When Hon. Chauncey M. Depew took his place on the platform in the Hyperion Theatre at New Haven last Friday night, there was not a vacant seat in the house. The stage was occupied by the following gentlemen; Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley, Lieut.-Gov. Merwin, President Dwight of Yale, and a large number of the Faculty and instructors, United States Senator Dubois of Idaho, Dr. A. M. Fairbairn of Oxford University, Prof. A. W. Dale of Cambridge, Eng., ex-United States Minister Phelps. Judge H. E. Howland and Hon. D. H. Chamberlain of New York, Profs. Briggs, Hart and Taussig of Harvard, Rev. E. A. Smith, Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell, Charles H. Clark and John A. Porter of Hartford, Professor Simeon E. Baldwin, president of the American Bar Association, ex-Comptroller of the Treasury W. W. Upton and Mayor Sargent.
Ralph Upton, president of the Yale Union, introduced Hon. Chauncey M. Depew who had consented to preside. Mr. Depew said:
I feel that it is both an honor and a privilege to preside at this debate. I have also a sensation that the position is free from the perils that beset a referee at a regatta or an umpire at a ball match.
It is a misfortune, and has been, of a university career that for a quarter of a century the debate has fallen into abeyance. The effect of the dissolution of this old system is to be seen at the pulpit, at the bar, upon the platform and in legislative halls all over the country. It is eminently fit and proper that the new era should be inaugurated by Yale and Harvard. The best reforms in education have always been made by the crimson and the blue.
Harvard and Yale have been antagonists for nearly 200 years. For the last 30 years the struggle between these ancient universities has been purely upon the athletic field. Prior to that it was mainly upon theological issues, and conducted by the faculties.
Since then it has been at the bat, at the oar, and with the ball, conducted by undergraduates, and has drawn larger audiences. The country does not yet understand that education develops both the body and the mind. No careful observer would take away any of the athletic characteristics of our colleges.
But, while the real education of the college is built upon its magnificent muscular development, education in its best sense mean that the intellect is trained so that it can be exercised by its owner - that it has ideas, that it can express its ideas lucidly n any subject that may come before it.
But you are assembled here tonight to listen to other speakers. If I were the referee, I should say "Go"; if I were the umpire, I should say, "Play ball."
The question before the house is, "That Immigration to the United States be unrestricted." Mr. Edward Henry Warren of Harvard College has the floor.
Mr. Warren spoke enthusiastically and forcefully, his delivery being very vigorous at times. He was followed by Julian Ingersoll Chamberlain, Yale '94, of New York City. Fred. W. Dallinger, Harvard '93, was the next speaker and he devoted himself to disproving the statements of the previous speaker. The other speakers were John Stacy Brown, Harvard '92, Thornwell Mullally, Yale '92, and W. A. McQuaid, Yale '92.
After Mr. McQuaid had closed the debate, Mr. Depew again took the floor and complimented both the speakers and managers of the debate on its undoubted success. According to the agreement no decision was rendered as to the result of the debate.
Immediately after the debate a banquet was given at the New Haven House, Dr. Depew acting as toastmaster.
At Mr. Depew's right sat President Timothy Dwight, and around the table, beside the speakers at the debate, sat nearly all of those who occupied seats on the stage. The following toasts were responded to:
"Harvard," Professor A. B. Hart; "Yale," President Timothy Dwight; "Linonia and Brothers," Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell, Hartford; "Harvard Union," S. M. Brice; "Yale Union," Ralph E. Upton; "College Journalism," N. A. Bayne; "Law," Hon. Francis Wayland; "The Scholar in Politics," Professor A. T. Hadley; "Athletics," Hon. H. E. Howland.
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