UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
WINNING ORATIONS
Inter-Collegiate Contests
South Dakota
Compiled by O. W. Coursey, Author of:
Literature of South Dakota
Biography of General Beadle
The Philippines and Filipinos
Biography of Senator Kittredge
The Woman with a Stone Heart
Who's Who in South Dakota, Vol. I.
Who's Who in South Dakota, Vol. II.
History and Geography of the P. I.
Published and for Sale by the
EDUCATOR SUPPLY COMPANY
Mitchell, S. D.
Copyrighted
1917
By 0. W. Coursey
cic*
V-l
FOREWORD
The Dakota (now South Dakota) Inter-Col-
legiate Oratorical Association was organized at
Brookings, Dakota Territory, November 5, 1887.
The educational institutions originally uniting in it
were:
(1) The State University, Vermillion.
(2) The State College, Brookings.
(3) Dakota University (Methodist), Mitchell.
(4) Yankton College (Congregational).
(5) Sioux Falls College (Baptist).
Since that time the following schools have
joined:
(6) Redfield College (German Congregational).
(7) Huron College (Presbyterian).
Augustana College (Scandinavian) at Canton,
was later admitted to the Association, but it re-
tained its membership only one year.
The first contest was held at Sioux Falls in the
spring of 1888. Dakota University (now Dakota
Wesleyan) was not represented in this contest, be-
cause this school had burned down that year. Since
then, twenty-nine additional contests have been held
to date (1917). On three occasions, the Orations
that won second place in the State contest, won
first place in the Inter-State. This made it neces-
sary to publish both of the Winning Orations for
each of these years 1899, 1906, 1907. The oration
by Case which won the National Peace Contest in
1916, has also been added, making a total of thirty-
four speeches in the volume. They cover a variety
of subjects; are models of English composition,
and seem worthy of preservation.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
Varney, G. R 9
Chase, E. A 15
Clark, Fred 21
Shepherd, A. C 29
Barrington, J. W 37
Stubbins, T. A 45
Locke, Richard F 51
Rowell, A. B 57
Ewert, W. F 63
McVay, Winifred 69
Colton, E. T 77
Rodee, H. A 85
Hubbard, Walter (Interstate) 93
Walton, Jas. A '. . . 101
Noble, Edith 109
Hardy, Clarion 117
Bagstad, Anna 125
Crowther, Jas. E 133
Tanner, Burton 141
Miles, Lou E 149
Shearer, Ralph (Interstate) 157
Norvell, George 165
Warren, Howard (Interstate) 173
Dobson, John 181
Dobson, James 187
Alseth, C. A 195
Leavitt, Harvey L 203
Tibbetts, Roi B 211
Pool, Floyd 219
Marble, Sam 227
Thomas, Clement 235
Nelson, S. P 241
Husted, Harold 249
Case, Francis (Peace Contest) 257
INDEX
Alseth, C. A 195
Bagstad, Anna 125
Barrington, J. W 37
Case, Francis (Peace Contest) 257
Chase, E. A 15
Clark, Fred 21
Colton, E. T 77
Crowther, Jas. E 133
Dobson, John 181
Dobson, James 187
Ewert, W. F 63
Hardy, Clarion . ., 117
Hubbard, Walter (Interstate) 93
Husted, Harold 249
Leavitt, Harvey L 203
Locke, Richard F 51
Marble, Sam 227
McVay, Winifred 69
Miles, Lou E 149
Nelson, S. P 241
Noble, Edith 109
Norvell, George 165
Pool, Floyd 219
Rodee, H. A 85
Rowell, A. B 57
Shearer, Ralph (Interstate) 157
Shepherd, A. C 29
Stubbins, T. A 45
Tanner, Burton 141
Thomas, Clement 235
Tibbetts, Roi B 211
Varney, G. R 9
Walton, Jas. A 101
Warren, Howard (Interstate) 173
FIRST CONTEST (1888)
THE JEW
(G. R. VARNEY. SIOUX FALLS COLLEGE)
Religion is the foundation of all history. In
its upheavals old social systems have disappeared
and new ones have come into being. From it have
sprung all forms of truth and all shapes of error.
It is the controlling element whether in the life of
an individual or of a nation. By it the past has been
both guided and led astray. To it the future with
broader charity must look for light.
The history of the Aryan race is an unending
tale of conquest. With face toward the setting sun
it has marched until the West is East and the
course of its victories belts the earth. But from
the hills and plains of Syria came those, who, in
the range of morals and religion should conquer even
the conquerors, and hold over the modern world un-
questioned sway.
Up to the period when the record of the Jews
passed from the sacred narrative their history is
well known. They were contemporaries of Egypt,
Chaldea and Troy. As the chosen people of God
they had increased from the nomad family of Abra-
ham to a mighty nation. They had defied the
Pharaohs. The chariots of Assyria had gone back
from their gates humbled. They had left a history
luminous with heroic virtues.
But now they were a dismembered nation. They
had crouched under Egyptian whips, and their
bodies bore the seams of the cruel lash. As slaves
they had built the palaces of Ninevah, and their
limbs were galled by chains. In entering the further
conflict of races they were but despicable opponents.
Thus thought the sons of the captains of Alexander,
10 WINNING ORATIONS
and they dragged them beneath the harrow of in-
vasion. So thought the proud Caesars, and the
Roman eagle darkened with his wings their sky and
brought them into servitude. Their freedom had
been for many years lost, when at Bethlehem the
Greatest of the Jews was born. Him they crucified.
This was their fatal error. Again and again they
had defied disaster and outlived defeat. But now
there were to be heaped against them the curses
of a relentless hate. From the cross upon which
the lowly Disturber of the peace had died there
went forth teachings which should render immortal
their Jerusalem, their Jordan, their Bethany, their
Mount of Olives, and "whose leaves should be for
the healing of the nations." But for the Jews, these
teachings, through the perversions of a misguided
zeal, were to spring up into a harvest of woe.
In the year 70, A. D., the fall of Jerusalem
drove the entire Jewish nation from its home.
Slowly, with broken hearts they went out in the
darkness. The world was broad, but it afforded them
no resting place. The gates of every city were
closed against them, and the bitter cry "Anathema
Maranatha" now hurled back upon them forbade
their entrance. They became scattered throughout
all Europe. Some at length found a home in Spain
with the infidel Moors. But with the decline of
Moslem authority their persecutions were renewed
with increased bitterness. And finally, when the
land had become almost as dear to them as their
own Canaan, by a decree of Ferdinand and Isabella
they were driven out. Along ways steep and rough,
bearing the ashes of their kindred, they fled again
from Christian into Pagan lands, and under the
sway of the Sultans of the East they sought and
found that charity which Christian Europe had de-
nied. They were expelled from Portugal and were
SOUTH DAKOTA 11
obliged to leave their children in the hands of their
persecutors, until in despair mothers threw their
babes into the rivers and killed themselves. The
story is everywhere the same. In the sunless dun-
geons of France, in the gloomy prisons of the Rhine,
in the trackless forests of Russia the Jew was
clutched like a wild beast and slain without mercy:
and all this in the name of Him who died praying
"Father forgive them; for they know not what they
do."
In the times when religious zeal was strongest,
when nations were arousing themselves to rescue
the Holy Sepulcher from dishonor, then the fagots
were heaped highest about the Jew, and human in-
genuity was exhausted in devising instruments of
torture. Men and women of all ages, the most
saintly and chivalrous, deemed it a virture to perse-
cute them. They were expatriated by every gov-
ernment in Europe. The Magna Charta, which
raised the first bulwark of civil liberty in England,
contained a clause which drove the Jews beyond the
borders of the British Isles. Even the most ardent
champions of religious freedom had no regard for
them. Luther despised them, and the followers of
Cromwell forgot them in their prayers. But in spite
of fire and sword and dungeon, through ages of
barbaric cruelty, the intellectual and moral vigor
of the race persisted and survived. Their thinkers
stood upon the heights; and when the night had
passed, upon the forehead of the Jew, Maimonides,
there fell the first clear rays of dawn.
Though decimated in number the Jews emerged
from the Middle Ages with their national faith un-
shaken. They had clung with tenacious hold to the
old Judaic standards. When no longer able to forti-
fy their loved city they had raised their law like
an impregnable fortress, and not one jot or tittle had
12 WINNING ORATIONS
passed from it. They had remained, moreover, pure
in blood and with the strong lineaments of their
race unchanged. But it is not strange that their
rough contact with the Gentile world had left its
impress upon them. The enforced employments of
fifteen hundred years had ingrafted other traits
than those which they had borne with them from
Jerusalem. In Palestine they had been a race of
husbandmen. Through their industry and thrift
Judea had become as fertile as a garden. In Europe
they became a race of brokers. Why? Not, as was
now charged against them, because the Jew chose
to live by means of graft instead of labor. But be-
cause as often as he had turned himself to other
pursuits his lands had been confiscated, his harvests
burned and all the labor of his hands destroyed by
his merciless oppressors. The Jews became usurers
not from choice but from necessity. If they secreted
their wealth it was to hide it from the plunderer.
If they became at length greedy in their money
lending it was because every avenue had been closed
to them except the one sordid channel. But they
were changed for the worse in other ways than this.
In the olden times the Hebrew's soul was as open
as his sky, his brow was unclouded, his face wore
the sunlight of an infinite trust and love. He came
from the persecutions of the Middle Ages suspici-
ous, revengeful, hissing the curses of a measureless
contempt. He had learned to meet scorn with scorn,
revenge with revenge. But shall we count it strange
that the Jew, in obedience to his precept, "an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," took, when he
could, stern vengeance upon his foes, and forget that
the Christian, enjoined to love his enemies, outdid
him a thousand fold in deeds of cruelty?
In the Jew of the Sixteenth Century there was
but little to admire. For ages famine and the sword
SOUTH DAKOTA 13
had done their worst upon it, and now the sym-
metry of the old Hebrew character was, for the
greater part, destroyed. It had refused to perish
utterly. But like the mountain pines which grow
upon the craps and persist in spite of storms, it re-
tained no element of beauty except its strength.
Notwithstanding these facts the Christian world has,
in modem times, held the Jewish race to a strict
account for those faults of character which were
developed by its own injustice.
When, after four centuries of banishment, the
Jews were allowed to re-enter England, and when,
in turn, the other governments of Europe had given
them free access beyond their borders, when they
had done with the baser forms of cruelty, a torture
not less keen, though more refined, awaited them.
They were allowed to re-enter England. Bow how?
As social outcasts; as beings despised and hated;
from whom the Gentile race should draw back its
skirts in disdainful pride. This prejudice has stub-
bornly survived even to the present time. But
though often well grounded in a narrow sense it
cannot be justified in a broader view. To the proud
nature of the Jew this humiliation was at first deep
and bitter. But he was content to bide his time.
He could force an unwilling recognition. Once free
to act, the strength and versatility of the Hebrew
mind began to assert themselves, and gradually rose
into prominence. And when the wit of Heine had
made all Europe hold its sides, when the name of
Mendelssohn had been written beside that of
Beethoven, when in philosophy the name of Spinoza
had been enrolled above all others, when Castelar
at the head of the Republicans in Spain had won the
only real victory they had ever gained, when Lasker
had torn the mask from German despotism, when
the will of Gambetta had become sovereign in
14 WINNING ORATIONS
France, and when at last after years of striving
Disraeli waved his salute to England from his place
beside her throne, then the world returned the
salutation and paid its tardy homage to the Jew.
The Hebrew race, remarkable from whatever
point of view, holds a place in history above all
others. Its services to this world cannot be meas-
ured and should not be denied. If there are present
causes of grievance, let it not be forgotten that
two centuries cannot undo the work of a thousand
years. Let it not be forgotten that this present age,
which in spite of its so-called liberalism is more
deeply religious than any other, owes, under Divine
guidance, to the Hebrew race, the faith upon which
it rests. And let the hope which was Disraeli's be
shared by all; that in a higher sense than they
have dreamed the Zion of the Jews shall be restored,
and that in that starlit temple, greater than the one
of old, on a plane radiant with truth, Jew and Gentile
shall bow together before their King, whose mantle
of charity must cover all.
SECOND CONTEST (1899)
THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH
(E. A. CHASE, YANKTON COLLEGE)
When the early colonists left their native land,
they left, also, their love of military life and glory.
They sought this new world for the happiness of
liberty and peaceful pursuits.
Here, where the disturbing element of war
could not often appear, where the chief thought
was for the individual, it seemed that a bright day
of prosperity had dawned. Webster, catching the
glories of the new morn fast breaking, was inspired
to exclaim: "There is for us a noble pursuit to
which the spirit of the time strongly invites us.
Our proper business is improvement Let our age
be an age of improvement; in a day of peace let
us advance the arts of peace. Let us develop the
resources of our land, call forth its powers, build
up its institutions, promote all its great interests."
The sound of these words seemed to vibrate
throughout the land. With a mighty throb of life
the nation springs forward to grasp the wonderful
opportunities. The keen axe hews the majestic
forests into magnificent structures. The pick and
bar unlock the hidden stores. The steel points plow
their way through the vast prairies, and turn the
sod-covered surface into rich fields. The mighty
Rockies resound with the heavy thud of the ponder-
ous stamp crushing out the glittering gold. There
remains scarcely place or substance that has not
yielded something to this new industrial world. All
this men have done. But what has all this done
for them in return? In a day of peace they have
called forth the powers of nature and built up great
industries.
16 WINNING ORATIONS
But these pursuits have recast the nation's
thought in molds of gold. The simple purpose of
providing the necessities of life has been over-
shadowed by a great passion for wealth. Amidst
the rapid whirl in factory and mill, in the crowded
square of the market, in the ceaseless hurry of the
farm, this burning passion is ever felt. Question
the youth, with books in hand, behind the counter,
at the bench, or wherever he may be preparing for
life, as to his thought of success, and seldom will
it be other than the making of money. But is it
strange? If his home is on the farm he hears
chiefly of "hard times," and what will pay; if in the
city, incessant talk of business and speculation. If
he asks advice, little will he receive that does not
bear on the prospect of wealth. The saving boy,
he is told, is the youth of promise; the successful
business men, the valuable citizen; the millionaire
the one who has reached the goal of life. The cur-
rent expression, "When I am rich," though often
uttered lightly, yet expresses the fond hope of every
heart. Certainly the pursuit of money has been
the path of this nation.
Is it the true path? For some divine reason
this existence must be sustained by the fruits of
labor. Hence, vigorous industry is good for the
maintenance of existence, but should the wealth ac-
cruing from industry be the prize for which this
earthly race is run?
Is that life?
Is that the inevitable amount of man's hope
and aspirations?
Was the highest mechanism of God's handiwork
to create beings of no nobler purpose? Was human-
ity fashioned in Hissown image only to minister to
the temple of that image? Was the spirit of life
breathed into these forms of clay only to heap up
SOUTH DAKOTA 17
and worship inanimate piles of dust? Let us con-
sider a little, if we may, the nature of this much
coveted boon. Toil is the only exchange for which
earth yields up her fruits. If that price is refused,
her store-house is locked. As the Persian drove his
warriors into battle by the lash, so grim necessity
whips the laborer to his drudgery.
The real wealth of the world is its supply of
the necessities of life. Being subject to Nature's
economic laws, which permit production of but little
more than the required amount for each year, and
take back by decay the surplus, no great amount of
real wealth can ever be accumulated. Do they who
pride themselves on their riches never realize the
vanity of their possessions? Let your precious
metals, your railroads, factories, massive buildings,
and speculative stocks be so increased that every
one might count himself a millionaire. In the
ecstasy of sudden wealth labor would be ignored. A
season's harvest would be neglected. Poverty in its
most wretched garb, starvation, would appear. Then
railroads would lie unused; factories cease their
busy whirl; brick blocks crumble from neglect, gold
and silver be flung away; the world of millionaires
divest itself of costly garments and resume its dig-
ging-
Tis a fancy, this hope of wealth, this dream of
luxury. Before the stem truths of life it vanishes
like the rain-bow from the heavens before the shade
of night For a brief moment in the long and
gloomy day of the world's history the golden sun
has broken forth from the clouds of tyranny and
war, and shone out from the clear sky of peace
its bright rays reflected from the new industries,
glisten and sparkle, forming a beautiful rain-bow
in the heaven of hope. The eyes of men were
dazzled by the splendor of the scene of luxury. In
18 WINNING ORATIONS
childish illustration they went in search of the
fancy. They knew not, and seemed, not yet fully
to understand, that where this enchanting vision of
idle comfort in its graceful curve seems to reach
down to earth is not a place, but, a deceptive image
of the mind. Still they pursue that image, and
as it grows dim before them, they do not see the
threatening clouds of greed and contention rising
on the horizon of peace, shutting them out from
the object of their journey. They stop and chide
one another with leading in the wrong way.
As the shades of greed and poverty deepened,
the bright hope of universal comfort faded into a
homely struggle for existence. Out of this struggle
has arisen something known as wealth, or capital.
It is the power which controls labor and governs
the distribution of supplies. Capital is a good
thing. It is to the nation what tools are to the
farmer. But the value of machinery depends on
its right use, and so does the value of capital, and
when it is used, as it now is to a great extent, for
creating artificial needs, and producing useless
supplies to fill this perverted demand, and then, not
satisfied with not filling the demand, employs thou-
sands of men to crowd through the market as much
more as possible of unneeded and worthless articles
of trade, simply to gather more capital, to erect
more machinery, to make more such articles, to
support more men in mischievous employment, then,
indeed, capital becomes one of the most grievous
causes of poverty in a nation.
It has no value except as it is brought into con-
tact with legitimate production and distribution.
Do you attribute to capital the advance in the
scale of comfort which America has enjoyed? It
is not in this that the nation has found its relief
from poverty. But in the vast domain a broad
SOUTH DAKOTA 19
avenue of escape for the poor. But the limit is not
distant. It stands before us like a great black wall.
The west is filling. The east groans under her
burden. She no longer has place to send her poor.
What relief comes from capital. Where it stands
in pyramids of wealth, monuments to the industry
of a nation, there about the basis of those pyramids
skulk the hungry poor; and the higher those monu-
ments rise the darker is the shade of poverty cast
about them.
This love of gain, this "mad haste," to be rich,
this establishment of a false purpose of life, is
fruitful of much harm. It depreciates life, denies
the claims of mind and body, ignores the existence
of the soul, and breeds discontent by placing success
hopelessly beyond all but a few. On the struggling
masses of humanity hope and ambition turn back in
mockery. In sullen silence they bear their poorer
condition, or, angered by the pride of the more
successful, they rebel against all wealth, all capital.
We reverence no crown, but to the ill-gotten
crown of gold we pay as much homage as was ever
shown to the iron crown of the Lombards.
We are free and safe to go where we will.
But feudal lords of wealth, from their castles of
monopoly, prowl forth to plunder and to rob.
We have peace. The sword is laid aside. But,
armed with the keen scimiter of business skill, men
engage in cruel and fearless war.
We have liberty. But the glad shout of free-
dom is set at discord by the harsh notes of anarchy.
But Hark! Beside the din of grating sounds
from money-getting, come softer strains. Listen,
and you may catch the words of this new song!
'Tis of love, this joyous note. Love shown and ex-
tended through the medium of wealth. It is a song
20 WINNING ORATIONS
that turns the heart's desire from selfish hoarding
to kind impulses of charity.
Under its influence, men gifted with superior
business talents will yield to the less gifted the
benefits of their greater powers. They will acknowl-
edge these special powers granted to them as calls
of God to minister to His less favored children with
the wealth which he has placed here for them. The
laborer will have no more reason for complaint of
his employer, but will join in this song, singing
praise of him who lives and gives his life that the
laborer's lot may be lighter.
Then this great America, with its bright skies
and clear waters, fertile fields and noble forests,
lofty mountains and verdant valleys, a land filled
with the beauties of nature and the rich treas-
ures of earth, overflowing with abundance of good
gifts, spread out in all the elegance and luxury of
a kingly banquet, may indeed be called the home of
the poor and friendless, the refuge of the oppressed
of every nation.
Not yet have many learned the beauties of this
new song of love. But the key note has been
sounded. May it awaken response till it has softened
the greed of every soul in charity, and the whole
land is resonant with its happy sound. May it be a
grand chorus sung by the whole nation, till it will
seem that the beautiful refrain of angels has been
taken up, "On earth peace, good will toward men."
THIRD CONTEST (1890)
THE PROBLEM OF THE CENTURY
(FRED H. CLARK. DAKOTA UNIVERSITY)
History, as it stands outlined against the dark
background of time, presents the picture of a vast
mountain range.
The plain of each century has been broken by
some gigantic issue; some mighty upheaval in the
common course of events, which towers like a rugged
peak, far above the minor circumstances that sur-
round it, distinguishing the age in which it occurs.
From the present, back to where obscurity shuts
out the light of ages from history's winding course,
we see these massive monuments upreared to the
race; these great landmarks in the march of time,
which seem to draw toward them both the precedent
and subsequent events, and make themselves the
centers of their respective ages.
The fifth century saw the Roman Empire fall,
scattering its embers over darkened Europe, where
they smoldered for a thousand years until kindled