The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-02
YALE DEBATERS BOW TO HARVARD
 Hsp Aig -=----==---=- Twentieth Annual Intercollegi- ate Event Results Similar to Many Preced-
 ing Ones.
CUBAN QUESTION ARGUED
Taft Quoted by Roth Blue and Grim sOn--lIcnrN Van Dyck Announces Decision as unanlmOus---
 Brilliant Audience.

iN'N'''' " ''hll ll'l NlHfH llOlN ehl prise than if Vale should defeat liar ward in joint debate, Last night his tory repeated itself In Woolsey hall when Yale again lost in the twentieth annual debate with the crimson,
 The subject as announced by the presiding officer Chief Justice simeon F Baldwin of the Connecticut supreme court, was:
 Resolved That it will he for the best interests of Cnba that the United states before tho end Of the next two years, cease to have any part in the government of that island, rescrving only those rights included in the Platt amendment
 The judges were the Rev Henry Van Dyck of Princeton, Dean Charles Franklin Emerson Of Dartmouth and Professor William C, Everett of Brown After an absence of over half an hour pr. Van Dyck returned to the platform and announced that the. committee had come to unanimous decision on the first ballot The committee had taken 60 Der cent. on the subject matter and 70 per cent on the delivery in coming to their decision He then announced ,hat the committee was unanimously in favor of Harvard
 As Harvard had the affirmative of the question the first speaker was Jo. srph Sancliffe Davis, 1908. Harvard
 iliege. Mir. Davis said In part;
 The early years of every nation are full of difficulties When the United States with the aid of France had first achieved Independence, both France and England thought that we would fall back to the position of dependence upon one of those two nations. The same situation obtained with Cuba In 1902 Since then Secretary Taft says that Cuha has made such progress that even those of us who are enthusiastic over popular government, become al- most intoxicated with our vindication, Now Cuba is under the provisional government of the United States. This government, he said should only last so fonE as Nns necessary for the re- storation of law and order on thc island Secretary Taft thinks now that we can leave Cuba rcserying only the rights In the Platt amendment In. der this condition cuba Ia safcguardcd from foreign war and internal uprising cuba will lose nothing by the with. drawal of the United stntes from thC islands, but what will Cuba gain2 Self. government, something invaluable. II K better for a nation to grapplc witl lts own problems and decide them ir its own way. The experience acquired this way is sometimes expensive Bu' only in self government can a natlor be saved We do not maintain tha Cuba can be saved from trouble in th' future But national independence f an absolute essential The reyol against corrupt officials shows tha ! cuba protests against misrule Tn fact that there were willing to sacrifice ! thousands of lives in tho war agains spain for independence shows that the, are ready to govern themselves"
 | Edward otis Proctor, Yale, if09 l opened the case for tho negative. ii said. "A comparison between th
 United states and cuba entering upol national lifo cannot be drawn. Tn ] United States citizens had been used t 1 practically government for man, years before the revolution and had in I herited from their British ancestors th
 qualities necessary. on the other ham
 Cuba had been subjected to centurie ! of Spanish despotism, Geosraphicall
 the United states Is better situated
 'T ocal elections in Cuba show a grea
 deal of corruption, Secretary Tai
 looks at tho question from the stand
 point of the United States and there
 now doubt that it would be better fo
 this country to withdraw from the is
 and. But we desire complete inde
 pendence for Cuba and want to wa
 until the island is ready to gover
 itself The South American republic
 show what is done when a countr
 starts too suddenly to govern itsel
 When Cuba first started ont to gover
 itself the United States gave the isan
 good start but soon the people wel
 in trouble and calling for troops TT
 president resigned and the armies vel al the gates of Havana.
 "Thc trouble with Cuba is that thel
 Is no middle class, that many of Il , people are idle and that nearly all , 3 the people are illiterate. Only by slo
 and careful work can these disadvan ages be overcome and the nation mat ! fit to govern itself The United Stat, can accomplish this, but not in tN
 years"
 Simon Fillmore Peavey, Jr., 1909
 of Harvard was the next speaker ft
 the affirmative. He said. "The peep of Cuba demand their immediate ind
 pendence which they won with the
 blood fighting the Spaniards and tl . United States should not stand in the way of getting It. Cuba will not pc init the rule of the United States ar . will soon be waging a war of indepep ence against 1t as it did against Spai The gentleman of the negative pain ) a lurid picture of the revolt in rece years Very little property was d stroyed and as soon az the Unit states promised to interfere, the m t put down their arms and returned | their homes, It is not strange tn l. young nations should make mistake e but this fact Is no reason for interfe ! ence by the United states"
 Mr. Peavy was followed by HoWa $ Francis Bishop for Yale In his arg