If you are debating and the speaker just before you has evidently made the judges accept his arguments, again you might remove that conviction by refutation before you proceed to build up your own side.  If your regular arguments meet his squarely, proceed as you had planned, but be sure when any reasoning you offer nullifies any he has delivered, that you call the attention of the audience to the fact that you have wiped out his score.  In this way your constructive argument and refutation will proceed together.  You will save valuable time.

Constructive Argument Is More Valuable than Refutation.  Often the rebuttal speeches of debate, coming at the close of the regular debate speeches, seem reserved for all the refutation.  This is certainly the place for much refutation, certainly not all.  The last speakers of the rebuttal speeches should never rest content with leaving only refutation in the hearers’ minds.  If they do, the debate may leave the condition entirely where it was at the beginning, for theoretically every argument advanced by either side has been demolished by the other.  After the rebuttal the last points left with the judges should be constructive arguments.

In a single speech the refutation may be delivered in sections as the demands of coherence and the opportunities for emphasis may suggest.  Here again, always make the last section a constructive one with arguments in support of your proposition.

CHAPTER XII

DEBATING

The Ideal of Debating.  A long time ago so admirable a man as William Penn stated the high ideal of all real debating whether practised in the limited range of school interests or in the extended field of life’s activities.

     In all debates let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an
     unjust interest; and endeavor to gain, rather than to expose
     thy antagonist.

The quotation states exactly the true aim of all debating—­the conclusion of the right, the truth rather than the securing of a decision over an opponent.  The same rules which animate the true lover of sports, the clear distinction which is instilled into all participants of amateur athletics of the meanings and significance of the two terms sportsman and sport, can be carried over to apply to school activities in debating.  Honest differences of opinion among people upon countless questions will always furnish enough material for regular debating so that no one need ever do violence to his convictions.

Value of Debate.  One of the greatest educational values of practice in debate is that the ability it develops can be applied instantly in the life beyond the schoolroom, that it operates in every person’s daily life.  There are differences in the manner in which debating is carried on in the two places, but practice in the earlier will result in skill and self-confidence in the second.