The aim of this book is to furnish students with a new and reliable working-text on the art of debate, complete in every detail, yet without a single page of padding. This work is the product of the author's twenty years' experience with debating activities, both in the East and in the middle-west, first as a school and college debater, and then as coach, critic, judge, and teacher of the subject. During all, these years, he has sought new methods of ex plaining and applying old principles. These methods he has tested in the class room and with college debating teams, and the success that has followed their application has led him to put them into permanent form. This book is unique, not only in its detailed treatment of various subjects, but in its general plan and arrangement. Part I aims to provide the student at the outset with a firm grasp of beginning principles, so that he may begin at once the intelligent practice of debate in conjunction with his study of the theory. Part II makes the student familiar with all the instruments of proof before he is expected to handle them in the difficult and highly technical process of analyzing a problem to find the issues. The treatment of beginning principles in Part I has enabled the student, through actual debating practice, to appreciate the value of these minute details in proof.