udience and judges are practically
identical, for after the debate upon a measure is concluded, those who
have listened to it render individual verdicts by casting their votes.
In such cases we frequently see decisions rendered not upon the merits
of the debate, but according to class prejudice, personal opinion, or
party lines. This is why so many great argumentative speeches were
accounted failures at the time of their delivery. Delivered to secure
majority votes they failed to carry conviction to the point of
changing immediate action, and so in the small temporary sense they
were failures. In legal trials the jury is the real judge, although by
our peculiar misapplication of the term a different person entirely is
called judge. In court the judge is in reality more often merely the
presiding officer. He oversees the observance of all the rules of
court practice, keeps lawyers within the regulations, instructs the
jury, receives the decision from them, and then applies the law.
Every lawyer speaks--not to convince the judge--but to convince the
jury to render a decision in his favor.

Scholastic Debating. Choosing the Proposition. In school debating the
proposition may be assigned by the instructor or it may be chosen by
him from a number submitted by the class. The class itself may choose
by vote a proposition for debate. In interscholastic debating the
practice now usually followed is for one school to submit the
proposition and for the second school to decide which side it prefers
to support. In any method the aim should be to give neither side any
advantage over the other. The speakers upon the team may be selected
before the question of debate is known. It seems better, when
possible, to make the subject known first and then secure as speakers
upon both sides, students who have actual beliefs upon the topic. Such
personal conviction always results in keener rivalry.

Time Limits. Since no debate of this kind must last too long, time
restrictions must be agreed upon. In every class, conditions will
determine these terms. Three or four speakers upon each side make a
good team. If each is allowed six minutes the debate should come well
within an hour and still allow some time for voting upon the
presentations. It should be distinctly understood that a time limit
upon a speaker must be observed by him or be enforced by the presiding
officer.

The speakers upon one side will arrange among themselves the order in