DEBATE OF OCTOBER 17, 1888.Question: "Resolved, that the best interests of the United States would be promoted by the election of Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland.

Brief for the Affirmative.S. R. Albee and O. M. Anderson.

Best general reference: Speech of B. F. Butler, Aug. 31, 1888. (Boston dailies, Sept. 1. 1888.)

I. The success of the Republican party means the continuance of the American protective system; while the success of the Democratic party means the ultimate overthrow of that system. Debates on the tariff in Congressional Record, April 17 to May 19, 1888; Henry Watterson, The Tariff for revenue only, (Harper's Magazine, Jan. 1888); Geo. F. Edmunds, The Tariff. Harper's Magazine, Feb. 1888.

II. The protective system enables us to obtain the greatest amount of wealth from our agricultural, manufacturing and commercial industries, and possesses inestimable social and political advantages:- C. D. Henning, The Advantages of a Protective Tariff; Stebbins, American Protectionist Manual.

III. The Republican party proposes an effective and desirable method of reducing the surplus.- William Whitman, The Abolition of Internal Revenue Taxes (in Bulletin of Wool Manufacturers, Vol. XIII.)

IV. The tariff bill supported by the Democratic party would in any case be an injury to the interests of the country, and would not accomplish its avowed purpose, the reduction of the revenue.- Speech of Hon. William McKinley, Jr. in the House, May 18, 1888, (pamphlet and also in Congressional Record).

V. The Republican party is a party of a free ballot.- North American Review 1879, p. p., 173, 248 and 282. St. Louis Globe Democrat (in Public Opinion, Aug. 4, 1888, p. 373.

VI. The Republican party favors temperance.- Speech of Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Sept. 5, 1888, (pamphlet); New York Mail and Express, (in Public Opinion, March 3, 1888, p. 501.)

VII. The foreign policy of the present administration has been weak and unpatriotic. a.- The President failed to act under retaliatory law passed by congress in 1887.- Speech of Benjamin F. Butler, Aug. 31, 1888. b.- The administration has been generally inefficient.- James G. Blaine (in American Magazine Sept. 1888.)

VIII. In refusing to admit Dakota into the Union, the Democratic party have done great injustice to the people of that territory.- St. Paul Press, Oct. 22, 1887.

IX. President Cleveland's civil service pledges have not been fulfilled.- Letters of Grover Cleveland, dated August 18, 1884, Dec. 25, 1884, Sept. 11, 1885, and Dec. 8, 1885; inaugural address, March 4, 1885 (in the daily press); speech of Senator Hale, Jan. 11, 1888. (in the Congressional Record).

Brief for the Negative.F. Green and W. L. Monro.

Best single reference: Cleveland's Letter of Acceptance, Sept. 8 (in the daily press.)

I. The financial policy which Harison represents is unsound-(a) The tax on whiskey and tobacco should be retained; (b) the tariff on necessaries should be reduced, especially upon raw materials; (c) the Republican tariff bill is sectional, discriminating against the South, is in the interest of capitalists and monopolists, and fosters trusts.- Minority report on Senate tariff bill, Congressional Record, Oct. 4, 1888., pp. 10139-10142.

II. The protective system is safe in the hands of the Democrats.- Schurz's letter in Boston Post, Oct. 8, 1888.

III. Cleveland's policy upon the fishery question has been consistent and statesmanlike. The Republican opposition has been factious.- Cleveland's Retaliatory Message (in the daily press, Aug. 25, 1888).

IV. Cleveland's course as to pensions has been eminently patriotic.- Speech of McKinney in House, Congressional Record, Aug. 2, 1888.

V. Harrison's vacillation on the Chinese question betrays his pliancy topiary ends.

VI. The cause of civil service reform will fare better under Cleveland than under Harrison.- Civil Service Record, May, 1887, pp. 92-94.