,\ I art ill
M o11tgomery
Twelve hundred people jammed into the assembly hall for thr opening debate of the year. T wo hundred more were turned away from the doors of tlw international debate b etween the Uni versity of Oxford, England, and the Uni versity of Idaho. The clash of the Vandal team with the men fro m " across t he pon d" '\ as one of the outstanding deb a tes of the year. The ques tio n for discussion" as : t~ H ESOLVE D, Tha t this is the b es t of all possible worlds." Purely a n academic ques ti on, it had for its purpose an attempt to develop forensic work in an intern a tional sense, and to in crease the felling of fellowship be t ween English and American sc hools. Since this debate Idaho students are much less prone to b clirve the old story that an Englishman can't see a joke. Rumor that t he Oxfordites were ÂŤwisecrackers" had preceded them t o this campus. This re port was verified during the debate; the E nglishmen's easy fl ow of humor delighted the audience. Paris Martin, Wa rren Montgomery, and J ohn Ewing abl y prese nted the affirm a tive side of the q uestion for the U niversity of Idaho. J oseph \fcK enn a, from Dublin, Ireland; Willia m Diplock, a London ttcockney"; and Richard Acland fro m York, Engla nd, all students at Oxford , upheld the negative. Splendid arguments were developed o n both sides. The E ngli shmen were m embers of the Oxford Union, the oldest deb ating societ y in the world, a nd they were ve teran debaters in every sense of the word. In spite of their skill, they had a great deal of difTic ult y in refutin g the arguments presen ted by the affirmative . This deb at e not only marked the development of a n ew era in forensic work at Idaho, hut it stimul a ted interest in debate through popular appeal t o the entire student bod y. H ailed by many as the m ost successful deb ate of the year, it was an achievement in itself. The Englishmen were delighted '\ ith the reception given them , and expressed a wish t o return . D eb ates of this kind are of real value t o forensics. Ever y two years an Oxford t eam to urs t he United St ates. lt is hoped tha t in the future they will alwa ys find it possible to stop at the U niversity of Idaho.
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