The plan of forming an intercollegiate debating union is by all odds the most interesting and important topic which American college students will have to deal with for some time. Athletics have held full sway in college life for a good many years and have been the sole subject for intercollegiate competition; but as the all-important factor in college life they have had their day. They will continue to be important, but they must share importance with contests of intellect and oratory. In the organization of this new movement for the equality of brain and muscle, Harvard adds one more to her long line of important initiatives.

The value of the new plan will suggest itself readily to everyone, certain of its advantages are evident on the surface; but the movement has a deeper meaning which may not suggest itself so readily. This plan is the first movement to organize college brain and college thought so that they may have some influence in what is called the "outside world." There is a great deal of good thinking done in college, but most of it does the world no good simply because it lacks opportunity. If it could reach beyond college bounds and could be given something besides itself to spend its energy upon, its energy would greatly increase. The trouble is simply that college men and the "outside world" are a bit apt to look askance at each other and to feel that they have little in common. Yet college men are a part of the world and until they realize that they are citizens and that they have the duties and opportunities of citizens, they must be accounted narrow minded. As citizens, as intelligent beings, who are enjoying exceptional advantages, college men have a right to be a factor in the national thought and the national speech. The new plan asserts exactly this right. If debates are held as proposed, simultaneously throughout the country, and reports of the debates are published in the best magazines, American citizens will read college opinion with interest and with profit; the students will take more interest in their citizenship and the "outside world" will see that, after all, college men are not all snobs and butterflies. The topics for debate will be subjects with which the students will have to deal when they leave college, and here again will be a strong factor in the building of good citizenship. We have not space to go into this matter further at this time. It is worthy of consideration by every man who is interested in the broader and more important aspect of college life in its relation to national life.