Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-27
OMAHA DEBATERS VlCTORS
Defeat Lipooln HiEh School Tpsaksru fer
EIGHTH Consecutive Time.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP is QUESTION
visitors support the Affirmative OF
Proposition and Lose Decision
By vote of Three 20
One.

For the eighth successive time Omaha
yesterday defeated Lincoln High school
in debating the decision Of the judges
being two to one in favor OF the Omaha
boys. The Omaha High school representa-
tives supported the negative and Lincoln
the Affirmative Of the question. Resolved.
That, the question Of conatitutionality be-
ing waived, interstate railroads should be
owned and operated by the federal gov
eminent"
Forrest Tebbetts, the first speaker for the
affirmative, attempted to prove by quoting
from authority that under the existing
form of railroad regulation discrimination,
Relating and other kindred evils would al
ways exist to an extent highly detrimental.
His argument was very we'll put and the
audience received II well by reason Of its
interest and cearness He was followed
by Alfred Mattson, who delivered a very
fine argument for the negative. He asserted
that because OF the unavoidable variation
Of rates in different localities and under
different conditions railroad control by
legislation would not be practical. He at
tempted to prove that discrimination is ad-
vantsgeous
Clarence Clark. the next speaker for the
Of railroads would be advantageous be-
cause It would do away with gambling in
railroad stocks, unnecessarily rich mag
mates, the necessity OF maintaining several
stations in one city, the watering OF rail-
road stocks and the corrupt influence OF
railroads in politics. He was followed by
Harry Drucker, for Omaha, who showed
by statistics that government ownership
OF railroads would mean inestimable flnan-
ciai harm 70 the country. He also at
! tempted to show that in many respects
government ownership OF railroads in for
! eign countries has not been a success and
that where II has been successful in for
eign nations It would not be IN America
on account Of different conditions,
ConatitutIonaIIty Questioned
Fred Marconrutt for the Affirmative at
tempted to prove by statistics that mu-
nicipal ownership has been a success else
where. He further showed that II would
be unconstitutional to give the Interstate
| Commerce commission the power II would
require 20 successfully control the railroads.
| This argument, however, was ruled out
on account Of the previous agreement that
the question Of constitutionality should be
discussed by neither side.
AS last speaker for the negative Earl
Davenport brought forward the arguments
that In order to make government owner
| ship a success Il would be necessary to
| RussianiEe the United States government,
and that In any case the employe would
become a mere machine. He further stated
that the governments extravaganza in
| the past, as shown in the postal system
and elsewhere, would cry loudly against
government ownership OF railroads.
In a two-minute rebuttal speech Forrest
Tebbetts attempted TO refute the argu-
ments brought forward by the negative,
that determinations are advantageous. Dur
ing the remainder Of his speech he brought
forward several points which were ruled
out because they were new.
The Judges were Prof w. q. l. Taylor
OF the University OF Nebraska, J. d. Ringer
Of South Omaha and t. w. Blackburn OF
! Omaha Music was furnished by the cadet
band and the violin quartet