THE HESPERIAN
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you strike for his subscription. This is a
small matter to the subscriber but far from
small to the business manager. The past
year has been a hard one for newspapers.
It is only right therefore that all subscribers
should pay up. The Hesperian has given
the students more to talk about and think
about and fight about, in one issue than any
other paper has ever done before in the
University. "We like to stroke tho cat's fur
the wrong way, only when we get pay for
it.
Now is tho accepted time to withdraw
from the State Oratorical Association. The
students of the University will never be in
a better position to judge of the honor they
annually derive from membership in the
state association, than they are at present.
The whole scheme of local, state, and inter
state contest is nothing more than a scram
ble for glory, and cheap glory at that.
There is scarcely a contest but some par
ticipant complains of unfair dealing, either
in selection of judges or in the decision of
the judges after they are once selected. No
contestant enters an oratorical contest,
believing that if he has the best oration and
delivers it in the most acceptable manner,
he will be certain of the victory. On the
contrary, he thinks that he runs the chance
of winning, and to win, is to wear an im
aginary laurel wreath and have a little halo
around tho head. If in an oratorical con
test, there were some sure way by which the
best man or woman could be picked out
infallibly, then the Hesperian would be the
least to say a word against a lest of merit of
that kind, but an oratorical contest is almost
never a test of merit unless all the orators
but one be manifestly inferior. When it
comes to a close race there is no judgement
that is not open to the charge of partiality.
The political aspect of the case presents
another objectionable side. There are but
few offices to be filled and any number of
people to fill them. The officers of the
state association, have charge of the state
contest, and there has not been a contest
since tho year one when trouble or hard
feeling was not caused in the selection of
judges. The amount of wire pulling done,
no matter who does it, is amazing to one
not acquainted with student politics.
Students come to school to study, or should
come for that purpose. The training they
get in putting their best feet forward, in
oratorical scraps, may developo their nerve
but it certainly does not increase their ability
in anything but political lines.
COMMUNICATED.
To tho editor or the Hesperian: During
the recent oratorical circus a serious charge
was made against those desiring to sustain
the good name of the University. It was
claimed that their action was due largely,
if not entirely, to personal predjudice. I
desire to state briefly what seemed to me to
be the student attitude I admit that the Ne
braska representative to the inter-state con
test had enemies at the mass meeting who
wished to 'down him.' They were few in
number. I admit that the resolutions as
carried were probably too severe, as were
perhaps also those passed by tho faculty.
This is to be regreted. Nevertheless I do
not hesitate to say that fully 500 of the
students present were there to see justice
done; to give our representative every
opportunity to defend himself, and to clear
him and the University, if possible. They
realized that the charges were exaggerated,
but they also realized that the reports sent
to tho colleges and the newspapers of the
whole country would be exaggerated still
more, and merely wished to say uwe do not
endorse or approve the deeds which silence
has admitted."
As several of the faculty have said the
great mistake make by the accused was his
refusal to defend himself before the students,
whose representative he was. Up to this
ti,oao most of the students did not doubt that
he had defense. As it is, let us bury the
whole matter. E. E, Tuokeb, '9,