Omaha daily bee., 1905-12-16
OMAHA HIGH WINS DEBATE
Turns the Table, on the Representatives. o.
Yves. Dss MoineL
VERDICT OF The JUDGES IS UNANIMOUS
Program Preceded and Followed by
Musical Selections by Omaha High
school Hand, Orchestra
and vocalists.

Before an enthusiastic audience, which
filled the First Methodist Episcopal church
lost evening the West Des Moines High
school went down to defeat at the hands OF
the Omaha orators. The question, Re
solved. That American municipalities should
own and operate their street railways,
was timely and interesting and was handled
in a thorough and scholarly manner.
The Iowa debaters supporting the affirm
alive. were Fred Baer, John Grebell and
hlfred Sanborn. Omaha was represented
by Herbert Potter. Glenn Wallerstedt and
John Latenser Principal waterhouse was
master of ceremonies. stirring number
by the cadet band and an admirably rem
dered selection by the octet opened the
program. After these preliminaries were
disposed of Mr.. Baer of Des Moines COM
menced actual hostilties. This champion
of municipal ownership declared that the
public ownership of gas, water and electric
light facilities had been a success. and In
Europe at least street railways had proved
no less adaptable to that system. Massa-
chusetts was introduced as an example of
public control; the alternative for munich
pallzation and the system there was as
serted to be unsatisfactory. From that
moment the contest revolved more or less
upon the hub of the universe"
Evils Are Admitted.
Mr.. Potter. who followed for Omaha, ad-
mltted the evils of the present condition.
but stoutly maintained that state control
| was the better remedy. American expert
| ments in NATURALIZATION of transportation
systems have all been failures. Massachu-
| setts assertions to the contrary notwith-
standing. is forcible example of the feast
! biIity of state control Stock watering has
| been prevented, the facilities have been Inn
proved and large part Of the profits have
been turned into the Golfers of the people
| Mr. John Grebell then took the floor and
explained that the few failures which have
resulted from public ownership were the
| work of grasping corporations who would
not keep hands on The banner OF
| Massachusetts was once more dragged into
| the dust, where II lay in disgrace, until
rescued and rehoisted by the next speaker
| on the negative. After he had somewhat
dazed the audience by CHARTS of statistics
concerning "kilowatt hours" etc, Mr.
Grebell demonstrated that in "Bonny
Glesga'' municipal ownership has been al
unqualified success.
Glenn WATERSHED spent most of his tim,
In ably explaining that the experiment o.
municipalzation is still in such an embry
otto state that conclusions in favor of 4
are hasty and unwarranted
The determination OF corporations to con
troll the controllers was brought forwart
by Alfred Sanborn to show that stat
supervision would fail. Once more the resi-
dents of the Plymouth Rock state wer
tumbled from their pedestal of prlstin
purity and the stock of their street rail
way company, upon another re-examina
ton, was found to contain an undu
amount OF moisture. Brooklyn bridge wa
offered as a concrete example OF publ
ownership, but that illusion was Skaters
, when John Latenser, who followed, pointe
out that in 1899 1t was sold to a privat
corporation.
: Latenser Warmly Greeted.
: The appearance of Mr.. Latenser was tn
occasion OF prolonged applause. He an
swered the analogy of Great Britain b
calling attention to the fact that BIRTHS
city governments we're first purified befor
the street railways were purchased.
Mr.. Potter and Mr.. Sanborn were the
given seven minutes each for rebuttal. A
r the smoke of battle lifted the judges
f Messrs. Will Owen Jones, editor of tn
Nebraska State Journal Principal Thoma
OF the Council Bluffs High school, an
V ITOI. r.. - IeTsliBei, TeliTeu 10 COllslue
In the interval a thoroughly enjoyed woes
G solo by Walter Hoffman and a selection b
r the orchestra were given. 1t was then al
nounced amid enthusiastic applause this
: Omaha had won a unanimous decision. tt
contest held between classes to determir
n which could sell the most tickets was wo
e by the seniors by margin of one. TT
4 juniors came second. the freshmen thir
In the most kindly manner possible la
years defeat In Des Moines has been r.
trieved and the outlook is favorable f,
another meeting next year.