Evening star., 1927-04-21
ORATORy CONTEST
NEARING ITS END
Stars Representative viii Be
First of Seven National
Contestants Chosen.

Throughout the United States the
machinery of the fourth National
Oratorical Contest is revolving slowly
in the selection of the six orators
who viii compete with one another
and with the undetermined champion
of The Star region--each in his own
right--in the national finals in the
Washington Auditorium, May ~.
With The Star finals to be held
May / this newspapers representa-
tive becomes the first of the seven
contestants in the national meeting
to be chosen. The second nationalist
will be determined in the newspaper
finals at Birmingham, Ala, May 6.
while the third of the seven contest
ants for national honors will be chosen
May Z. at Kansas City. The remain
ing four nationalists viii be selected in
newspaper finals simultaneously, May
13, at Los Angeles. Chicago, New
York and Philadelphia.
Finals at Winston-Salem.
The first newspaper representa- tive
in any of the semi-final or final con-
tests, however. will be chosen tomor-
row night III the finals conducted
by the Winston-Salem Journal, at
Winston-Salem, n. c. As that news
paper is one Of a group of papers
that sponsors the contest in the
Southern region. centering in Birming-
ham, its spokesman will compete with
the representatives of other journals
of the same group in the Birmingham
regional contest MAY 6. The winner
tomorrow night. however, will win a
Il, . t,.,N 4 L.
bama city, along with a place in
the Southern regional finals in which
six speakers will be entered.
The other five newspapers of that
group. which will be represented in
the Birmingham finals. are the Bir-
mingham Age Herald which embraces
the State of Alabama, the Pittsburgh
sun, which covers parts of Pennsyl-
Vania West Virginia and Ohio: the
Atlanta Constitution, which embraces
Georgia; the Louisville Courier-Jour-
nal and Times, covering Kentucky,
and the Chattanooga Times, covering
Tennessee.
Kansas City Finals.
The finals to be held at Kansas City
May Z, for the selection of the third
nationalist, will have us contesting
field spokesmen for a group of news
papers also. That group includes the
Kansas City Star. the Rochester Demo-
crat and Republican of Rochester. n.
Y; the Seattle Times, the Youngs-
town Ohio Vindicator and the Okla
homa City Oklahoman. In addition to
these papers, the representative of
District X will also compete for the
place in the national contest.
District X" is the only portion of
the National Oratorical Contest in
which the choice between the cham
pions of number of schools is made
on manuscript basis. TX" is in
reality the fringe territory in that
it takes care of contestants in any
part Of the United States who are not
near enough to one of the newspaper
sponsors of the contest to go through
the regular routine. In 'X' the first
step was the selection of a school
champion by the regular plan of com
petitions within school, based on
speaking ability and composition.
The school champion was certified
as such by his principal and the man
uscript was sent to the National Con-
test headquarters to be judged solely
in it's written form.
Other Newspaper Finals.
The other newspaper finals, which
will be conducted on May 13. are spon-
sored by one paper each. The Los An
geles Times conducts the contest in
the territory embracing California,
Arizona Nevada and Utah. The New
York Times covers the contest III most
of New York State. part of New Jer-
sey and all of Connecticut. The Bull
letin (PhiIadelphiO embraces most of
Pennsylvania, part of New Jersev and
all of Delaware, and the Chicago
Iaily News covers Illinois.
The Star finals, May 4, will be the
most important contest within this
region, for through them some boy or
pirl of this section will win q tWo-and-
a half month tour of Europe, with the
trip across the Atlantic being made
aboard the steamship Leviathan itself!