The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1916-12-08
Is HIGH SCHOOLS
WING IN DEBATE
CONTESTS NOW ON IN sEvU>,
DISTRICTS TO CHOOSE
TEAMS FOR FINALS.
State Champion Will Be Chosen at
lnterscholastic Meet at Missoula
in May; Rules Designed to Make
Training Valuable to Participant
i'll business or Professional Life.

This is the season when the vouth
of the state that is Just abont to
sprout into manhood and which has
longing for the tot of a LAWYER
and the leader of the people is
learning to control his hands and his
feet and to keep his head cool on
the rostrum.
Under the auspices of the Mon
tana High School Debating league
of which Prof. George r. Coffman ia
president, rs schools throughout tho
state, divided into seven districts arc
engaged in contest that will not he
determined until the interscholastic
meet of the university is held at Mis-
SCUBA IN May. The district contests
which started in the early mart of
November, will be completed before
the first of March.
The districts, for each of which a
champion team will be chosen, are
as follows:
District Columbia Falls, Eure-
ka, kallspell, Libby, Poison, White
fish.
District Deer Lodge, Hamilton,
Missoula, Victor.
District 3-Manhattan, Bozeman.
buIlc, lOWuSenQ.
District 4-Billings. Columbus.
District 5-Conrad, Stanford, Lew
istown, Shelby.
District 6 - Forsyth, Hysham,
Miles City, Terry.
District 7-Culbertson.
Decision Now On Individual,
Until last year the decision was
upon the issue of which was the best
team. Then for the first time the
best debater was chosen - Tom
Brockway of Butte. He holds the
title of state champion nutil a de-
cision is given by the judges at the
finals next spring.
The league was organized at the
University of Montana May II, 1905,
with Professor J. S. Snoddy as it's
first president. The first interschol-
astic debate in Montana was held De-
cember 21 of that year between the
Carbon county High school and the
Columbus High school on the ques-
ton, "Resolved, That Greece has con-
trlbuted as much to civilization as
has Rome;;" but the first series of
high school debates under the aus
pieces of the league was held in
1867. Since then the champion
ship teams have been as follows:
1867, Hamilton; 1907-S, Missoula
county; 190S-9, Forsyth; 1909-1O.
Jefferson; 1901, Forsyth; 1911
II, Gallatin county; 1928, Gala
tin county; 1913-14, Gallatin county;
1914,-15 Flathead; 1915-16, Butte,
Tom Brockway.
Several Prizes Awarded.
Each year the University of Mon
tana offers souvenir cup to the re-
preventative who wins the final con-
test, while former Senator Joseph M.
Dixon offers a gold medal for the
best debater. There have usually
been a number of other prizes of a
supplementary nature.
The leagues series of debates is
carried on under restrictions de-
signed to make the training the de-
batter receives Of the greatest degree
of usefulness in his future business
or professional career. Speeches in
all contests are limited to 10 min
utes, closing speeches to five minutes
The participants are required to have
passing grades in their regular school
work. The debaters are not per-
mitted to read their speeches though
they are permitted, under certain
restrictions, to use notes. The rules
tend to discourage the memorizing
of speeches and to encourage the de-
baters to speak from their feet