In those days our discussions were not conducted as they are to-day. Then the disputants were given an hour or an hour and a half each to present his side. Our system of requiring the affirmative to state an argument in ten minutes, and the negative to reply in the same length of time, continuing in this manner for several hours in the presence of referees who permit no divergence from the subject, is calculated to exclude oratory and passion, and raise the discussion to an intellectual plane. But the system was not adopted until 1912. It must be confessed that the oratorical contests of the old style were as interesting as a circus or gladiatorial show, in which respect they were superior to the give-and-take method of to-day. The greatest of all the debates of that campaign occurred between Senator Thompson and the Reverend Dr. Desty during September. One of these took place in the great hall at Co-opolis. There were present 9,000 members of the Industrial Army and one thousand pupils from the schools. It was our custom to have the Educational department send a certain number of its wards to these discussions, in order to have them familiarized with Co-opolitan methods. These questions were always discussed fully in the schools as well as in the Industrial Army. The discussion in the great hall was opened by Dr. Desty. He insisted that the bonds of Boise City should be paid, that the poor people, who doubtless held them, factory operators in the unfortunate competitive cities, perhaps, had purchased them in good faith; that the action of the Co-opolitan Association, which he entirely approved, had rendered these bonds valueless, and that the Association, which was founded on principles of justice, equality and righteousness, should not withhold from these poor people what belonged to them. He also pointed out the fact that as long as the bonds remained outstanding the territory affected by them would be lost to the Association. Then came the wonderful, soul-stirring oratory of the man, which moved his hearers to the depths. I almost felt, as I listened to him on that occasion, that perhaps he was right. When he finished the applause from all parts of the hall was deafening. I believe now that it was more an acknowledgment of his wonderful oratory than because he had produced a conviction of the correctness of his views, but I was distressed by different thoughts then.