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Here again the analogy between debate and the later debate of life runs close and sure. The man who in the activity of his group--whether his lodge, his club, his society, his church, his city, or his State--has nothing but criticism to offer is of but little value. It is easy to say "you can't, you can't." Such a statement is as valueless as it is easy.

The skillful debater will, therefore, develop his campaign along two parallel lines; he will demolish the defenses of his enemy with one battery of arguments while he is advancing his own position with another arm of the service marching under the flag labeled Q. E. D.

The place of refutation in your argument, although essential, cannot be dictated. It will depend largely upon the course the debate takes. I can make certain useful suggestions, however.

Obviously you cannot refute until there is something to refute. If your audience--and your judges--is entirely impartial and unprejudiced, if you do not have to combat a preconceived position, you can probably safely content yourself with advancing your own position and leave the rebuttal of your opponent's arguments until later. But if you are presenting some novel proposition or some unpopular idea which cannot be entertained unless certain hostile ideas are cleared away, you will win better attention if you demolish the fundamental ideas upon which the old theory rests before you present your constructive argument.

Be sure, however, to have yourself so well in hand that your refutation will be as well organized as your constructive argument. More than that, you should not allow any acute break to appear between the two. What happened in a recent college debate in the East is an excellent demonstration of what should not be done. Neither the audience nor the judges had been told what was coming, and all were surprised when four minutes after each speaker began a bell rang. Instantly over the face of the speaker, as one of the judges told me, came a sort of "Thank Heaven" expression, and he forthwith swung off into a well-prepared argument on the constructive side of the case. Evidently each had been told to rebut for four minutes and then argue. To be sure that he would know where to stop the one and begin the other, the bell signal was arranged. The effect was ludicrous in the extreme.

There are four special kinds of rebuttal which you can use.

Is his reasoning based upon premises which you can disprove?

Has he ignored the real issue?

Are his alleged causes merely coincidences, or are there other contributing causes which lessen the force of his conclusion?

Is his observation of facts faulty and are his generalizations unsound and based upon insufficient and unfair instances?

Apply these tests to his arguments and you will render your task of refutation easier. But in your refutation, be sure you refute. Don't think for a minute that either heat or violence or sarcasm is a good answer. Neither can the testimony of one witness be rebutted by that of another unless the latter's knowledge of the matter is shown to be the greater. And the strength of refutation lies in the skill with which you make your audience believe your witnesses are more worthy of belief than those of your opponent, provided always that is the fact.

DELIVERY

Let your speech have form and body. When you have prepared your brief, you have indeed articulated a skeleton which may be beautiful in its logical symmetry although not as yet clothed in flesh and blood. But do not destroy that beauty by losing, when you begin to speak, all your sense of form and arrangement. Do not let your spoken argument be simply unrelated chunks of thought. Keep your transitions in thought clear. I do not mean that you should parade each step consciously before your audience and label each section neatly and appropriately. Let your argument all travel forward to a climactic end. "Many speakers approach the end of their work as if it were a dreaded leap into oblivion, and, after trying again and again to close, end abruptly or trail off in less and less audible sentences till the gavel falls."

As to your method of delivery, as to how to learn to speak, the best advice I can give you is to learn to speak by speaking. Don't try to force your voice or your gestures; let them both be easy and natural. The human voice is capable of wonderful things; its tones may be rich and mellow or harsh and rasping. Learn to listen to your own voice as to that of another.

For the speaker's chest to rise and fall, for him to squeeze his chest together as he might squeeze an orange, may show emotion, but it doesn't show good sense. If you use the muscles of the throat and neck, you will soon injure your voice; to speak effectively, you must let the lower part of the lungs do the work. It will, if it is given half a chance.

These directions may seem to call for a difficult feat of internal gymnastics. They don't. Correct breathing is easier than the other sort!

You will be surprised to find vocal powers which you never realized existed before. You will also be chagrined to find, I fear, that you occasionally use tones which rasp and grate, which strain the muscles, parch the throat and distress generally not only the speaker but alas! the hearer as well. Cultivate those tones which are flexible and resonant and discard those which grate and strain. Use your singing tones and don't be afraid to open your mouth and let your voice have a chance.

But don't get monotonous in your work. You will find, in practice, many rich mellow tones of many keys and pitches. Just because one sounds good to you--and it may be everything you think it is--don't use it to the point of monotony. I heard a lady read some charming verse of her own composition the other evening. The poems were in every way pleasing--they were much above the ordinary. But she pitched her voice in one key and one tone all the way through the verse, her comment, her introduction, everything, all in the same tone from beginning to end! The effect was marred. There was no break in the smooth voice from start to finish. As one of her hearers remarked: "I could stand those canary bird tones in the verses but she should have given us a rest in the rest of it."

As to your gestures and your bearing on the platform, the same rule applies; be easy and natural. Remember that after all, speaking is little more than talking. If you can assist your public speech by gestures which help your meaning, emphasizing certain points or, as it were, marking off certain phrases, why, gesture. But don't wave your arms for the mere sake of doing so. As one teacher of debating said "You may do anything on the platform you would do anywhere else in the company of ladies and gentlemen." You must of course so conduct yourself physically that you will not distract the attention of your audience from what you are saying; you wish to help your thought, not hinder it.

FINAL SUGGESTIONS

The way to learn to debate is by actual practice in debate. The way to learn to speak is by trying to speak. Never miss a proper opportunity of speaking. Don't make yourself disliked, of course, but try every chance you get, and listen to every debate or speech you can and apply to every argument you hear or read the tests which show whether they are real or false. Before you really know it, you will prove every proposition presented to you and that without any conscious effort.

Again, many boys who can write clearly and beautifully are likely to become slangy and colloquial when they talk. If you practice clothing your thoughts in appropriate audible language you will easily detect this trouble and it will soon become offensive to you. So, for both of these reasons, don't be afraid to talk to yourself. Never mind if you are overheard and pronounced queer--it's all in the day's work.

In the next place, remember that all argument is really plain exposition--that is, you are simply setting forth the facts and "applying to them an explanation; a theory or a policy better or more rational, more thorough or more for your personal advantage." The rules which I have given you will aid you in thus setting forth the facts, and in making your audience see your proposed solution of those facts.

But as I said before, the way to learn to debate is to debate. The rest of this book is made up of practical suggestions which will help you and your crowd to organize and conduct debates and debating societies. Go to it, but go to it as a real thing, a thing worth while and not a mere game. Take yourselves seriously and apply to your informal talks and discussions the rules I have been outlining for formal debates. I don't want you to be stilted or stiff, nor yet self-conscious prigs, but I want you to realize that your life now, in your club or society or patrol, is but a cross-section of what your later life will be. The same rules govern your mental discipline now as will then. The lessons you learn now you will not have to learn then and, what is of far more consequence, if you now look after your training a little, you won't have a lot of things to unlearn then. I have two suggestions, however, which apply with equal force to both times--now and later.

Don't make this mistake yourself. If your patrol decides to go to Mount Washington when you wanted to go to the Thousand Islands, never mind; go anyway. If you wanted the age limit against child labor fixed at sixteen and your opponent is successful in making it fifteen, why remember fifteen is better than fourteen anyway. If you wanted forest reserves of twenty million acres established by law, and your opponent succeeded in convincing the judges that ten millions was about right, that's better than no conservation at all. Or for example if you believe that nation wide prohibition of the liquor traffic is the ultimate solution of that problem, you should not therefore decline to have anything to do with state prohibition or even local option. They are all steps in the right direction, don't you see? Take anything you can get. The step in the right direction is the right step, whether it is a short step or a long step.

Finally, remember that while these suggestions are designed to aid you win your debate, in the nature of things, there can only be one correct position on any question. One side only can be right, and if your side is not right it should not win. But it is equally true if both sides are careful in their analysis of the question, and in their discussion of it, it is much more likely that the actual facts will be discovered and a correct solution of the difficulties found. You must therefore remember that it is your task to do the best you can so to present your side of the case that every argument to be brought forward on your side will have its just weight. But do not think that because you have a certain side of an argument to present you must always thereafter take that side of the case. In other words don't be afraid of changing your mind. Give the best work you are capable of in preparing and presenting your arguments and then sit in judgment yourself upon yourself. Be your own severest critic, and be manly enough to abide by the result.

HOW THE FAIRFIELD BOYS ORGANIZED

I knew several of the boys at Fairfield, and because I was much interested in debating generally, I was delighted when Jack Mason asked me if I would like to go with him to a meeting called to discuss the organization of a debating club. Jack was a fine lad about seventeen years old; he was an enthusiastic ball player and delighted in outdoor sports. His particular chum, Frank Lawrence, was a different lad. He found his chief interest in books and reading, although he was by no means a "dig" or a recluse. However, the two boys made a fine team, and each supplied what the other may have lacked.

Frank was really the leader in the movement to organize the club. He had been reading several volumes of orations and had been impressed by the force and vigor of the great speakers. Like all boys who amount to anything, he wanted to try his hand, and naturally he didn't want to do it alone. He took the matter up with Jack and, while Jack at first laughed at the idea, Frank finally brought him round to see it was a good thing. The result was that fifteen or twenty of the boys came together to talk things over.

When I arrived I found just a crowd of ordinary boys, no better or no worse than average lads in a community. They all wanted to do something; they were not satisfied with waiting for something to happen; they wanted to make something happen. With that spirit in them, they speedily got down to work and before I realized it they had organized their club.

Some of the boys were Scouts and naturally preferred to have that organization connected in some way with the club. Jack, I think, approved this idea, but Frank pointed out that although many of them were Scouts and all of them had friends who were Scouts, this really was not a scout organization and they might wish to take into the club boys who possibly did not believe in the scout organization, and might thus be prevented from joining. Charlie Taylor suggested that it be called "The Debating Club of the Epworth League." Charlie was a Methodist and belonged to the Epworth League. George Perkins, however, who was an ardent member of the Christian Endeavor Society, objected, and of course when the proposal was put that way, Charlie at once saw that it was not fair. The boys finally agreed that the only thing they had in common, as far as the organization of the club was concerned, was first, that they were boys, and second, that they wanted to debate. Therefore, they decided to call it by a name which would, by its very simplicity, avoid any misunderstanding and at the same time properly characterize the object of the club. They decided therefore to call the club "The Boys' Debating Club of Fairfield."

When they came formally to state the purpose of their organization, after some discussion they agreed upon this preamble: "We, the undersigned, appreciating the advantages to be derived from practice in debate, hereby organize ourselves into a club for that purpose and agree to be governed by the following constitution:"

Frank wished to have more in this preamble and urged that they write it so that it would state that they would be benefited by drill in discussion, in composition, in declamation, in elocution, in parliamentary practice; in fact, in many other ways growing out of their meeting as a club, but Henry Jordan, a quiet, unassuming member, asked if all that really was not included in the word "debate." They said, "Of course," and so the short preamble stood.

The first few articles were adopted without much discussion, as they all thought substantially alike on those points.

The question of a short term of office called forth much discussion. My friend Jack is decidedly businesslike and he could see no real reason, he said, for going through the fuss and bother of so many elections. "If a man makes a good president," he said, "why do we want to put him out of office after he has been working ten weeks and has just got the run of things? Besides, he would scarcely have time to show what he could do in ten weeks." Frank replied: "Suppose he doesn't make a good president; even these ten weeks would be a pretty long time, wouldn't it?" Jack grumbled a good deal and insisted that the boys would put in most of their time electioneering for office. The boys laughed him down on this point, but Henry Jordan convinced them all when he said: "If practice is what we are after in this club, the more the offices are passed around the more practice we will all get." They decided to fill vacancies by election at any meeting of the club, although some of the boys thought that it would be simpler to have the president appoint some boy to fill out the unexpired portion of the office, if a vacancy should occur.

There was a good deal of discussion of the duties of the various officers. Henry Jordan thought it would be enough if the constitution simply set out the ordinary rules governing similar bodies. Ralph Parsons--the boys called him "Tubby"--suggested, quite ingenuously I thought, that he supposed the various officers would have so much work to do that they would not be expected to take part in the debates. The thought in his mind was clear to all. The boys evidently knew him. "No, indeed," announced Jack, "the president and all the rest of the officers take part in the debates when their time comes." "O, well!" sighed "Tubby."

Frank made a suggestion at this point which I thought was very good. "There are other debating clubs," he said, "we ought to get acquainted with. There are societies for doing other kinds of work which is worth while. There is the Epworth League, and the Christian Endeavor Society, and the Boy Scouts, and the High School literary society, and the Girls' Library Club, and lots of organizations which are just as good as ours. I think it would be great to get together with them just as much as we can--have joint programmes and all that sort of thing, you know. It might be good for them, and I know it would be fine for us."

"Splendid!" I could not help exclaiming.

"I move that it be one of the duties of the President to see these clubs and carry out this idea," said George Perkins. This motion was carried enthusiastically. After more discussion the enumeration of the other duties of the officers was left to a committee.

One office was created for which I suppose I am responsible. The boys felt pretty "cocky" and Jack said something about the good work they were going to do in their club. They had asked me before to take part in their discussion and I ventured to ask: "How will you know whether your work is good or not?"

"Well," Charlie Taylor replied, "when we have a debate with that Onarga bunch and lick them good and plenty, I guess they'll know we are doing good work."

"Well, we may not find judges who will stand for 'lick them good and plenty' arguments," interrupted Frank. "That kind of talk won't go in a dignified debating club."

"Anyway," I replied, "suppose you don't know what kind of work you are doing until the result of some debate contest tells you. Isn't it quite a while to wait?"

"I tell you what, boys," I continued. "I know folks say there is a great deal of education in learning through our mistakes, and of course there is. But there is also a lot of energy wasted in doing things the wrong way. We would look well, wouldn't we, if we insisted in finding out for ourselves every fact in geography or physics when we have available the accumulated experience of centuries. So don't try to do it all alone, boys. Get some older men who have gone through the mill themselves and get them to act as your critics and advisers. You will save a lot of time and get along much better."

This advice seemed good, and they adopted the following section: "The President shall appoint at each session of the club a Critic, whose duty it shall be to criticize the conduct of the meeting and of the individual members in all respects and to render to the club such other help in advice and counsel as may seem wise to him. Such Critic shall, when possible, be appointed from the honorary members of the club."

When they came to the question of membership there was a hot debate. There was an almost even division on the question of admitting the girls. There was no nonsense about the boys; they were not rough or boorish on the one hand, nor "sissified" on the other. One faction contended stoutly that it would be a good thing to have the girls with them. They urged the difference in the minds of boys and girls and felt that any question would be better understood if they had both points of view about it.

Jack led the opposition to having the girls join. He said:

"You fellows all know my sister Polly." "You know Polly is great. She is as good a fellow as any of you here." Here he glared pugnaciously about, but as no one seemed to disagree with him in the least he continued.

"I would as lief chum with Polly as not--but not in this club. I think we would have better times and do more business if we were alone. We could easily enough have social nights in the club once in a while. We can always get the girls and have a good time together outside, but I believe we ought to keep the club out of it. I wish they would organize a debating club of their own. It would be great sport to have a joint debate."

The antis won, and the word "boy" used in the provision on membership. Only two other points concerning membership made much discussion--how many votes were necessary to get a boy in and how many votes were necessary to get him out after he was in.

Will Morrissey had not talked much yet, but he grew eloquent when he urged that one vote should be enough to keep a boy out. "Why," he said, "if we are going to do good work here we must be careful who we have in. If we have united action we must be a band of brothers. We must not have in here anyone who is obnoxious to anyone else."

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