A Three-Year Winning Streak Dies on the Question of Military Training
Kennewick's high school debaters argued the affirmative for military drill in Washington schools and ran into a Sunnyside team that had all the good evidence — their first loss in three years.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Kennewick high school debaters lost the second of the interscholastic debates last Friday night to the Sunnyside high school, the latter team having the negative of the state question on military training in the high schools of this state. The two teams were closely matched, Kennewick's representatives having somewhat stronger delivery and considerably greater rebuttal power, although not sufficient to overcome the handicap of the weak side of the question. The young people from Sunnyside had developed the negative very ably and made most of the arguments of experience, authority and futility which lie heavily against the adoption of the system the Kennewick team had to uphold.
This is the first defeat for an interscholastic team from the local high school for three years, and the first defeat in four years' debating experience for several members of the team. James Reed, Ruth Cresswell and William Sly composed the team and were accompanied to Sunnyside by Geneva Story and their coach. The debate was judged by Mr. Audrian, principal of the Kiona schools, Mr. Robinson, superintendent of the Toppenish schools and Mr. Nichols, principal of the Wendell Phillips school.
“The young people from Sunnyside had developed the negative very ably and made most of the arguments of experience, authority and futility which lie heavily against the adoption of the system the Kennewick team had to uphold.”
In December 1916 the country was still neutral, but Washington schools were already debating whether to drill their students — and the side arguing against military training had the easier case. Four months later the United States entered the war and the question answered itself. The argument has never quite gone away: school boards today still fight over JROTC units and military recruiters in high schools.
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