A CHILD'S GARDEN OF REVERSES

...interest his sixth, seventh, and eighth-graders in civic matters, so he instituted a series of debates...

...I had the confidence of a perfectionist who never has known disillusion...

...The contest completely absorbed my youthful interest, and as its climax approached, I was in a state of excitement such as might be expected to grip a child if Christmas somehow were to fall on the Fourth of July...

...He is a practicing attorney in Danville, Va...

...Came the Friday afternoon of the debate...

...There was some difficulty with the spelling and pronunciation, as well as meaning, of "affirmative" and "negative," but at length the class seemed ready to proceed...

...We had had more debates, and the boys became as familiar with the meaning of "proposition" or "rebuttal" as with shortstop and home-run...

...But somebody thought there was...

...One of the judges in the now historic League of Nations debate, a thin chap with a crippled foot, whose slight affliction seemed to add both charm and maturity to a never failing smile, spoke to me diffidently one day: "Uh— Tom...

...Hughes, in order to seek his country's highest office, had had to leave the bench...

...It was inconceivable that the League should not receive universal support...

...Hughes had been defeated for the Presidency, he could not go back to his former occupation, relinquished for the purpose of the campaign...

...Tom, you remember that first debate you had back there—about the League of Nations—you and George...

...Three judges from the class were appointed and instructed in their duties, including the method of marking ballots by designation of the position—affirmative or negative— taken rather than the individual's name...

...I never shall forget that late on election night, my mother and I were awakened when father came home with the sober announcement that "Mr...

...First he explained what a formal debate was, and how it was conducted...

...If the thing which convinces an audience is a speaker's own sense (or sound) of conviction, I don't know why even my father and I were not converted by his impassioned belief as he shouldered his way once more to the speaker's place, faced about and declared: "Well, they certainly would...

...The League of Nations represented a step in the inevitable fulfillment of that ideal...

...Among the families of our upstate New York village, those with Democratic leanings could have been counted on one's fingers...

...It was in central Pennsylvania, where, that season, I had the qualified pleasure of attending an old-style country school taught by my father...

...Wild was our rejoicing when next day we found this premature report reversed by the complete returns...

...Rebuttals were called for, in the same order as the original speeches...

...I proceeded to explain that my opponent was quite mistaken in his impression of how the League would operate, and his fears were altogether groundless...

...But their younger generation, a full half-dozen strong, paraded from one end of town to the other, beating on dishpans and twirling left-over Halloween noisemakers, as we ostentatiously ignored the distinction between public thoroughfares and the front yards of Republican neighbors...

...Rapidly he spoke, but with clear enunciation and compelling emphasis: "I'm against the League of Nations for just one reason, but that's a darn good reason...

...George, however, did his own thinking, and he recently had concluded that what the United States needed was Warren G. Harding, with no foreign entanglements...

...When eventually I understood that the distinguished gentleman had been a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, and not a piano player, I still puzzled from time to time as to how a young mind had acquired that novel misconception...

...Volunteers were called for, to argue on the coming Friday the proposition, "Resolved: That the United States should join the League of Nations...

...it was reserved till some months later...

...That name, in fact, was given to him by his parents, who were successful farmers—and oddly enough, members of the local Democratic minority...

...I mentioned something about provisions of the Covenant, and concluded that under no circumstances would or could the other nations do such a thing to us...

...Well, you know, I got all mixed up about that...

...That's why I'm against the League of Nations...

...A trifle nervous, yet confident in the thought of certain triumph, I stood before the class and outlined my case: one, two, three— good, clear reasons for our joining the League—and, as I well knew, there was no reason against it...

...Yet there was for me one tempering element...

...The great Day came, ran its course, and was ended by inevitable bed-time with the suspense still unbroken...

...He was a freckle-faced lad with round and closely clipped head, quick of speech and manner, whom I shall call George...

...With the air of one who has just saved a nasty situation but isn't asking any thanks for it, George strode back to his seat...

...I thought you was the negative...

...My opponent was similarly unique in his willingness to espouse the negative publicly...

...George's rebuttal was a masterpiece...

...Election year (he thought) offered an excellent opportunity to TOM IRVIN GILL was born in Chautauqua, N. Y., and educated at Allegheny College and the Harvard Law School...

...He had the true zeal of a convert...

...I was as eager to take part as most of the pupils were to avoid it, and since no one else offered to support the affirmative, I was designated for the assignment...

...When the Harding-Cox election came along I was ten—and already an ardent internationalist...

...The speaker for the affirmative was introduced...

...it would become one homogeneous society, completely educated, completely democratic, completely moral...

...At last, in a retrospective moment, with the clarity of a movie flashback, the answer came: beyond a doubt I had heard my father state that Mr...

...That was the end of the debate, except the judges' decision: two to one for ''the negative...

...It did not occur to me at that age to doubt that the process of perfecting our human world would be accomplished very soon: "we" would carry light into all its dark corners...

...Yeah, Jim...

...But the final blow had not fallen...

...I thought you should've won, but I wrote down negative...

...If the United States joins the League, then the next time there's another war over in Europe those countries over there will use all our soldiers to fight it and won't use any of their own, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it because they'd have more votes than we would...

...Actually the passage of several years was not enough completely to erase, as one among life's regrets, the fact that Charles Evans Hughes had irrevocably lost his employment, which, I firmly believed, had consisted of playing a piano...

...Hughes" (he would not refer to the Republican candidate less respectfully) had been elected...

...With a child's quick sympathy I was quite touched when my father remarked on the misfortune that, now that Mr...

...Now the speaker for the negative, freckles and all, moved purposefully to the front of the room...

...Uh-huh...