CENSORSHIP: UNIVERSITY DEBATERS CAN'T STALL BRITISH INVASION

Two Southeast Missouri State University debaters couldn't stave off a British invasion Monday night at the university's Kent Little Theatre.

The debaters, Timm Schowalter and Dan Byron, both Southeast juniors majoring in philosophy, lost a debate on censorship to two Britons, Helen Berry and Kim Preston. Preston is a graduate of Birmingham University and City University law school and Berry is a sophomore seeking a history degree at Durham University.

Byron and Schowalter argued in favor of censorship; Berry and Preston opposed it. A show of hands after the debate put Berry and Preston as the winners at about a 2-to-1 ratio.

The debate, titled "This House Stands; There is No Sense in Censorship," drew about 120 people, including university students and Southeast President Kala Stroup.

Each debater had eight minutes to argue his or her case, after which he or she was cross-examined by an opposing debater. At the end of the debate, each team was given time for final speeches. Audience members were also given a chance to ask the debaters questions.

Byron said because the debate's title was a "universal quantifier" as in symbolic logic applying to all censorship, he and Schowalter had only to prove that censorship needed to exist in one instance to win their case. To do that, he said, he would focus on pornography.

"A lot of evidence here ... will tell you that pornography leads to a lot of evil things," said Byron. "It leads to violent crimes, it leads to rape, it leads to prostitution; that leads to AIDS, that leads to death. I could go on. It leads to a lot of bad things."

Later, the debate turned heavily to the issue of censorship of child pornography. Schowalter said the industry is a $2.8-billion-a-year industry that preys on 30,000 children.

Schowalter pushed the case of censorship of child pornography by pointing out that an author on the subject said that child pornography can be curbed by reducing access to the material.

But Berry, answering a question from an audience member, said the battle against child pornography is being lost as far as censorship was concerned. "Censorship clearly doesn't work," she said.

Censorship of material, she argued earlier in the debate, does not cut the demand for that material, but increases it.

Preston argued that censorship carried with it a certain evil, an "insidious" nature.

"You can disapprove of something very strongly, but as soon as you censor it, that is the evil itself," she said.

The debaters needled each other throughout the contest, drawing laughter and applause from audience members. Sometimes the humor came with a barb against the other's country.

At one point, Byron asked Preston to define the term "sense."

"What do you consider to be sense: common sense or is it a couple of pennies in my pocket?"

"It could be any number...," Preston started to answer. Then she said, "Oh, that was so sweet. We knew you couldn't spell in America."

Preston earlier noted that Byron had been nominated as the university's "man of the year." But she downplayed the honor in her country.

"It tends to go to people like (U.S. Vice President) Dan Quayle," she said.

Both Berry and Preston are experienced debaters.

Berry was ranked this year among the world's top 40 public speakers at the World Student Debating Championships in Toronto.

Preston holds numerous debate awards. Among them are winner and best speaker honors at Liverpool in 1988; regional winner and best speaker honors at Lloyd's Bank Inter-Varsity 1988; and regional semi-finalist status at the Observer Mace Debating Competition in 1988.

She also represented Birmingham University in Sydney, Australia, and in Princeton, N.J., in 1988 and 1989 in the World Debating Championships.