The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-02-04
From Saturdays Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
For the second year in succession
Blue Earth defeated Mankato in de-
bate last night by a two to one de-
cision. An audience of two hundred
was gathered in the high school as
sembly room by eight o'clock, but due
to the lateness of the Northwestern
train from the east, which brought
two of the Judges, the debate did not
begin till nine. This hour was used
by the students in giving vent to
their enthusiasm.
Minnesota should adopt the initiative
and referendum" The visiting team
supported the affirmative. The debate
was unquestionably fully up to par
with other inter-scholastic contests of
its kind, and the whole debate showed
careful preparation on both sides. The
Blue Earth team were all veterans,
which gave them the decided advan-
tage over their opponents, all of whom
made their first attempts last evening.
Contest Was Close.
But this advantage did not insure
the victory for Blue Earth. That the
contest was close is shown by the
divided vote of the Judges. The gem
tlemen acting as judges We're: Super
ntendent i. NJ. Phillips of Albert
Lea Superintendent f. L. Dills of
GAINESVILLE and Professor f. B. Hill of
Carleton college
The program opened with two mus
zeal numbers, one Of which was the
High School orchestra, which made its
first appearance in public. The other
was selection by double quartet.
j. NJ. Mcconnell of the normal school,
acted as presiding officer.
The prevailing opinion seemed to be
that the home team had the better of
the argument straight through, es-
pecially in the rebuttals. But it sis
unquestionably true that Blue Earth
put up smoother and more fluent
speeches The styles of debating were
entirely different, the visiting team
adopted the forensic method, while the
home team pursued the argumentative
style. Blue Earth labored under the
impressive difficulty of delivering learn
ed speeches from the start to the
last word of the rebuttal.
Brought Up Many Points.
This caused them to bring up many
points that were conceded and to
fail to answer many of the arguments
of the negative. But it gave an OPP
portunity for more declamatory effects.
The home team. on the other hand,
gave their rebuttal speeches extern
poraneOusly, as well as part of their
first speeches. This enabled them to
attack their oponents more directly
and waste no time OH conceded or
irrelevant points. Necessarily their
delivery lacked something of the flu
cncy and fire, it being rather of the
convincing than of the persuasive type.
The affirmative of the argument was
opened by Blanche Saxton of Blue
Earth. She showed that the proposed
y SbNlii was btlilS ~
declared by both federal and state
courts. She then proceeded, with the
aid OF Il chart to outline their scheme
of initiative and referendum. The two
distinguishing features were that the
per cent of the voters names re-
quired on the petition for the initia-
tive was ID per cent, and for the
referendum 20 per cent, and that the
governor should not have the right
to veto any law passed by the peo-
pie. Miss Saxton's delivery was i'm
pressive, though she was handicapped
by being rather closely confined to her
paper.
WaShburn for Mankat0.
Willard Washburn opened the debate
for Mankato by showing that under
the outlined plan, the required per
cents We're so high as to make the
system non workable and therefore
Ineffective. He further went on to
show that there is no need for q
change of government in our state,
and that the proposed scheme would
not remedy the evils charged against
it. Washburn made Il cleancut speech,
though it lacked somewhat of the
vivaciousness which characterized his
opponent
Harold Tibbetts was second speaker
for Blue Earth. He proceeded to show
that there was a need for change
in the state government. He spoke
very rapidly and i'll u declamatory
manner, the continuance of which be-
came somewhat irritating to the au-
dience
Cowgirl Was Unconditional
Raymond Cowgirl took up the ar
gument of the affirmative and again
as his colleague. was Unconditional i'm
his delivery, but made his points
stand out in clear manner. First
he observed that the negative did not
contest the constitutionality of the
proposed scheme. Then he pointed out
that along with the proposed plan
comes certain detrimental effects, as
the lessening the respect for the con-
stitution. the responsibility of the
legislature, and the weakening of the
judiciary.
The star man for the negative, New
ton Gillette, closed their constructive
He painted strong and