The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-11-20
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:CAlRO SCHOOL NOTES:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS s,

The boys literary society held their
regular meeting Thursday night at
1.-THE high school, The meeting was
called to order by President Ohrum,
f, the audience sang an opening song,
and then the minutes of the previous
meeting were read and approved.
"Bralney" Lynch proposed adding a
law to constitution compelling at
tendance Of members at meetings and
that none should be absent without a
valid excuse. If any member was alb
sent three consecutive times he
should be dropped from the society.
The law was adopted by the following
Ivote; Ayes, 26, nays, 3. Following
the prescribed law topic upon the
| life of great men, Milo Buchanan read
a paper upon the life Of President
Taft. President Ohrum called upon
john Hofheinz for a talk upon Deep
Waterways.
Next came the debate Resolved
| That the z. S. coast defense should
was represented by Leroy Metzger
and Howard Pennebaker while Joe
Hibbitts and Arthur Turner repre-
sented the negative,
Starting the affirmative. Metzger
said that in our late war with Spain
| it was plainly evident that our coast
defenses were inadequate; that the
United States covered an area of 3d.
600 miles, had population of 10000
COO that the valuation of property
was $1,000.000,000 and in case of a
war in the early future If our country
Host the greater part of this there
wouldn't be much left and we would
surely lose it if we didn't have suf-
fcient coast defense. In terminating
his remarks he said it would take al.
most fifty years to properly institute
strong coast defenses and it was time
for us to begin right now
The negative representative Joe
| Hibbits said that the Spanish war
was no evidence of our needing better
coast defense because we were vie
torous in that battle. VITA the ad.
went of airships into warfare the
speaker stated that an increase OF
coast Notifications would be needless
expense because air craft would prove
more practical and less costly
He said that air ships were now being
tried by different governments for
war purposes, that they had in almost
levety case met the requirements, that
they were not easy marks for a gun
ner and that explosives could be drop
lped from aerial machines with deadly
force. He also stated that large
navy would be better than coast de-
fenses, gave his reasons and stated
that a large number of great men in.
lcluding some prominent authorities
Favored this in preference to more
coast defense.
In defending his part Of the affirm.
ative Howard Pennebaker said that in
, the first place airships couldn't stay
lup long enough and secondly that in
place of them destroying, they could
be more easily destroyed themselves
by our expert gunners. He pointed
out the fact that while large navy
Twas good, still 1t weuld be always
lcruising about and while away from
,some important point, an enemys
fleet could come in. block the harbor
and capture the place before any re-
sistance was made while If the place
mentioned had good coast defense
this would all be avoided President
Taft favors more coast defense AMI
ne certainly ought to know
In closing for the negative. Arthur
Turner summed up the principal
reasons OF his opponents. spoke
against them and gave excellent reas
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