APPENDIX FSOURCES OF MATERIAL
How can you obtain the necessary information for your debate? Where can you get your evidence? How will you proceed to obtain the facts upon which your debate will win or lose?
In part these questions have been answered by the chapter on evidence. Let me advise you to read it over again carefully.
The first persons to consult are the other members of your own family. Their experience in public affairs you will find in many cases to be much larger than you have thought. How many times, for instance, do your neighbors or perhaps the township supervisor drop in upon your father to talk with him in the evening about matters of public policy? How many times does the school teacher, on her way home from work, stop to pass a word with your grandfather who was a member of the legislature back in Connecticut long before the family moved West?
Obviously the next best source of information is your teacher. In almost all cases you will find that your school instructors are very glad to help you, not only by telling you what they themselves know but by referring you to easily available sources of information. Do not hesitate to ask specific questions of your teachers. It is well, of course, to request in general their advice and counsel but you can well supplement this general appeal for help by specific questions the answer to which will solve troublesome problems as they come up. Be sure to ask your teachers for lists of available books and advice as to the best magazine articles to consult.
Next go to the librarian in your own home town. She will be glad to tell you the best books and magazine articlesupon the subject of your debate. In case her own information is scant you might well advise her to communicate with the Division of Bibliography of the Library of Congress at Washington. This division issues memoranda, type-written lists and printed lists, giving references upon all topics of current interest. Private individuals can purchase these lists from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. In case you have no library within reaching distance the list will be lent to you. In that case you should address the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
There is an immense amount of literature to be obtained from the various branches of the Government, and there is hardly a subject which a boy might be called upon to debate, upon which he could not obtain enlightenment by applying to the proper Government officer. The difficulty is to know who is the proper person to address in a particular case. Probably the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, would be the first one to whom to apply. He has Government publications for sale, and is in a position to give information about the publications issued by any branch of the Government. He also furnishes classified lists on various subjects. These will give an idea of what bureaus handle the different subjects. With such information a boy can then apply directly to the right bureau. Most, if not all, of the Departments issue lists of their publications. The Congressional Directory contains a list of the Government offices, with a statement of their functions. The Department of Agriculture issues a Monthly List of Publications, which is sent regularly to all who ask to have it so sent. It also issues from time to time a list giving titles of all the Farmers’ Bulletins available.
Your own Congressman will be glad to answer specific questions. Of course all debaters—boys who are good enough citizens to be interested in current topics—know the name of their representative in Congress.
You will find also that the colleges in your own State will be very glad to help you all they can. Let me urge youparticularly to make full use of the Agricultural College and State University of your own Commonwealth. The Agricultural College has at command a vast fund of questions all relating to life—social and economic as well as scientific and historical. Probably in this day, your State University has an extension division which has special facilities for giving you definite and accurate advice upon any topic. It may be that your State is one of the progressive ones which have a system of “traveling libraries”—packets of books which are shipped to persons who have special interest in special topics. Really one of the first studies for you when you are securing evidence is to become thoroughly acquainted with the facilities of your State institutions of higher education. By all means, however, include the other colleges which may be in your vicinity. Professors and other members of the departments of sociology, political science, political economy, history and similar departments will be particularly ready to give help.
Of almost equal value with the official documents are the writings of interested men in magazines and newspapers. These articles will not only contain many facts but will be both stimulating and suggestive to the debater in opening to him new lines of thought upon the subject. Poole’s Index, The Cumulative Index, The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature are catalogues of the articles appearing in general periodicals. Some one of them is sure to be found in your library.
Almost every subject now prominently before the public has based upon it a society of some kind or other which generally issues publications upon the subject, or, at any rate, has available facts and arguments of value to the debater. The Society for the Prevention of This, the Society for the Promotion of That, the Society for the Study of This Other Matter, are full of value and interesting information. Write to them if your subject falls within their respective fields.
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