The Art of Public Speaking
The profession or avocation is open to all alike who will
prepare themselves with the requisite qualifications or
give the requisite security for preserving public order.
This is in harmony with the general proposition that the
ordinary pursuits of life, forming the greater per cent of
the industrial pursuits, are and ought to be free and
open to all, subject only to such general regulations,
applying equally to all, as the general good may demand.
All such regulations are entirely competent for the
legislature to make and are in no sense an abridgment
of the equal rights of citizens. But a license to do that
which is odious and against common right is necessarily
an outrage upon the equal rights of citizens.
14. What method did Jesus employ in the following:
Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his
savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for
nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they
reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field; how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And
yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass
of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the
oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he
give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a
serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
heaven give good things to them that ask him?
15. Make five original syllogisms[26] on the following models:
MAJOR PREMISE: He who administers arsenic gives poison.
MINOR PREMISE: The prisoner administered arsenic to the victim.
CONCLUSION: Therefore the prisoner is a poisoner.
MAJOR PREMISE: All dogs are quadrupeds.
MINOR PREMISE: This animal is a biped.
CONCLUSION: Therefore this animal is not a dog.
16. Prepare either the positive or the negative side of the following
question for debate: _The recall of judges should be adopted as a
national principle_.
17. Is this question debatable? _Benedict Arnold was a gentleman._ Give
reasons for your answer.
18. Criticise any street or dinner-table argument you have heard
recently.
19. Test the reasoning of any of the speeches given in this volume.
20. Make a short speech arguing in favor of instruction in public
speaking in the public evening schools.
21. (_a_) Clip a newspaper editorial in which the reasoning is weak.
(_b_) Criticise it. (_c_) Correct it.
22. Make a list of three subjects for debate, selected from the monthly
magazines.
23. Do the same from the newspapers.
24. Choosing your own question and side, prepare a brief suitable for a
ten-minute debating argument. The following models of briefs may help
you:
DEBATE
RESOLVED: _That armed intervention is not justifiable on the part of any
nation to collect, on behalf of private individuals, financial claims
against any American nation._[27]
BRIEF OF AFFIRMATIVE ARGUMENT
First speaker--Chafee
Armed intervention for collection of private claims from any American
nation is not justifiable, for
1. _It is wrong in principle_, because
(_a_) It violates the fundamental principles of international law for a
very slight cause
(_b_) It is contrary to the proper function of the State, and
(_c_) It is contrary to justice, since claims are exaggerated.
Second speaker--Hurley
2. _It is disastrous in its results_, because
(_a_) It incurs danger of grave international complications
(_b_) It tends to increase the burden of debt in the South American
republics
(_c_) It encourages a waste of the world's capital, and
(_d_) It disturbs peace and stability in South America.
Third speaker--Bruce
3. _It is unnecessary to collect in this way_, because
(_a_) Peaceful methods have succeeded
(_b_) If these should fail, claims should be settled by The Hague
Tribunal
(_c_) The fault has always been with European States when force has
been used, and
(_d_) In any case, force should not be used, for it counteracts the
movement towards peace.
BRIEF OF NEGATIVE ARGUMENT
First speaker--Branch
Armed intervention for the collection of private financial claims
against some American States is justifiable, for
1. _When other means of collection have failed, armed intervention
against any nation is essentially proper_, because
(_a_) Justice should always be secured
(_b_) Non-enforcement of payment puts a premium on dishonesty
(_c_) Intervention for this purpose is sanctioned by the best
international authority
(_d_) Danger of undue collection is slight and can be avoided
entirely by submission of claims to The Hague Tribunal before
intervening.
Second speaker--Stone
2. _Armed intervention is necessary to secure justice in tropical
America_, for
(_a_) The governments of this section constantly repudiate just debts
(_b_) They insist that the final decision about claims shall rest with
their own corrupt courts
(_c_) They refuse to arbitrate sometimes.
Third speaker--Dennett
3. _Armed intervention is beneficial in its results_, because
(_a_) It inspires responsibility
(_b_) In administering custom houses it removes temptation to
revolutions
(_c_) It gives confidence to desirable capital.
Among others, the following books were used in the preparation of the
arguments:
N. "The Monroe Doctrine," by T.B. Edgington. Chapters 22-28.
"Digest of International Law," by J.B. Moore. Report of Penfield of
proceedings before Hague Tribunal in 1903.
"Statesman's Year Book" (for statistics).
A. Minister Drago's appeal to the United States, in Foreign Relations of
United States, 1903.
President Roosevelt's Message, 1905, pp. 33-37.
And articles in the following magazines (among many others):
"Journal of Political Economy," December, 1906.
"Atlantic Monthly," October, 1906.
"North American Review," Vol. 183, p. 602.
All of these contain material valuable for both sides, except those
marked "N" and "A," which are useful only for the negative and
affirmative, respectively.
NOTE:--Practise in debating is most helpful to the public speaker, but
if possible each debate should be under the supervision of some person
whose word will be respected, so that the debaters might show regard for
courtesy, accuracy, effective reasoning, and the necessity for careful
preparation. The Appendix contains a list of questions for debate.
25. Are the following points well considered?
THE INHERITANCE TAX IS NOT A GOOD SOCIAL REFORM MEASURE
A. Does not strike at the root of the evil
1. _Fortunes not a menace in themselves_ A fortune of $500,000 may
be a greater social evil than one of $500,000,000
2. _Danger of wealth depends on its wrong accumulation and use_
3. _Inheritance tax will not prevent rebates, monopoly,
discrimination, bribery, etc._
4. _Laws aimed at unjust accumulation and use of wealth furnish the
true remedy._
B. It would be evaded
1. _Low rates are evaded_
2. _Rate must be high to result in distribution of great fortunes._
26. Class exercises: Mock Trial for (_a_) some serious political
offense; (_b_) a burlesque offense.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 25: McCosh's _Logic_ is a helpful volume, and not too
technical for the beginner. A brief digest of logical principles as
applied to public speaking is contained in _How to Attract and Hold an
Audience_, by J. Berg Esenwein.]
[Footnote 26: For those who would make a further study of the syllogism
the following rules are given: 1. In a syllogism there should be only
three terms. 2. Of these three only one can be the middle term. 3. One
premise must be affirmative. 4. The conclusion must be negative if
either premise is negative. 5. To prove a negative, one of the premises
must be negative.
_Summary of Regulating Principles_: 1. Terms which agree with the same
thing agree with each other; and when only one of two terms agrees with
a third term, the two terms disagree with each other. 2. "Whatever is
affirmed of a class may be affirmed of all the members of that class,"
and "Whatever is denied of a class may be denied of all the members of
that class."]
[Footnote 27: All the speakers were from Brown University. The
affirmative briefs were used in debate with the Dartmouth College team,
and the negative briefs were used in debate with the Williams College
team. From _The Speaker_, by permission.]
CHAPTER XXIV
INFLUENCING BY PERSUASION
She hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.
--SHAKESPEARE, _Measure for Measure_.
Him we call an artist who shall play on an assembly of men as a
master on the keys of a piano,--who seeing the people furious,
shall soften and compose them, shall draw them, when he will, to
laughter and to tears. Bring him to his audience, and, be they
who they may,--coarse or refined, pleased or displeased, sulky
or savage, with their opinions in the keeping of a confessor or
with their opinions in their bank safes,--he will have them
pleased and humored as he chooses; and they shall carry and
execute what he bids them.
--RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essay on _Eloquence_.
More good and more ill have been effected by persuasion than by any
other form of speech. _It is an attempt to influence by means of appeal
to some particular interest held important by the hearer._ Its motive
may be high or low, fair or unfair, honest or dishonest, calm or
passionate, and hence its scope is unparalleled in public speaking.
This "instilment of conviction," to use Matthew Arnold's expression, is
naturally a complex process in that it usually includes argumentation
and often employs suggestion, as the next chapter will illustrate. In
fact, there is little public speaking worthy of the name that is not in
some part persuasive, for men rarely speak solely to alter men's
opinions--the ulterior purpose is almost always action.
The nature of persuasion is not solely intellectual, but is largely
emotional. It uses every principle of public speaking, and every "form
of discourse," to use a rhetorician's expression, but argument
supplemented by special appeal is its peculiar quality. This we may best
see by examining
_The Methods of Persuasion_
High-minded speakers often seek to move their hearers to action by an
appeal to their highest motives, such as love of liberty. Senator Hoar,
in pleading for action on the Philippine question, used this method:
What has been the practical statesmanship which comes from your
ideals and your sentimentalities? You have wasted nearly six
hundred millions of treasure. You have sacrificed nearly ten
thousand American lives--the flower of our youth. You have
devastated provinces. You have slain uncounted thousands of the
people you desire to benefit. You have established
reconcentration camps. Your generals are coming home from their
harvest bringing sheaves with them, in the shape of other