The Tupelo journal., 1904-02-12
NATIONAL oRAToRIcAL CONTEST
Winner of Contest at the Worlds Fair
Next Fall to Be Champion College
Orator of the United States.

are becoming interested in a proposed
oratorical contest which Is to deter
mine, at the Worlds Fair next au-
tumn, the champion college orator of
the United States. Students of the
Missouri State University, at Column
bia, Mo-, are perfecting a plan pro-
posed by a student in the Kansas Uni
versity for the creation of an inter
state oratoricaI league comprising ev-
cry State university in the Union.
The plan, as unfolded thus far, is to
enlist the interest Of oratoricaI talent
in each State university, organizing a
local oratorical association In each; to
divide the country into several Sec
lions, each comprising half a dozen or
more States; and to hold the final con-
test in a hall on the Worlds Fair
grounds.
Each institution will hold a local
contest, several of it's leading orators
participating. The student who wins
at his home college will represent his
State in the section of several States
to which he belongs. The man win
ming at this contest will be sent to the
Worlds Fair to represent his section.
One man may thus represent the New
England States, another mar the mid
die Atlantic Coast States, another man
the States of the Middle West, and SO
on.
At the final contest these half dozen
or more young men will meet upon a
rostrum inside the Exposition and en-
gage in a contest or oratory such as
the world has never known. The Ex-
position company will grant the use of
one of the splendid assembly halls for
the contest. The judges will be select
ed from among the most distinguished
and representative men in America.
Judgment will be rendered as to
thought, composition and delivery, a
separate set of judges being arranged
for each Of the three points of com
petition. The plan calls for the send
ing Of copies of each GRAFTON to the
judges On thought and composition
some time prior to the date of the con-
test, so that the eminent authorities
may read the productions carefully
and mark them according to estimate
Of merit. The judges as to delivery
will be present at the contest and will
retire Immediately after the close of
the concluding Grafton and render
CuVIT uCClolOuS. u S0utIdl dN6TdS6
will then be struck between the mark
ings of the three sets of judges, and
the mar receiving the highest mark
ing will be adjudged winner.
That this young man will become in
a large sense a national hero is mo- to
be doubted. All the world loves a
lover-and an orator. The man who
can sway an audience by the e%loquence
Of his lips is eve a hero. The ability
the APPLAUSE of listening senates to
command" is admired and honored in
all nations. Therefore, it is to be ex.
pected that the young college student
who shall win this national contest in
oratory under such auspices, practical.
ly with the whole world as his audi,
ence, will become a prophet with hon
or even in his own country; and there
are just now scattered throughout the
United States, in two score of State
universities. a large number of tai.
ented young men who are ambitious
to engage in the contest.
Oratorical contests between students
in American colleges have been for
many years amongst the notable
events of collegiate life. Up to twenty
years ago, when football and rowing
became so overwhelmingly popular as
expressions of college effervescence,
Oratory vas considered a thing of even
higher Importance than it is at pres
ent, and some of the most eminent
men in American history have won
their first oraterical spurs in such
competitions.
For more than a quarter of a cen.
~, wv tharn ho- ham - -.
ganization called the Interstate Ora.
torical Association. About a dozen of
the Middle Western States, such as
Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and Indiana,
have participated in the annual con.
tests. Subordinate to the interstate
associations there r State associa.
lions in each State, and in each
college that sends a contestant
to the State contest, there is a local
association. The man winning the 10.
cal contest represents his college in
the State contest. The winner there
goes to the interstate contest. Cash
prizes are usually given to the win.
ers in these contests, and as a rule the
cash is welcomed by the victor, as il
assists him materially in continuing
his college course.
Several men who have won the in.
terstate o~ratorical contest within the
past twenty years have become nation.
al characters, and chiefly so through
their powers of oratory. William
Jennings Bryan, twice Democratic
candidate for the presidency of the
United States, is one of these. Mr.
Bryan represented an Illinois college
IN tho 0nnfnct about fuyanfyy a Two r. PC
ago. Fifteen years later he delivered
another Grafton, also in the State OF
Illinois, at Chicago, which won him
at the early age of 36, the nomination
of his party for the chief magistracy
of the nation.
United States Senator Albert J. Bev
eridge, of Indiana, is another conspic
uous example of the triumphant col
lege orator winning wider fame as q
public man. Mr.. Beverage, in 1884
was a poor boy, a college student at an
Indiana town. He had the gift of ora
tory. He competed for the honor OF
representing his college in the State
contest, and won. At the State con
test he was also the victor. At the in
terstate contest he carried off frs
honors, and found his picture and the
story of his triumph in nearly every
great newspaper in the land. He con
tinued to speak in public. He entered
political life, and at Sc became the
youngest senator of the United States
a close confident of the president and
the administration, and a man of in
t%ernational celebrity.
AS another instance Of the future
success Of the college orator the ca
reer of DR.. John Huston Finley, pres
ident of the University of the City o.
New York NAV he noted. Twenty