With the passing of class and inter-club, debates, the important event in intra-University debating is the Pasteur Medal debate tonight between teams picked in open competition. This department of debating has been so often reorganized that any now move must be regarded as an experiment. To the uninitiated the various changes in recent years seem to be steps backward, in as far as they tend to reduce the number of men who take part in public debates. If, however, the more informal discussion groups attract more men, they will partially accomplish their purpose, and may lead to a stronger system.

For an activity which attracts so much attention in the outside press and is of such value to the participants, debating does not receive a proportionate amount of recognition within the University. How many men who intend to take up law are willing to try for even one team while they are in College? The preparation and delivery of a debate--especially the speeches in rebuttal--will be of great advantage to a lawyer, and less obviously to any man whose vocation demands quick and logical thinking.

Those who are already interested will not require urging to attend tonight's contest. But the skeptics and those who have little actual knowledge of debating will do well to go and form their own opinions of its advantage.