Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-10-07
HIGH SCHOOL
DEBATE LEAGUE
PROF. HULME OF UNIVERSITY
ORGANIZES STATE LEAGUE
TO PROMOTE ORATORY
Object OF League is to DeveIope A.
bility in Public Speaking and
Interesting Public In
Work of the
Schools.

schools of the state form themselves
into league for the encouragement
of work in debate and defamation
And. in accordance with the prece-
dent set by our neighboring states Of
Oregon, Washington, Montana and
Utah, and such other states as Wis
consin, Minnesota and California, it
is recommended that the League be
confined to public high schools. Any
school may arrange and debate with
any institution other than public
school that it may desire; and it is
urged that every school afford its
students as many opportunities to
debate as is consistent with the 9TH
er work Of the school But such de-
bates are not consistent within the
league.
The object OF the league is not to
determine the debate championship
of the state. or Of any section of the
state but to develope ability in pub
lie speaking. It is strongly urged
that the mere desire to win debates
be subordinated to the work of de-
veloping the ability of tho partici-
pants. of interesting the public in the
work OF the schools. and Of arousing
interest in the important questions
of the day. It is urged also that de-
bate work be regarded as a regular
work Of the schools. and not merely
as an intruding, incidental activity.
The following rules are proposed:
Each school shall put forth two
teams, one to uphold the Affirmative
and one the negative. The affirm
ative teams shall debate at home and
the negative teams away. Each team
shall consist of three speakers. none
of whom shall be a graduate of any
high school, and all of whom shall be
bona fide students OF the school they
represent. The main speeches shall
not be longer than twelve minutes;
except the last negative speech which
shall be fourteen. The affirmative
shall have FIVE minute closing
speech. There shall be three judg-
es. The visiting team shall send
list of twelve names on or before
January 10, from which, if possible
the negative shall choose three judg-
es and three alternate judges. For
every vacancy that shall occur the
visiting team shall send four names
The following instructions shall be
printed on the programs: "The judg-
es are to put aside all opinions and
information of their own relating to
the question They shall not decide
upon the merits of the questions
to which side of the question they
think is right or wrong-but they
shall decide which team has done the
better debating. In doing this, mat
ter and manner are both to be con-
sidered; but greater. weight is TO be
given to the former. At the conclu-
sion of the debate each shall write on
a ballon the word Affirmative or the
word Negative as is deemed just" It
is particularly recommended that the
method of marking by percentages be
not used, because it causes confu-
sion and sometimes results ia in
Justice. The expense of the contest
tire judf Is and the visiting teoIg,
snail e borne by the home team TO
whom shall accrue all the receipts.
The contests shall all be held on the
third Friday in March. The schools
shall debate in the years of 1909-1O
as follows:
Idaho Falls-St. Anthony.
Mountain Home-Twin Falls.
Pocatello-B lackfoot.
Boise-Payette.
Weiser-Nampa.
Caldwell-Emmett.
Meridian-New Plymouth.
Mullan-Burk.
Couer d'Alene-WaIlace.
Wardner-Kellogg
Grangeville-Lewisto
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
Genesse-J uliaetta.
Cottonwood-Nez Perez.
Post Falls-Coeur d'Alene.
Decentralization.
Kendrick-Troy.
Should any shoots that are paired
find it impossible for them each to
put two teams of two speakers each
into the field the membership Of each
team may be lessened to two. In that
case the main speeches should be ex-
tended to fifteen minutes with six
teen minutes for the final negative.
OR, if it be preferred, only one de-
bate with teams of three speakers /
n~rI 4..-.. 1900. 49,.