The Harvard Debating Union will hold an organization meeting and its first debate of this season in the Union on Monday evening, December 17, at 7 o'clock. The announcement of the season's opening meeting was made yesterday after the Conservative and Progressive clubs of the organization had separately and unanimously voted to merge the two clubs and form a single organization with a president and executive committee.

The meeting on December 17 will open with the transaction of business, which will include the election of a president and the designation of an executive committee of four members to aid him. As soon as the business of the organization is completed, the members will proceed to a discussion of some question of current interest,--possibly the coal plan of Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania.

Will Follow New Procedure

The procedure of the debate will follow an entirely new form this year. Yesterday's vote to amalgamate the two debating clubs brought an end to these two separate organization. Hereafter, Debating Union members will not support or oppose a question according as they are members of the Conservative or Progressive club, but each individual will sit to the right or to the left of the speaker according as he favors or disapproves of the question at hand.

The abolition of the set line between the conservative and the progressive has been adopted largely because these divisions do not represent the division between the two great American parties. The Democratic and Republican party platforms cannot be distinguished as either progressive or conservative, and it is, therefore, difficult to find questions in American politics which are inherently conservative or progressive, suitable for debate in the Union.

Debate Before Open Discussion

In order that the question, which will be discussed at each meeting, may be presented to the members by some one who has studied it, the president will elect two men to support the proposition and two to oppose it, and these four will conduct a short debate before the question is laid open to discussion by the house.