratic govern
ment is that the voter shall be allowed
under the present mode of electing senators
this privilege was denied him. He said the
election of the United States Senator
should be by popular vote, because the
election of senators by the representative
system took up much Of the time of the
State Legislatures. He said that the char
acter and ability Of the men usually elected
to the State Legislature were not consid-
vote for United States senator, and as a
result many times the men elected to the
State Legislature were not what they
should be-
]. Elmer Thomas was the last of the
De Paw representatives. He said the argu-
ments Of the affirmative had been directed
against the rich man elected to the Sen
ate and that the speeches had touched but
lightly on the subject under discussion. He
said that until the affirmative had shown
that the United States Senate had pre-
vented any bill that was for the good of
the people from being passed the charges
of corruption would fall to the ground.
He said to submit the election of a United
States Senator to the popular vote Of the
people was making the first step toward a
democracy. which in many respects was
worse than a monarchy.
At the conclusion of the regular debate
recapitulation. When the decision of the
judges was announced and the banner was
handed over to Butler, the students from
that college for once remembered what
was expected Of them and let go number
of college yells with a vengeance.