I knew several of the boys at Fairfield, and because I was much interested in debating generally, I was delighted when Jack Mason asked me if I would like to go with him to a meeting called to discuss the organization of a debating club. Jack was a fine lad about seventeen years old; he was an enthusiastic ball player and delighted in outdoor sports. His particular chum, Frank Lawrence, was a different lad. He found his chief interest in books and reading, although he was by no means a “dig” or a recluse. However, the two boys made a fine team, and each supplied what the other may have lacked.
Frank was really the leader in the movement to organize the club. He had been reading several volumes of orations and had been impressed by the force and vigor of the great speakers. Like all boys who amount to anything, he wanted to try his hand, and naturally he didn’t want to do it alone. He took the matter up with Jack and, while Jack at first laughed at the idea, Frank finally brought him round to see it was a good thing. The result was that fifteen or twenty of the boys came together to talk things over.
When I arrived I found just a crowd of ordinary boys, no better or no worse than average lads in a community. They all wanted to do something; they were not satisfied with waiting for something to happen; they wanted to make something happen. With that spirit in them, they speedily got down to work and before I realized it they had organized their club.
Some of the boys were Scouts and naturally preferred to have that organization connected in some way with the club. Jack, I think, approved this idea, but Frank pointed out that although many of them were Scouts and all of them had friends who were Scouts, this really was not a scout organization and they might wish to take into the club boys who possibly did not believe in the scout organization, and might thus be prevented from joining. Charlie Taylor suggested that it be called “The Debating Club of the Epworth League.” Charlie was a Methodist and belonged to the Epworth League. George Perkins, however, who was an ardent member of the Christian Endeavor Society, objected, and of course when the proposal was put that way, Charlie at once saw that it was not fair. The boys finally agreed that the only thing they had in common, as far as the organization of the club was concerned, was first, that they were boys, and second, that they wanted to debate. Therefore, they decided to call it by a name which would, by its very simplicity, avoid any misunderstanding and at the same time properly characterize the object of the club. They decided therefore to call the club “The Boys’ Debating Club of Fairfield.”
When they came formally to state the purpose of their organization, after some discussion they agreed upon this preamble: “We, the undersigned, appreciating the advantages to be derived from practice in debate, hereby organize ourselves into a club for that purpose and agree to be governed by the following constitution:”
Frank wished to have more in this preamble and urged that they write it so that it would state that they would be benefited by drill in discussion, in composition, in declamation, in elocution, in parliamentary practice; in fact, in many other ways growing out of their meeting as a club, but Henry Jordan, a quiet, unassuming member, asked if all that really was not included in the word “debate.” They said, “Of course,” and so the short preamble stood.
The first few articles were adopted without much discussion, as they all thought substantially alike on those points.
The question of a short term of office called forth much discussion. My friend Jack is decidedly businesslike and he could see no real reason, he said, for going through the fuss and bother of so many elections. “If a man makes a good president,” he said, “why do we want to put him out of office after he has been working ten weeks and has just got the run of things? Besides, he would scarcely have time to show what he could do in ten weeks.” Frank replied: “Suppose he doesn’t make a good president; even these ten weeks would be a pretty long time, wouldn’t it?” Jack grumbled a good deal and insisted that the boys would put in most of their time electioneering for office. The boys laughed him down on this point, but Henry Jordan convinced them all when he said: “If practice is what we are after in this club, the more the offices are passed around the more practice we will all get.” They decided to fill vacancies by election at any meeting of the club, although some of the boys thought that it would be simpler to have the president appoint some boy to fill out the unexpired portion of the office, if a vacancy should occur.
There was a good deal of discussion of the duties of the various officers. Henry Jordan thought it would be enough if the constitution simply set out the ordinary rules governing similar bodies. Ralph Parsons—the boys called him “Tubby”—suggested, quite ingenuously I thought, that he supposed the various officers would have so much work to do that they would not be expected to take part in the debates. The thought in his mind was clear to all. The boys evidently knew him. “No, indeed,” announced Jack, “the president and all the rest of the officers take part in the debates when their time comes.” “O, well!” sighed “Tubby.”
Frank made a suggestion at this point which I thought was very good. “There are other debating clubs,” he said, “we ought to get acquainted with. There are societies for doing other kinds of work which is worth while. There is the Epworth League, and the Christian Endeavor Society, and the Boy Scouts, and the High School literary society, and the Girls’ Library Club, and lots of organizations which are just as good as ours. I think it would be great to get together with them just as much as we can—have joint programmes and all that sort of thing, you know. It might be good for them, and I know it would be fine for us.”
“Splendid!” I could not help exclaiming.
“I move that it be one of the duties of the President to see these clubs and carry out this idea,” said George Perkins. This motion was carried enthusiastically. After more discussion the enumeration of the other duties of the officers was left to a committee.
One office was created for which I suppose I am responsible. The boys felt pretty “cocky” and Jack said something about the good work they were going to do in their club. They had asked me before to take part in their discussion and I ventured to ask: “How will you know whether your work is good or not?”
“Well,” Charlie Taylor replied, “when we have a debate with that Onarga bunch and lick them good and plenty, I guess they’ll know we are doing good work.”
“Well, we may not find judges who will stand for ‘lick them good and plenty’ arguments,” interrupted Frank. “That kind of talk won’t go in a dignified debating club.”
“Anyway,” I replied, “suppose you don’t know what kind of work you are doing until the result of some debate contest tells you. Isn’t it quite a while to wait?”
“I tell you what, boys,” I continued. “I know folks say there is a great deal of education in learning through our mistakes, and of course there is. But there is also a lot of energy wasted in doing things the wrong way. We would look well, wouldn’t we, if we insisted in finding out for ourselves every fact in geography or physics when we have available the accumulated experience of centuries. So don’t try to do it all alone, boys. Get some older men who have gone through the mill themselves and get them to act as your critics and advisers. You will save a lot of time and get along much better.”
This advice seemed good, and they adopted the following section: “The President shall appoint at each session of the club a Critic, whose duty it shall be to criticize the conduct of the meeting and of the individual members in all respects and to render to the club such other help in advice and counsel as may seem wise to him. Such Critic shall, when possible, be appointed from the honorary members of the club.”
When they came to the question of membership there was a hot debate. There was an almost even division on the question of admitting the girls. There was no nonsense about the boys; they were not rough or boorish on the one hand, nor “sissified” on the other. One faction contended stoutly that it would be a good thing to have the girls with them. They urged the difference in the minds of boys and girls and felt that any question would be better understood if they had both points of view about it.
Jack led the opposition to having the girls join. He said:
“You fellows all know my sister Polly.” (There was a chorus of assent and several side glances at Frank, who looked carefully out of the window.) “You know Polly is great. She is as good a fellow as any of you here.” Here he glared pugnaciously about, but as no one seemed to disagree with him in the least he continued.
“I would as lief chum with Polly as not—but not in this club. I think we would have better times and do more business if we were alone. We could easily enough have social nights in the club once in a while. We can always get the girls and have a good time together outside, but I believe we ought to keep the club out of it. I wish they would organize a debating club of their own. It would be great sport to have a joint debate.”
The antis won, and the word “boy” used in the provision on membership. Only two other points concerning membership made much discussion—how many votes were necessary to get a boy in and how many votes were necessary to get him out after he was in.
Will Morrissey had not talked much yet, but he grew eloquent when he urged that one vote should be enough to keep a boy out. “Why,” he said, “if we are going to do good work here we must be careful who we have in. If we have united action we must be a band of brothers. We must not have in here anyone who is obnoxious to anyone else.”
Pietro Frontenelli was an Italian lad who had completely won the hearts of the rest of the boys since he had been in Fairfield. He was supposed to be a socialist at least, quite likely an anarchist, possibly a Camorrist, but altogether a most likable fellow. The boys indifferently called him “Pete” or “Nellie” for short; he admitted himself that his whole name made quite a mouthful.
“Pete” thought it made little difference whether we all thought alike or not. “Of course,” he said, “we want to thresh out the questions we have up for discussion and get at what seems to be the correct answer. But it’s a sure shot we will be more likely to get at that result if we approach it from as many angles as we can. I would like to see members elected by a majority vote.”
George Perkins thought that provision would be too liberal and finally the boys compromised on allowing election if no more than three votes were cast against the candidate.
They decided to follow the same rule in the election of honorary members.
Right here I broke in again. “Boys,” I said, “let me repeat, don’t try to do it all alone. Get your older friends in. Get your big brothers, your fathers, your teachers, the fathers of the other boys, even if their sons don’t belong. It is a good thing to have a lot of them with you as honorary members. Of course they are busy men. There will not be many of them out any one night, but you ought to have some outsiders and advisers here every night.”
“I don’t know about that,” said “Tubby.” “If we have folks like that here, we won’t feel free and easy. We will be on dress parade all the time.”
“That’s just how we should be,” said Charlie Taylor. “If we don’t take ourselves seriously, no one else will.”
“That’s the way to talk,” chimed in Jimmy Francis. “We don’t want any ‘rough house’ or bear dances or anything like that. We want to do business in this club of ours.”
“Now, look here, fellows,” said “Tubby.” “Who said anything about rough house or anything like it? I don’t want that any more than you do.”
Jimmy assured him that they all knew that he wasn’t standing for anything like “rough house.”
“But it’s going to be awful hard work to keep braced up all the time,” he sighed to himself. “I won’t dare even to slide down in my chair. O well!”
When it came to considering the conduct of members within the society and methods of discipline, the boys were decidedly at sea. They wanted to maintain the dignity of the club and yet they wanted to be fair to everyone. “But,” as Frank Lawrence put it, “what rule shall we follow in passing upon the guilt of members? What standards shall we follow? What is a crime and what is not a crime?”
That was the question. What should be regarded as conduct unbecoming a member of the club? It was finally decided that no one code of rules could answer such a question, but that each case should stand on its own merits. Consequently the section was worded like this: “Any member who is guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the club may, at any regular meeting, be suspended or expelled at the discretion of the club. But the charge against such member shall be signed by one of the officers of the club or at least three members, shall definitely state the facts constituting the alleged offense, shall lie on the table one week, and shall require a two-thirds vote of the members present for its adoption.”
In arranging for their programmes the boys felt that they should allow some latitude for joint sessions with other clubs. Consequently they instructed their committee who had the drafting of the rules in charge to give a place for such things on the order of business. While they were organizing a debating club, they said, they didn’t want to shut out anything else they might want to do.
How should they provide the necessary funds? Since Sam Levi’s father was a banker, he was regarded by all the boys as an authority on finance. He talked quite at length on bonds, debentures, income taxes, and just dues, and when it was all over the boys seemed to be quite clear that if they ever decided to build a club house they might want to sell bonds, but until that time they would simply levy dues on all members equally. They really did not need much money. The School Board had told them they could use the school assembly room for their meetings. Their incidental expense would not amount to much, and they thought ten cents per member, besides an initiation fee of twenty-five cents, would take care of it.
One point did cause some discussion. Suppose a boy didn’t pay his dues; what then? Jack as usual was for drastic action. He wanted such a boy “fired” right off. Sam suggested that a penalty of ten per cent. per month on the past due fees would keep the boys up to the mark. “If they have to pay eleven cents instead of ten if they are behind a month,” said he, “or twelve cents if they are back two months, they will look out.” It struck the boys as good finance until Jimmy Francis suggested rather timidly: “If a fellow is hard up and couldn’t get his money together just right it would rather hurt to pay the extra cent or two.”
The boys quickly saw the other side. Jimmy was the son of a widow. Everyone respected him, for, although he didn’t pity himself the least bit, he was always looking out for odd jobs to help out. All the lads knew he would have to find one more job to take care of his dues. His mother had to count every penny as it was.
They finally decided not to impose any penalty for non-payment of dues. As Frank pointed out, they felt that “if any fellow is mean enough to quit on his dues because there is no penalty tacked on, that’s conduct unbecoming a member of the club and we can ‘fire’ him.”
After they had taken care of a few miscellaneous provisions, they found they had a good working organization. I agreed with them, and in the appendix, beginning on page 156, you will find their constitution in full. In the next chapter I am going to tell you about the rules of order they adopted. They appointed a committee to draft them and I helped with the work. We talked the rules over a good deal both in this committee and afterward in the first two or three meetings. They were good enough to make me Critic several times and most of the help I gave them was in parliamentary practice. I have given you the rules, together with the running discussion we had on them. Possibly the reasons given for the rules will help you, as they seemed to help them.