Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association Part 1

Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation.

by Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation.

FOREWORD

These orations are selected from hundreds of similar addresses spoken in recent years by hundreds of students in American colleges. I believe it is not too bold to say that they represent the highest level of undergraduate thinking and speaking. They are worthy interpreters of the cause of peace, but they are, as well, n.o.ble ill.u.s.trations of the type of intellectual and moral culture of American students. Whoever reads them will, I believe, become more optimistic, not only over the early fulfillment of the dreams of peace among nations, but also over the intellectual and ethical condition of academic life.

For the simple truth is that the cause of peace makes an appeal of peculiar force to the undergraduate. It appeals to his imagination.

This imagination is at once historic and prophetic. War makes an appeal to the historic imagination of the student. His study of Greek and Roman history has been devoted too largely to the wars that these peoples waged. Marathon, Salamis, Carthage, are names altogether too familiar and significant. By contrast he sees what this history, which is written in blood, might have become. If the millions of men slain had been permitted to live, and if the uncounted treasure spent had been economically used, the results in the history of civilization would have been far richer and n.o.bler. He notes, too, does this student, that if the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth had been free from wars in Europe, humanity would now have attained a far higher level of physical and intellectual strength. The historic imagination of the student pictures, as his reason interprets, such conditions. His prophetic imagination likewise exercises its creative function. The student sees nations to-day dwelling in armed truces and moving to and fro as a soldiery actual or possible. He realizes that war puts up what civilization puts down, and puts down what civilization elevates. He reads the lamented Robertson's great lecture on the poetry of war, but he knows also, as Robertson intimates, that "peace is blessed; peace arises out of charity." The poetry of peace is more entrancing than the poetry of carnage. To this primary element in the mind of the undergraduate--the imagination--our great cause therefore makes an appeal of peculiar earnestness.

To the reason of the college man, also, the cause of peace makes a peculiar appeal through its simple logic. War is most illogical. It breaks the law of the proper interpretation of causality. When two nations of adjacent territory cannot agree over a boundary line, why should settlement be made in terms of physical force? When two nations fail to see eye to eye in adjusting the questions of certain fis.h.i.+ng rights, why should they incarnadine the seas in seeking for the truth to be applied in settlement? In civil disputes, why, asks the student, should rifles be employed to discover truth and right? War is an intellectual anachronism, a breach of logic. Of course, one may reply, humanity is not logical in its reasoning any more than it is exact in its observing. Of course it is not; but the college is set to cast out the rule of no-reason and to bring in the reign of reason. Peace furnishes a motive and a method of such advancement. Peace is logic for the individual and for the nation.

The illogical character of war is also made evident by the contrast between the college man as a thinker and war itself. The college man who thinks sees truth broadly; war interprets life narrowly, at the point of the bayonet. The college man who thinks sees truth deeply; war makes its primary appeal to the superficial love of glory, of pomp, and of circ.u.mstance. The college man who thinks sees truth in its highest relations; war is h.e.l.l. The college man who thinks sees truth in long ranges and in far-off horizons; war is emotional, and the warrior flings the years into the hours. The college man who thinks, thinks accurately, with logic, with reason; war does not think--it strikes. "Strike," the college man may also say, "but hear!"

he cries; "yes, think." If the college can make the student think, it has created the greatest force for making the world and the age a world and an age of peace.

It is plain enough, too, that the economic side of war makes a tremendous appeal to the student. The cost of the battles.h.i.+p _Indiana_ was practically $6,000,000; the total value of grounds and buildings of the colleges and universities in Indiana is slightly more than $7,000,000, and the productive funds are $4,000,000. The total cost of the battles.h.i.+p _Oregon_ was more than $6,500,000; the total value of grounds and buildings of the universities and colleges of Oregon is less than $2,000,000, and the productive funds amount to hardly more than $2,000,000. The cost of the battles.h.i.+p _Iowa_ was nearly $6,000,000, and the productive funds of all the colleges and universities of the state are only $5,000,000. The battles.h.i.+p _Kentucky_ cost $5,000,000; in the colleges of that state the total amount of productive funds is only $2,000,000, and the total value of grounds and buildings, $3,000,000. The battles.h.i.+p _Alabama_ cost more than $4,500,000, and the entire property, real and personal, of all the universities and colleges in that state is less than $4,000,000.

The cost of the battles.h.i.+p _Wisconsin_ was more than $4,500,000; the whole value of all grounds and buildings of the colleges and universities of the state is only slightly more than $7,000,000. The battles.h.i.+p _Maine_ cost more than $5,000,000, and the entire value in grounds, buildings, and productive funds of the colleges and universities of that state is little more than $5,000,000.

The value of the buildings of five hundred colleges and universities in this country was estimated in a recent year at $262,000,000, and the productive funds at $357,000,000. Leaving out those now in course of construction, the total cost of the battles.h.i.+ps and armored cruisers of the United States named after individual states is $325,000,000.

The cost of maintaining these battles.h.i.+ps during the fiscal year of 1910, though many were in commission but a small part of the year, amounted to no less than $33,000,000. The amount which all the colleges and universities in this country received in tuition fees in 1911 was only $20,000,000; and the entire income received both from fees and productive funds was only about $34,000,000. In other words, when one takes into account the depreciation of the battles.h.i.+p or armored cruiser, the entire cost of the thirty-eight battles.h.i.+ps for a single year is greater than the administration of the entire American system of higher education.

Is it not painfully manifest that the cost of war const.i.tutes a mighty argument for the economic mind of the student?

Moreover, I am inclined to believe that the very difficulties belonging to the triumph of our great cause const.i.tute ground for its closer relations.h.i.+p to the college man. The college man wishes, as well as needs, a hard job. The easy task, the rosy opportunity, makes no appeal. He is like Garibaldi's soldiers, who, when the choice was once offered them by the commander to surrender to ease and safety, chose hards.h.i.+p and peril. The Boxer revolution in China was followed by hundreds of applications from college men and women to be sent forth to China to take the place of the martyrs. The difficulties in the progress of the great cause are of every sort and condition.

Industrial narrowness and commercial greed, military and political ambitions, sectional zeal, national jealousy, the sensitiveness of each nation in matters of national honor, the glamour of the good and the beautiful under the sentiment of patriotism, the historic honor attending death for one's country, the ease of creating war scares among the people, the looseness of the organization of the higher forces of the world--all these conditions and more pile up into a Pelion on Ossa as a part of the difficulties standing in the progress of our great movement. But such difficulties inspire rather than deter. The student says, "I will; therefore I can." He also says, "I can; therefore I will." He knows that the forces fighting for him are more than those that fight against him, strong as these are. Man in his n.o.blest relations.h.i.+ps, the songs of the poet (the best interpreter, from Homer and Virgil to the "Winepress" of Alfred Noyes), the torture, the pains, the sufferings, the woes, the vision of the prophet of a loving and perfect humanity, the reason of logic--all these and more are to him inspirations, and strengthen him in his great quest. He is a knight of the Holy Grail that is filled from the river of the water of life.

Perhaps, furthermore, the cause makes its most impressive appeal to the collegian in its internationalism, or interpatriotism. This internationalism addresses itself to his own international appreciation. The collegian is a patriot. He is a patriot not only against a foreign country but often against certain parts of his own country--loyal to the interests which he believes a section of his own nation properly represents. The German students have fought for their Fatherland; they have also fought for the liberal sentiments of their own land against reactionary movements, as in 1848. In the American Civil War no brighter record is to be found than is embodied in the tablets in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, or in Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina. But the collegian possesses the international sense, and possesses it more and more deeply with each pa.s.sing decade. His is the international mind, interpreting phenomena in terms of common justice. His is the international heart, feeling the universal joys and sorrows, woes and exultations. His is the international will, seeking to do good to all men. His is the international conscience, weighing right and duty in the scales of divine humanity. Whatever interpretation he gives to the sayings of Paul that G.o.d made all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth and has fixed the bounds of their habitation,--whether he stops with the words "the face of the earth" or whether he goes on to interpret the limitations of their residence,--it is nevertheless true that his mind, his heart, his will, and his conscience do go out toward all nations in their endeavor to realize their highest racial and interracial peace. No man is a foreigner to him.

I have, I trust, said enough to intimate that these orations arise out of a natural and normal condition of the student mind and heart. They also, in subject as well as in origin, bear a special message of cheer and hopefulness to all who have a good will toward the collegian and toward the great cause for which we all are laboring.

CHARLES F. THWING _President_

WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY CLEVELAND, OHIO

PRIZE ORATIONS

THE INTERCOLLEGIATE PEACE a.s.sOCIATION

_Origin._ In the autumn of 1904 President Noah E. Byers of Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, a Mennonite college, invited to a conference representatives of all the colleges in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio that are conducted by those religious denominations that advocate nonresistance as one of their essential religious principles. Such bodies are the Mennonites, the Dunkards, and the Quakers. In the spring of 1905 a more specific invitation was sent out, with the result that a conference was held at Goshen College, June 22-23, 1905.

This date is important, since the call of President Byers for such a conference was the first active step ever taken to interest the college world, and particularly undergraduates, in the great movement for world peace founded upon the idea of human brotherhood. While the conference did not take place until a month after President Gilman had suggested to the Lake Mohonk Conference, in May, 1905, that it should extend its peace work to the colleges and universities, yet the call for the conference was several months prior to the action of the Mohonk Conference.

Eight inst.i.tutions were represented at this conference--Goshen, Earlham, Central Mennonite, Ashland, Wilmington, Juniata, and Penn colleges and Friends' University. No definite plan of work had been mapped out, but a simple organization was effected, and arrangements were made for a second conference at Earlham College (Society of Friends). Professor Elbert Russell of Earlham College was elected president, and upon him devolved most of the work of arranging for the second conference, which was held April 13-14, 1906. For this conference no denominational lines were drawn, it being felt that all colleges and universities should be interested in this important work.

Hence invitations were sent to all inst.i.tutions of higher learning in both Indiana and Ohio. Eight inst.i.tutions were represented: Indiana, three--Earlham and Goshen colleges and Indiana University; Ohio, five--Antioch, Denison, Miami, Wilmington, and Central Mennonite. This representation was small, considering the importance of the conference and the excellent program that had been arranged for by Professor Russell. But notwithstanding the small number of inst.i.tutions represented, the conference was a marked success, made so very largely by the many excellent addresses--among others, those of Edwin D. Mead, Benjamin F. Trueblood, Professor Ernst Richard of Columbia University, and Honorable William Dudley Foulke.

On the last day of the conference the delegates from the different colleges met and perfected a permanent organization, which it was agreed should be called the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation. Thus, after a year of preliminary work, the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation came into definite and permanent existence on April 14, 1906. At this meeting Dean William P. Rogers of the Cincinnati Law School was elected president, and Professor Elbert Russell, secretary and treasurer. The president and the secretary, President Noah E.

Byers of Goshen College, and Professor Stephen F. Weston of Antioch College const.i.tuted the executive committee. The writer has remained on the executive committee from the beginning, as either an elected or an ex-officio member.

Two methods of propaganda were adopted: intercollegiate oratorical contests, and public addresses on peace questions before the student body and faculties of colleges and universities. It was also agreed that the work should begin with Ohio and Indiana and gradually extend to other states. Although no definite plan was formulated until a year later, at the meeting at Cincinnati, it was understood from the outset that it should be the aim gradually to extend the field of work, so that ultimately most of the inst.i.tutions of higher learning in practically all of the states should be embraced within the organization and partic.i.p.ate in the contests.

_Purpose._ The purpose of the a.s.sociation has been quite definitely set forth in my "Historical Sketch"[1] and in my report for 1912.

From these the following statement is very largely borrowed. The fundamental purpose of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation is to instill into the minds and hearts of the young men of our colleges and universities the principle that the highest ideals of justice and righteousness should govern the conduct of men in all their international affairs quite as much as in purely individual and social matters, and that, therefore, the true aim of all international dealings should be to settle differences, of whatever nature, by peaceful methods through an appeal to the n.o.blest human instincts and the highest ideals of life, rather than by the arbitrament of the sword through an appeal to the lower pa.s.sions; and, further, both on humanitarian and economic grounds, to arouse in the youth of to-day an appreciation of the importance of a peaceful settlement of international disputes, and to inculcate a spirit antagonistic to the inhuman waste of life and the reckless waste of wealth in needless warfare.

[1] Printed in _Antioch College Bulletin_, Vol. VII, No. 1, December, 1910.

This appeal to the idealism of youth is founded upon the psychological fact that it is the ideals of life that determine the conduct of life.

It is ideals that rule the world; hence the importance of right ideals based upon a comprehensive understanding of the real nature and deepest implications of human fellows.h.i.+p. The alleged impracticability is not in the ideal but in the difficulty of making the ideal such a dominant part of our being that it shall consistently direct our activities under every circ.u.mstance. One of the essential conditions of human progress is the conviction that such ideals are vital to the highest attainments and that these should be the aim of all our strivings. Unfortunately such a standard of life is far from being realized. Policy rules largely in the world of practical life; either high ideals are considered impracticable, or there is no attempt to enforce consistency between belief and practice.

Mindful of the further fact that the ideals and habits of thought and action that prevail in mature life are those that are formed in youth, the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation turns to the young manhood of the undergraduate for its field of operations. The aim is to give such a firm mold to the ideals of the undergraduate that they shall for all time shape his activities to the end of righteous conduct in all international dealings. In particular, the aim is to cultivate in the young men of our colleges and universities such sentiments and standards of conduct as will insure their devotion to the furtherance of international peace through arbitration and other methods of pacific settlement rather than by battles.h.i.+ps--standards of conduct based upon the fundamental truth that conflicts between men, and therefore principles of right and justice, can be rightly settled only through the mediation of mind, and that every effort to settle them by force is not only illogical, a psychological impossibility, but is the way of the brute, not the way of man, whose nature touches the divine.

All the more important must this work with the undergraduate be considered when we reflect that it is the young men in our colleges and universities to-day who will mold the public opinion and the national and international policy of the next generation; for it is such young men as these that will control the pulpit and the press, the legislation and the diplomacy of the future. It is this fact that gives such peculiar importance to the work of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation. To quote from the report of the secretary for 1912:

"Other peace societies are laboring to create a public sentiment to-day in favor of international peace, through arbitration of all international differences. This is very essential. But the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation is founded upon the belief that the cause of peace will not triumph in a day, and that it is therefore of the utmost importance that right ideals be rooted into the minds of those who will give expression to the public opinion of the future. In brief, it is building more for the future than for the immediate present. The millennium of peace will not come until the ideals of a Christian civilization take deeper root in the minds and hearts of those who are the leaders of thought and action. One of the crying sins of to-day is that professions of righteous living in accordance with Christian ethical ideals are not taken seriously. Note the disgraceful policy that has been pursued with regard to Turkey by the nations of Europe that profess to be disciples of the Prince of Peace.

Hence it is of the utmost importance that those who are to become the future translators of ideals into action shall be imbued with right principles of life and of human relations. To this end it is sought to cultivate the right sentiment against war, and for international peace, among the undergraduates of our colleges; for what the undergraduate thinks about and reads about to-day will very largely determine his future principles and his conduct, and it is he who is destined to mold the ideals, shape the policies, and determine the actions of the people of to-morrow."

_Methods and Results._ To carry out these purposes two things are essential: an awakened interest in the cause of peace, and some definite and effective method for molding sentiments and habits of thought that will persist with such vitality that they will give shape to future conduct and activities. To arouse an interest in the subject, on the part of both professors and students, it was believed at the outset that public addresses would be effective, and it was hoped that the a.s.sociation would be able to inaugurate a course of such addresses in our colleges and universities. It was, however, soon found that to finance such a course would require more money than we could hope to command for some time to come. In consequence, very little has been done along this line further than to arrange for occasional addresses and to encourage chapel talks. It is this field of work that the Lake Mohonk Conference voted to adopt at the suggestion of Dr. Gilman. The conference also found it difficult to carry out the plan, and our a.s.sociation was invited to a.s.sume the whole of this work--a request we would gladly have accepted, but which we were compelled to decline for want of funds. It is a very important field of work and could be made very effective toward realizing the ultimate goal of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation, for its effect would undoubtedly be the enlistment of a much larger number of the students in the oratorical contests, which must be our chief reliance for getting international peace ideas to take a vital root in the undergraduate mind. If we cannot secure the necessary funds for carrying on this important work, it is hoped that some other peace society will do it for us, for such addresses could be made a most effective complement to our work.

Being compelled to abandon the public addresses for want of money, we have concentrated most of our efforts upon the intercollegiate oratorical contests as perhaps the most effective method for carrying out the purpose of the a.s.sociation. The contests are bound to arouse an interest in the subject, while the preparation of orations is sure to ingrain thoughts, sentiments, and convictions that will be indelible in the character of the young men who partic.i.p.ate in the contests. While the contests are oratorical in their nature, their primary purpose is not the cultivation of oratory. Oratory is simply used as a means to an end--the cultivation of right ideas of justice and righteousness between nations. That such a result will accrue is a.s.sured both in psychological principles and in experience. Every student who produces a well-prepared oration in bound to make the thoughts and sentiments expressed a part of his being. The oration would not be effective if it were otherwise. The writer has heard scores of these orations, and he is convinced of the sincerity and earnestness of the orators. Moreover, letters written to him by those who have won prizes, attesting their interest in and their devotion to the cause, by reason of their partic.i.p.ation in the contests, give ample evidence that the contests are bearing fruit. Nor can one read the orations in this volume without being convinced of their sincerity.

Indeed, the reason why we do not have intercollegiate debates instead of contests in oratory is because of the psychological truth, amply justified by experience, that the student who prepares for the negative side of a peace question would tend to have his thoughts permanently fixed along the lines of the advocates of great armaments.

It is not that the student should not know the arguments opposing the ideas of the advocates of peace by arbitration. We would not cultivate bigotry even in a good cause. We would have him know the facts, as indeed he must before he can present any arguments for peace that would have any significance. But an acquaintance with the opposing arguments is quite a different thing, in its effect upon the thought of the student, from making that thought his own and publicly defending it.

Other results may be mentioned. While the cultivation of oratory is not a function of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation, it does foster oratory as a valuable if not an indispensable instrument for effecting its own end. In fact, the oratorical contests are something more than agencies for interesting undergraduates in the peace movement. The cultivation of the art of expression and of public speaking, now very generally provided for in college and university curriculums, is of especial significance to the work of this a.s.sociation. For it is not alone of importance that the graduate who leaves his alma mater should be indoctrinated with a message of peace for the world; that his message may be effective, he must also have attained some proficiency in the art of clear and forceful diction and in the art of delivering his message in a pleasing and convincing manner. Therefore, it is not without reason that our contests are for the most part under the immediate direction of the department of English, or of whatever departments have charge of the public speaking in the various colleges and universities.

A further factor in these contests is their cultural value, both moral and intellectual. They necessarily cultivate the highest ethical conceptions, historical and political knowledge, and careful and logical thinking. To quote from the secretary's report for 1912: "The work of the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation is a great force for righteousness between nation and nation, and so between man and man, and therefore may be considered as supplementary to the more strictly moral and intellectual culture in our inst.i.tutions of higher learning.

The ethical value is not the only value of the contests. In the preparation of orations the undergraduate necessarily informs himself of historical conditions, of the economic and social effects of war, of the legal and const.i.tutional principles involved, and of the problems, difficulties, and principles concerned with international relations. It is this early beginning of an intelligent understanding of the problems involved, together with the right moral insight, that must count for future effectiveness in shaping international policies and practices." Finally, while these contests have chiefly in mind the shaping of the public opinion of coming generations, they are by no means a negligible factor in their influence upon the public opinion of to-day. The contests--local, state, and interstate--are heard by many hundreds of people every year, and in many cases by persons who would otherwise seldom come in contact with peace sentiments. The permeating influence in college circles extends beyond those who partic.i.p.ate in the contests. The influence of any single contest may indeed be small, but so too is the influence of any one peace conference or congress. The task of molding public opinion along the lines of any human uplift is always slow, and only gradually do the influences of this character permeate and take possession of the social mind; but every influence leaves its impression. It is only by persistent activities and c.u.mulative effects that the social mind can be aroused to a full consciousness of any great moral issue, and still more true is this when that moral issue is of national or international importance. The many peace societies, the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation among them, are just such persistent activities, which, by gradually producing c.u.mulative effects, will ultimately reap their reward. But more perhaps than other peace societies does the Intercollegiate Peace a.s.sociation concern itself with the social mind and the social conscience of the future.

_The Contests._ The first oratorical contest was held at the University of Cincinnati, May 17, 1907. Arrangements were made for the partic.i.p.ation of only Ohio and Indiana colleges. State contests were not held, but fourteen orations were submitted from as many different inst.i.tutions, nine from Ohio and five from Indiana. The writers of eight of these were selected by judges on thought and composition to take part in the speaking contest. Four were from Ohio and four from Indiana. Indiana won both the first and the second prize. The first prize was won by Paul Smith of DePauw University with the subject, "The Conflict of War and Peace." The second prize went to Lawrence B.

Smelser of Earlham College, whose subject was "The Solving Principles of Federation."

The second contest was held at DePauw University, May 15, 1908.

Carrying out the plan adopted at the meeting at Cincinnati, the contestants were selected by means of State contests, and an invitation was extended to the colleges and universities of Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin to partic.i.p.ate in the contest. Wisconsin did not respond, but contests were held in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. By special arrangement Juniata College was allowed to represent Pennsylvania without a state contest. Glenn P. Wishard of Northwestern University won the first prize; subject, "The United States and Universal Peace." The second prize was won by H. P. Lenartz of Notre Dame University; subject, "America and the World's Peace."

The third Interstate contest took place at The University of Chicago, May 4, 1909, in connection with the Second National Peace Congress.

Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin were represented, all having held State contests. Levi T. Pennington of Earlham College won the first prize; subject, "The Evolution of World Peace." The second prize went to Harold P. Flint of Illinois Wesleyan University; subject, "America the Exemplar of Peace."

The fourth annual contest was held at the University of Michigan, May 13, 1910. There were six contestants, Pennsylvania having come regularly into the a.s.sociation. Arthur F. Young of Western Reserve University won the first prize; subject, "The Waste of War--The Wealth of Peace." The second prize went to Glenn N. Merry of Northwestern University; subject, "A Nation's Opportunity."

The fifth annual contest was held at Johns Hopkins University, May 5, 1911, in connection with the Third National Peace Congress. There were seven contestants, Maryland being represented for the first time. The first prize was won by Stanley H. Howe, Albion College, Michigan, and the second prize by Wayne Walker Calhoun, Illinois Wesleyan University. Mr. Howe's subject was "The Hope of Peace," and Mr.

Calhoun's, "War and the Man." This contest was one of the most successful that had been held up to that time. It was greeted by one of the largest audiences that had attended any of the sessions of the Peace Congress, and the comparison of the orations, in both thought and delivery, with the speeches given in the congress, was very favorable to the young orators. A general enthusiasm was evoked for the contests. Yet there was much fear that this contest might prove to be the last, there being no a.s.surance ahead for adequate funds to carry on the work. It was decided, however, not to give up without further trial, a decision well justified by subsequent developments.

a.s.sistance being secured from the Carnegie peace fund, eleven states held contests in 1912. In addition to the seven that partic.i.p.ated in the contest at Baltimore, four additional states were added--New York, North Carolina, Iowa, and Nebraska. With so many states, it became necessary for the first time to divide them into groups. Two groups were formed, an Eastern and a Western. The Western Group, of five states, held its contest at Monmouth College, Illinois, April 26, and the Eastern Group, of six states, at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania, May 3. No prizes were given at either of these contests, but an arrangement was made with the Lake Mohonk Conference by which the ranking orator in each contest should meet and contest for first and second place at Mohonk Lake at the time of the Lake Mohonk Conference.

The contest at Mohonk was held May 16, the contestants being Percival V. Blanshard of the University of Michigan, who represented the Western Group, and Russell Weisman of Western Reserve University, who represented the Eastern Group. The t.i.tle of Mr. Blanshard's oration was "The Roosevelt Theory of War," and that of Mr. Weisman's, "National Honor and Vital Interests." The Misses Seabury gave a first prize of $75 and a second prize of $50. The judges awarded the first prize to Mr. Blanshard and the second prize to Mr. Weisman. So great, however, was the interest of the guests at Mohonk Lake, and so nearly equal in merit were the orations, that a gentleman present gave an additional $25 to Mr. Weisman to make the prizes equal, and Mr. Joshua Bailey of Philadelphia gave each of the contestants an additional $50.