The Stetson Reporter

Vol. 83 Friday, Oct. 9, 1970 No. 6 Debate Tourney Success, Bugg Captures 1st Place Stetson Wins Tourney But LoosesFinal Debate Saturday, October 3, Bob Bugg and Anne Insley, representing the affirmative side for Stetson, lost the championship debate to two debaters from Samford University. The topic debated was, "Wage and Price Controls — Resolved: The Federal Government Should Establish a Program of Compulsory Wage and Price Controls." Anne and Bob had three main contentions: inflation is seriously harmful, present efforts taJstabilize the economy are ineffective, and fiscal and monetary policies create disparities. A plan was also presented to cope with these problems. In her first speech, Anne showed that inflation is increasing at a rate of 6 percent, the highest figure since the Korean War. Those living on a fixed income are forced to suffer shrinkage in their real buying power. Also hurt is U.S. industry, who can not compete with the lower prices of foreign "products, causing a def icit in the balance of payments. Bob presented a plan for combating inflation. He called for an immediate freeze to be placed on private and public sectors of industry, not to exceed six months. A board composed of representatives from the department of justice, the department of labor, the federal reserve board, and the IRS would be established to investigate and administer a control program. This program would include price and wage controls in both private and public sectors, on those prices and wage controls in both private and public sectors, on those prices and wages subject to corporate and union power. The controls will adhere to a maximum and minimum fluctuation of 5 per cent, and would be-in effect for one year, with a possible extension of six months. During the course of the debate, the negative team questioned the ability, practicality and reliability of the plan. They pointed to World War II as an example, and indicated that a price ceiling could only delay, not stop price increases. Also introduced were problems in enforcement and the question of new products. Since no other country has ever tried this method, the negative team questioned the plan's usefulness. In the rebuttal speeches, these points were re-examined, bringing in new evidence and clearing up confusion over some parts. At the close of the debate, three judges opinions were tallied to arrive at the decision. Last weekend, Stetson hosted its first annual invitational debate tournament — a tournament which involved teams from ten schools in four Southeastern states. Stetson debaters received numerous awards, including a place for the affirmative team in the championship debate which was concerned with the topic of wage and price controls. A total of 300 speaker points was earned by the team composed of Miss Anne Insley and Mr. Bob Bugg, thus placing them in the first position of affirmative teams in the tournament. Both teams, competing in the championship debate, Stetson's affirmative team and the negative team from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, had records of 6-0 for their tournament scores. By a close decision of 2-1, Samford was awarded the final decision for the championship debate over Stetson. Placing behind Stetson's highest scoring affirmative team was the University of South Carolina, who received the first place trophy. Stetson was ineligible for the trophies since it was the hosting team. Samford University accepted second place with Miami-Dade (North) coming in third. All three winning teams had records of 4-2 with their respective speaker point totals of 260,255, and 241 deciding the places. Winners on the negative teams were as follows: Samford in first place (6-0) with Broward (from Ft. Lauderdale with a score of 5- 1) second, and USC (5-1) in third place. Bob Bugg, a returning member to the squad, received 164 points to capture first place among the affirmative debaters while Miss Insley received third place. However, since these debaters are members of the hosting team, they were unable to accept trophies for thier places. Mr. Bill Driver, of West Georgia College, was awarded the first place trophy for affirmative debaters, with Mr. Taylor Britain of the University of South Carolina, second, and Mr. Nelson Depaula of Samford, Alabama, receiving third place. On the negative side, Mr. Mark Rowe of Broward Junior College was selected for first place. Mr. Dave Chesnut, a member of San-ford's first place negative team was second with Mr. Elliot Pood of Broward and Mr. Richard Dempsey of Miami- Dade (South) tying for the third spot with 142 speaker points each. A new award was created to honor the most outstanding critic-judge in the tournament. This award was decided by the debaters themselves who voted for the judge that they felt had given them the most constructive advice. Mr. Lee R. Schoeni of Pensacola Junior College was the recipient of this honor. Frosh Poll Taken AMERICAN STUDIES POLL By Brian Bayly Dr. Gary Maris conducted a written poll of seventy-four students in the course on race, poverty, and politics taught by Dr. Hague, Dr. Andrews, and Dr. Maris. Dr. Maris pointed out, "This is not a carefully selected random sample. Inferences to student body or even to the Freshman class cannot be easily established. Most are social science and humanity majors. Any inference to a national basis has an even wider deviation from this poll." The first question concerned the student's party identification. The response was: 1) 23 percent were Republican, 2) 15 percent were Democratic, and 3) 61 percent were Independent. One student identified himself as a socialist while another established himself with the Students for a Democratic Society. The students were then asked the political affiliation of their parents. The correlation of students' affiliation and parents' party was relatively high. Dr. Maris commented that a strong independent feeling could come from either student indecision or a conviction to "look at the man and not the party." Dr. Maris chose six current political questions to test the students. He went on to say, "These questions were chosen because there is a fair amount of news coverage on .these topics and they are non-esoteric." The questions were graded as follows: 1) five to six correct answers indicated high political knowledge, 2) three to four correct answers determined a medium political knowledge, and 3) two or less correct responses indicated a low political knowledge. Of the seventy-four students not one ranked in the high-knowledge category. Thirteen placed in the medium bracket and sixty-one students placed in the low political knowledge category. The questions had a wide range for correct answeres. The first question was, "How many American Soldiers are currently in Viet Nam?" The percentage broke down as follows: 15 percent - gave correct answeres and 85 percent were wrong. The other five questions and their results were as follows: "How many Americans have died in Viet Nam approximately?", 46 percent gave correct answers, 54 percent were in error; "How much money did the United States spend on Vietnam in 1969?", 10 per cent were right, 90 per cent gave erroneous answers; "What is the national minimum hourly wage?," Here the students were on familiar ground. Sixty-nine per. cent answers correctly while only 31 per cent were wrong. "What is the rate of inflation for 1969?" Eighteen responded correctly while 82 per cent were erroneous. "What is the poverty rate in America?" Ten per cent responded correctly and 90 per cent gave incorrect replys. Although there was great leeway in this last question, sources differed. Thus the statistic insight will be about some 20 per cent-30 per cent with regard to right answers although still indicating low knowledge as to the extent of poverty in the U.S. Five questions were asked to determine whether a student is .liberal, moderate, or conservative. The questions were: 1) "Would you let a Communist speak on campus?" 2) "Would you permit an atheist to speak on campus?" 3) "Would you approve of a guaranteed income?" 4) "Would you approve of busing to acheive racial balance?" and 5) "Would you be in favor of legalizing marijuana?" If a person were to answer four of five of these in the affirmative he would be classified -as a liberal. Four or five negative answers would determine a conservative. Any other combination of answers would classify the student as a moderate. On this basis 24 per cent were liberal, 15 per cent were conservative, and 61 per cent were moderate. Contlnu-4 en Page 13