The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-26
Anti-Liqu0r Convention Next
Week q Big Event.
More Than 1000 Students Are
Expected to Attend.
"A CONTEST IN 0RAT0Ry
1t Will Be Opening Feature
Tuesday Evening.
Delegates Will Travel in Spe.
cial Coaches.

More than one thousand college stu
dents from all parts of the United
States will be in Topeka next week.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, for the big convention Of the
intercollegiate Prohibition association,
which promises to be the greatest stu
dent gathering of its kind ever held
in America.
Tho Challege of the Anti-Liquor
Movement to the Present Student Gen
Grafton" Will be the general theme OF
the convention.
The four days session will open in
the Auditorium on the night of Tues
day. December 70, with the grand ma
tional oratorical contest. which will be
one of the biggest features Of the con-
vention. Seven college orators-one
young woman-representing all sections
Of the United States, will compete on
this occasion for the highest national
honors in college oratory. These have
been selected from over LOO contest
ants who have written and delivered
orations on some phase Of the liquor
problem during the past two years.
Each has climbed successfully from the
local to the state and interstate con-
tests, and the Grand National will be
the elimination OF the most extensive
Oratorical contest series in America.
OratOFica1 Contests.
The vast series of student oratorical
contests Conducted by the association
is an educational force of great pow
er and popularity. 1t appeals to the
brightest minds and best speakers in
the colleges.
The series. every grafton of which
deals with the liquor problem, is the
most extensive in American college
oratory. Contests are held in the To-
cal colleges, the winner Of which en-
tiers the state; the highest honor
speakers of the state come together
tn n1pv int lot -
year; finally, each two years, the win
ners OF these interstates, representing
all sections OF the country. come to-
gether to compete for national
honors.
At the present time these contests
are the source Of 800 original anti
liquor orations each year. During the
two-year period leading up to the
national of 1914, 100 original pro-
hibition orations were carefully writ
ten and delivered, some of them many
times. Three hundred colleges and
universities. fifty state contests, and
seven interstate contests. each repre-
senting several states. and all Sec
tions of the country, have been held
The winner of this national is the
winner over LOO who originally en-
tered the race.
Growth of System.
For the past fourteen years the sys-
tenn has been steadily growing from a
dozen schools in four or five states
until now it covers thirty states. Dur
ing the period even with the small
beginning there has been an average
of 1926 vigorous orations on the pro-
htbit1On movement written by stu
dents each year, or more than $500
since 1900.
When it is noted that these stu
dents spend from two weeks to a year
n OF NvYyvV {vNew n
writing, getting down deep into the
liquor problem, and that many Of
them deliver their orations before
audiences before and after the con-
test. that some Of them go out in
teams holding agitation meetings in
towns. churches, and school houses,
it will be better understood what a
tremendous educational force these
prohibition contests have become.
Much Of the material thus collected
is used in local option, no license, and
other campaigns, and as the founda-
ton for addresses in movements
against the liquor traffic after they
leave college.
It is not the prizes offered, but the
appeal Of the subject itself, not merely
the contest but the bigger anti-liquor
conflict back Of them, the spirit Of a
national movement for clear civic
successful and popular.
Kansas Represented.
The orators who will compete in the
grand national contest will be: Samuel
w. Grathwen, Pacific university, Ore
gon; Earl H. Haydock. University of
Southern California; Charles G. Co
| mon, Nebraska Wesleyan university:
Aura c. Nesmith, Kansas Wesleyan
university; Henry c. Jacobs, Hope
| college. Michigan: Herbert NJ. Wy
rick. Carson and Newman college,
Tennessee, and Miss Ethel L. Bedient,
Albion college, Michigan.
The morning sessions of the conven-
ton will be divided into two parts.
The program Tor the first division.
| from 9 to 10 o'clock, will consist of
| platform Talks at the auditorium
and the business convention at the
Central Y. NJ. c. A.. The second di-
vision, 10 to IL o'clock. will be taken
| up with sectional conferences on prac-
tical work and special phases at both
auditoriums.
| The general convention sessions will
be held at Convention hall at p. m.
and 1880 p. m. These sessions will be
the greatest inspirational occasions of
the convention. The Platform Talks
at 9 a. m. daily will be frank intimate
presentations with special value to
students. The afternoon and night
sessions will BIO more general in scope
| and anneal.