Evening star., 1930-05-05
CAR RACING TIMER
TO LIMIT ORATORS
Length of Speeches in The
Star Area Finals to Be
Gauged by Device.

The device which times racing auto
mobiles to the hundredth of the second
as they speed around tracks In record
breaking attempts will regulate the
length Of speeches Of orators In The
Star area finals Of the National Ora
torical Contest Thursday morning.
The same instrument that recorded
the shattering Of an automobile record
at Dry Lake. Muroc, Calf, last month
will be used here. It belongs to the
American Automobile Association and
will be operated by George E. Keneipp
manager Of the District Of Columbus
division.
In the seventh National Oratorical
Contest, May "a, each contestant will be
allowed minutes for his prepared
speech and minutes for his extern
poraneous effort, and in The Star finals
Thursday the time limit will be enforced
rigidly to prepare for the contest to
follow.
This will assure each contender for
the right to represent The Star in athe
national contest an equal right to exact
time allowance. The operator of the
timing instrument, MIR. Keneipp, has
acted in a similar capacity for many
automobile races under the auspices OF
the American Automobile Association
and is an expert timer. He also has
offlciated at several oratorical contests.
Enforcement Is Essential.
With high school orators all over the
Nation competing under identical con-
test rules, and with the high prizes at
stake, 1t Is essential that the time limit
t%n xx,{fh
In addition to the honor Of represent
ing this area In the national finals,
when the best orators Of six other areas
and the local entry compete for the
championship Of the United States, the
IL contenders in The Star finals will be
striving for an award Of 5000 and q
two-and-a-half- month tour Of Europe
this Summer.
The timing device Mr.. Keneipp will
operate Thursday is q box-like appar-
atus containing three delicate stop
watches calibrated to one-hundredth of
o second. It is operated by electricity
and upon the completion Of the set
periol of time, will ring bell. When
used In timing automobiles. the switch
which starts 1t Is thrown by the wheels
Of the car passing over q wire stretched
across the race course, eliminating en-
tirely the human equation. This, how
ever, will be impossible in the oratorical
contest and the switch Will be thrown
by hand.
Actual Speech to BE Timed.
The speakers will be introduced by
the principals Of their schools and then
will begin their six-minute speeches
The timing will not begin with the
salutaton to the chairman or to the
audience, but with the first word OF
the actual speech.
When the prepared Grafton is COM
pleted, the speaker will return to his
seat and the chairman will announce
the subject Of the four-minute extern
poraneous speech which the contestant
will proceed to develop. AS before, he
will be timed and stopped when his
allotted period Of time has been ex-
pended.
The judges will be instructed that II
speaker is stopped in his prepared
grafton, he may be rated on basis OF
what he actually has said. provided hi
stops when warned. However, II he
continues to talk, he must be rated
last. The same rule applies to the ex-
temporaneous address, with the differ
pared speech will be regarded as q
fault, while being stopped during the
impromptu speech will be taken as
showing that the contestant is fully
| informed as to his subject, and accord
| ingly will react to his credit The
| judges will not view favorably pad
| ding" of speeches merely to hll out
| the 4-minute period, and will not de-
tract from the rating Of a speaker who
speaks for shorter period, provided he
treats his subject In a way that shows
he is its master.