18 The instructor may see fit to appoint four speakers, two to support the affirmative and two the negative of one of the following propositions, the assignments being made at least a week in advance of the debate. 1. Each state should support a college free to all residents of the state. 2. All young men should be taught the use of firearms. 3. Works of art should be admitted to this country free of duty. 4. Capital punishment should be abolished. 5. United States senators should be elected by direct vote of the people. 6. The use of all kinds of explosives on July Fourth should be prohibited. 7. Laws should be passed prohibiting the carrying of freight by electric cars through public highways. 19 Let each member of the class prepare a written, eight hundred word defense of a proposition selected from the following list: 1. Permanent copyright should be granted by the United States. 2. Political cartoons should be prohibited by law. 3. Comic illustrations now found in our daily papers are a menace to public morals. 4. Our school should have an athletic field. 5. Our school should support a crew. 6. Public libraries and art galleries should be open on Sundays. 7. Monday would be better than Saturday for a school holiday. 8. Prose fiction exerts a greater influence today than drama. 9. Dogs possess intelligence. 10. A sailing craft affords greater pleasure than a power boat. 11. The English conception of what constitutes true sport is nobler than the American conception. 12. The recently proposed spelling reform is worthy of support. 13. The girls of our school should give financial support to the athletic association. 14. The dramatist performs a more difficult task than the actor. 15. Football is a brutal sport. 16. School journalism is not worth while. 17. Honesty is still the best policy. 18. Our school should take part in interscholastic debates. 19. Commercial prosperity tends to lower moral standards. 20. Public libraries should contain none but standard works. CHAPTER XI READING Before the days of printing There was a time, long centuries ago, when it was no uncommon thing for a person to go through life without ever learning to read. Books there were, some of them very beautiful, skilfully penned and "illuminated" in the scriptoria (writingrooms) of monasteries; but the choicest of these were for kings and queens and nobles, and a very few volumes sufficed for even a royal library. Among the common people, the place of books was supplied, though imperfectly, by fireside tales, spirited ballads, the romantic songs of the minstrel, and the miscellaneous chat of friars, peddlers, and other wayfarers. What printing has done That was before the days of Caxton, England's earliest printer. Since then the world has seen many marvels, but nothing more truly wonderful than the rapid increase in number of those who can read, the amazing quantity of matter that comes daily from the press, and the ease with which even the poorest may provide himself with the best that is printed. A few pennies will buy almost any classic, and there are free libraries everywhere. Thousands of new books every year, a multitude of magazines good and bad, newspapers without number,-what a vast quantity of print it all makes, and how mighty its influence! It is true beyond question, though how seldom we give it a thought, that the happiness and usefulness of the average person depend quite as much on the attitude he takes towards this great influence as upon any other single |