River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-03-27
The Tnter=School Debate.

The Congregational church was
pretty well filled Saturday night to
listen to the debate between the
Ellsworth and River Falls High
schools, and to patronize the Piano
and Art fund of the Public School.
The people came out to aid the
school in contributing to the popu-
lar fund in aid of the project an
nounced by the managers of the
school and in giving the encourage
ment of their presence and their
voice to the representatives of the
school in the debate, rather than
with the expectation of being much
interested in the debate as such.
The debate itself, however, proved
of much interest. The debaters had
studied the subject and appropriate
ed the main facts that were peril
nent in an argument for and against
subsidy and arranged them in log
cal array in their arguments, giving
the audience a very good idea of
the question in a succinct form.
The young folks on both sides did
we'll.
The question, Resolved that the
Congress of the United States
should, by means of a subsidy bill,
extend further protection to Ameri-
can shipping" was supported in
the affirmative by Chas. Wickland,
Paul Fisher and Glen Junkman.
River Falls took the negative with
Albert Jensen, Martin Cornelius and
Miss Louise Mayer as contestants
in opposition to the proposition as
stated. The affirmative opened the
discussion, Wickland leading. The
contestants for the affirmative pre-
sented the strongest arguments pos
sible for a subsidy bill. They gave
a history of the American marine,
showing it's rise and fall-that at
one time the deep-sea commerce of
the United States was nearly all
carried on in home-owned ships,
while at present 81 per cent Of our
across-the-ocean trade is done in
ships owned by foreigners. They
claimed that when our shipping was
subsidized it prospered and when
the government withdrew assist
ance it declined. They asserted
that the prosperity of England's
marine was due to subsidy. They
strengthened their argument in this
line by showing that in Germany,
France and Italy it had been the
custom to encourage the building
and sailing of ships by government
aid, and asserted that the only way
by which our merchant marine could
be built up TO it's former relative
greatness was by a ship subsidy bill.
The affirmative made a strong plea,
with a formidable array of facts dis
posed in logical order, and present
ed with cogent reasoning in impas-
stoned oratory, and had this been
the right side of the question ELS
worth would have won. The mega
tive showed conclusively, however,
that ship subsidy bill was wrong
in principle and had never accom-
p1ished what was claimed for it eth
er in this country or in Europe, and
never could. They called attention
to the fact that our merchant marine
was swept from the sea or forced to
seek foreign register in 1865 by
Confederate cruisers; that ships at
this time were almost all wooden
sailing vessels, and the demand
arose for steel steamers for trans
ocean commerce.
The debaters were all in good
VOICE. SPOhC Will uloIluCCHOoo, uoOd
good language in we'll constructed
sentences, arranged to present log
ica1 and conclusive arguments and
expressed their sentiments with
force and spirit. The negative
seemed to have the best of the ar
gument and were easy winners, the
judges giving them the unanimous
verdict of victory without hesitancy.
The musical numbers on the pro-
gram were carried out in a pleasing
manner-a duet by Misses Snod-
grass and Toby; a vocal solo by
Miss Lucy Spilcke and cornet solo
by Mr.. Todd.