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2. No person shall represent either school on the debate team who is not at the time a bona fide member of the school, carrying the full work of his class and not delinquent in his studies.

3. The order of speakers and the length of speeches shall be as follows:

(a) First affirmative speaker

10 minutes.

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4. In the odd numbered years, at least four weeks before the debate, school A shall propose a list of at least six names for judges, and school B shall have the right and duty to choose the judges from this list or to call for further lists. No alumnus or official of either school shall be proposed as judge, and at least three of the persons named on each list shall be non-residents of the places in which the schools are located.

5. At the close of each debate, each judge, without leaving his seat, shall fill the blank in the following statement with the word "affirmative" or the word

"negative," and shall sign the statement with his name and hand it to an usher who shall immediately convey it to the chairman.

"Without regard to the merits of the question and to my own convictions thereon, I hereby declare that in my opinion the most effective debating has been done by the

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6. It shall not be allowable for any speaker to introduce into the debate testimony or authority, or letters or other written matter from experts, which has not appeared in print.

Informal debate may arise between two people in conversation; it may arise in any class room in the course of a recitation; it may be provided for in an English class with no limit on the number of speakers. The side that each shall take, or the time that each may occupy, is not specified, though there may be a rule on any of these points if desired. Sometimes an informal debate is arranged as follows:

Two leaders are appointed a few days in advance and allowed to prepare as thoroughly as the brief time will permit. At the debate these leaders make the opening and the closing speeches, the intervening time being occupied by two-minute speeches by as many others as can be heard.

Informal debate is valuable in cultivating readiness of speech and aptness of reply. Formal debate is valuable in the protracted training that it affords the debaters.

We shall treat of Formal Debate in the remainder of this chapter.

Debatable Propositions.

155. The selection and wording of the proposition for formal debate is the first matter of importance. Not all propositions are debatable in the sense of being available for school or interscholastic debate.

Subjects of present-day public interest offer the best propositions. "Labor unions are justified in limiting the number of apprentices"; "Secret societies in public high schools should be prohibited by law," are samples of better propositions than "Public high schools should not be supported by taxation," for the last-named proposition is no longer a live issue in this country.

The proposition should be fair to both sides; it should not be stated so that one side is conspicuously weaker than the other. Thus, few would support the negative side of the proposition, "The public high schools should teach good deportment," but many would resist the proposition, "Every public high school should be compelled by law to maintain regular daily classes in the study of good deportment."

The proposition should not be ambiguously or trickily worded. "Our present policy in the Philippines should be made permanent," is not a well-worded proposition because the first three words mean different things to different people; but "The United States should grant independence to the Philippines before 1925" is susceptible of but one meaning, and would set up the same conflict without offering the same chance to quibble.

Even when we have done our best to state the proposition clearly and fairly, some term may need to be

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