In Los Angeles, seven earnest young men marched one after another to the rostrum of the Philharmonic Auditorium. Arranging his notes, "shooting" his cuffs, clearing his throat, elevating his chin, each young man in turn orated of judges—the Hon. Louis W. Myers, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court; a retired Judge, a female school superintendent, two professors, a learned doctor, a bishop—empowered to award prizes to the amount of $5,000.
It was most inspiring if it did take a long time. And the judges were at last able to decide that the best oration had been furnished by blond, curly-headed E. Wight Bakke, 22, of Onawa, Iowa, a junior at Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). They awarded the $2,000 first prize to Bakke for saying, among other things, that the U. S. Constitution is not "an old faded parchment in the Nation's capital, but a document written on the heart of every American. It bears not 39 signatures; for each of us it is signed by but one name our own. . . . Through our amending power or through customs which we create, we are constantly enriching its terms, giving new meanings to old phrases. When Americans have realized their responsibility, they have written into the Constitution the inalienable rights of every citizen, they have given to women an equal chance to express themselves through the ballot, they have made our Nation a saloonless Nation, they have made slaves men."
The other awards: to George A. Creitz Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa.), $1,000; William M. Ryan, St. Edward's University (Austin, Tex.), $500; Edward F. Barrett Jr., Canisius College (Buffalo), $450; Jack P. McGuire, University of Oregon, $400; J. Duane Squires, University of North Dakota, $350; Clarence McLean Gifford, Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.), $300.
*Typical of the 107
Charles W. Eliot
Brand Whitlock
David Starr Jordan
George W. Goethals
James R. Angell
Leonard Wood
William J. Mayo
John W. Davis
Charles II. Mayo
Elihu Root
Fllen Glasgow
Charles K. Hughes
Meredith Nicholson
†The Hall of Fame membership is at present 63. No person is eligible until 25 years dead.