The Art of Public Speaking

Weather We Are Having," or daily gave columns to the same old material you had been reading week after week? QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Give a short speech describing the conversational bore. 2. In a few words give your idea of a charming converser. 3. What qualities of the orator should _not_ be used in conversation. 4. Give a short humorous delineation of the conversational "oracle." 5. Give an account of your first day at observing conversation around you. 6. Give an account of one day's effort to improve your own conversation. 7. Give a list of subjects you heard discussed during any recent period you may select. 8. What is meant by "elastic touch" in conversation? 9. Make a list of "Bromides," as Gellett Burgess calls those threadbare expressions which "bore us to extinction"--itself a Bromide. 10. What causes a phrase to become hackneyed? 11. Define the words, (_a_) trite; (_b_) solecism; (_c_) colloquialism; (_d_) slang; (_e_) vulgarism; (_f_) neologism. 12. What constitutes pretentious talk? APPENDICES APPENDIX A FIFTY QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE 1. Has Labor Unionism justified its existence? 2. Should all church printing be brought out under the Union Label? 3. Is the Open Shop a benefit to the community? 4. Should arbitration of industrial disputes be made compulsory? 5. Is Profit-Sharing a solution of the wage problem? 6. Is a minimum wage law desirable? 7. Should the eight-hour day be made universal in America? 8. Should the state compensate those who sustain irreparable business loss because of the enactment of laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks? 9. Should public utilities be owned by the municipality? 10. Should marginal trading in stocks be prohibited? 11. Should the national government establish a compulsory system of old-age insurance by taxing the incomes of those to be benefited? 12. Would the triumph of socialistic principles result in deadening personal ambition? 13. Is the Presidential System a better form of government for the United States than the Parliamental System? 14. Should our legislation be shaped toward the gradual abandonment of the protective tariff? 15. Should the government of the larger cities be vested solely in a commission of not more than nine men elected by the voters at large? 16. Should national banks be permitted to issue, subject to tax and government supervision, notes based on their general assets? 17. Should woman be given the ballot on the present basis of suffrage for men? 18. Should the present basis of suffrage be restricted? 19. Is the hope of permanent world-peace a delusion? 20. Should the United States send a diplomatic representative to the Vatican? 21. Should the Powers of the world substitute an international police for national standing armies? 22. Should the United States maintain the Monroe Doctrine? 23. Should the Recall of Judges be adopted? 24. Should the Initiative and Referendum be adopted as a national principle? 25. Is it desirable that the national government should own all railroads operating in interstate territory? 26. Is it desirable that the national government should own interstate telegraph and telephone systems? 27. Is the national prohibition of the liquor traffic an economic necessity? 28. Should the United States army and navy be greatly strengthened? 29. Should the same standards of altruism obtain in the relations of nations as in those of individuals? 30. Should our government be more highly centralized? 31. Should the United States continue its policy of opposing the combination of railroads? 32. In case of personal injury to a workman arising out of his employment, should his employer be liable for adequate compensation and be forbidden to set up as a defence a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the workman, or the negligence of a fellow workman? 33. Should all corporations doing an interstate business be required to take out a Federal license? 34. Should the amount of property that can be transferred by inheritance be limited by law? 35. Should equal compensation for equal labor, between women and men, universally prevail? 36. Does equal suffrage tend to lessen the interest of woman in her home? 37. Should the United States take advantage of the commercial and industrial weakness of foreign nations, brought about by the war, by trying to wrest from them their markets in Central and South America? 38. Should teachers of small children in the public schools be selected from among mothers? 39. Should football be restricted to colleges, for the sake of physical safety? 40. Should college students who receive compensation for playing summer baseball be debarred from amateur standing? 41. Should daily school-hours and school vacations both be shortened? 42. Should home-study for pupils in grade schools be abolished and longer school-hours substituted? 43. Should the honor system in examinations be adopted in public high-schools? 44. Should all colleges adopt the self-government system for its students? 45. Should colleges be classified by national law and supervision, and uniform entrance and graduation requirements maintained by each college in a particular class? 46. Should ministers be required to spend a term of years in some trade, business, or profession, before becoming pastors? 47. Is the Y.M.C.A. losing its spiritual power? 48. Is the church losing its hold on thinking people? 49. Are the people of the United States more devoted to religion than ever? 50. Does the reading of magazines contribute to intellectual shallowness? APPENDIX B THIRTY THEMES FOR SPEECHES With Source References for Material. 1. KINSHIP, A FOUNDATION STONE OF CIVILIZATION. "The State," Woodrow Wilson. 2. INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. "The Popular Initiative and Referendum," O.M. Barnes. 3. RECIPROCITY WITH CANADA. Article in _Independent_, 53: 2874; article in _North American Review_, 178: 205. 4. IS MANKIND PROGRESSING? Book of same title, M.M. Ballou. 5. MOSES THE PEERLESS LEADER. Lecture by John Lord, in "Beacon Lights of History." NOTE: This set of books contains a vast store of material for speeches. 6. THE SPOILS SYSTEM. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, reported in the _New York Tribune_, February 25, 1895. 7. THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS. Part III, Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Pennsylvania, 1912. 8. IMMIGRATION AND DEGRADATION. "Americans or Aliens?" Howard B. Grose. 9. WHAT IS THE THEATRE DOING FOR AMERICA? "The Drama Today," Charlton Andrews. 10. SUPERSTITION. "Curiosities of Popular Custom," William S. Walsh. 11. THE PROBLEM OF OLD AGE. "Old Age Deferred," Arnold Lorand. 12. WHO IS THE TRAMP? Article in _Century_, 28: 41. 13. TWO MEN INSIDE. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," R.L. Stevenson. 14. THE OVERTHROW OF POVERTY. "The Panacea for Poverty," Madison Peters. 15. MORALS AND MANNERS. "A Christian's Habits," Robert E. Speer. 16. JEW AND CHRISTIAN. "Jesus the Jew," Harold Weinstock. 17. EDUCATION AND THE MOVING PICTURE. Article by J. Berg Esenwein in "The Theatre of Science," Robert Grau. 18. BOOKS AS FOOD. "Books and Reading," R.C. Gage and Alfred Harcourt. 19. WHAT IS A NOVEL? "The Technique of the Novel," Charles F. Home. 20. MODERN FICTION AND MODERN LIFE. Article in _Lippincott's_, October, 1907. 21. OUR PROBLEM IN MEXICO. "The Real Mexico," Hamilton Fyfe. 22. THE JOY OF RECEIVING. Article in _Woman's Home Companion_, December, 1914. 23. PHYSICAL TRAINING VS. COLLEGE ATHLETICS. Article in _Literary Digest_, November 28, 1914. 24. CHEER UP. "The Science of Happiness," Jean Finot. 25. THE SQUARE PEG IN THE ROUND HOLE. "The Job, the Man, and the Boss," Katherine Blackford and Arthur Newcomb. 26. THE DECAY OF ACTING. Article in _Current Opinion_, November, 1914. 27. THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH. "A Young man's Religion," N. McGee Waters. 28. INHERITING SUCCESS. Article in _Current Opinion_, November, 1914. 29. THE INDIAN IN OKLAHOMA. Article in _Literary Digest_, November 28, 1914. 30. HATE AND THE NATION. Article in _Literary Digest_, November 14, 1914. APPENDIX C SUGGESTIVE SUBJECTS FOR SPEECHES[36] With Occasional Hints on Treatment 1. MOVIES AND MORALS. 2. THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING. The essence of truth-telling and lying. Lies that are not so considered. The subtleties of distinctions required. Examples of implied and acted lies. 3. BENEFITS THAT FOLLOW DISASTERS. Benefits that have arisen out of floods, fires, earthquakes, wars, etc. 4. HASTE FOR LEISURE. How the speed mania is born of a vain desire to enjoy a leisure that never comes or, on the contrary, how the seeming haste of the world has given men shorter hours off labor and more time for rest, study, and pleasure. 5. ST. PAUL'S MESSAGE TO NEW YORK. Truths from the Epistles pertinent to the great cities of today. 6. EDUCATION AND CRIME. 7. LOSS IS THE MOTHER OF GAIN. How many men have been content until, losing all, they exerted their best efforts to regain success, and succeeded more largely than before. 8. EGOISM vs. EGOTISM. 9. BLUNDERS OF YOUNG FOGYISM. 10. THE WASTE OF MIDDLE-MEN IN CHARITY SYSTEMS. The cost of collecting funds for, and administering help to, the needy. The weakness of organized philanthropy as compared with the giving that gives itself. 11. THE ECONOMY OF ORGANIZED CHARITY. The other side of the picture. 12. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The true forces that hurtfully control too many newspapers are not those of arbitrary governments but the corrupting influences of moneyed and political interests, fear of the liquor power, and the desire to please sensation-loving readers. 13. HELEN KELLER: OPTIMIST. 14. BACK TO THE FARM. A study of the reasons underlying the movement. 15. IT WAS EVER THUS. In ridicule of the pessimist who is never surprised at seeing failure. 16. THE VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. Value of direct training compared with the policy of laying broader foundations for later building. How the two theories work out in practise. Each plan can be especially applied in cases that seem to need special treatment. 17. ALL KINDS OF TURNING DONE HERE. A humorous, yet serious, discussion of the flopping, wind-mill character. 18. THE EGOISTIC ALTRUIST. Herbert Spencer's theory as discussed in "The Data of Ethics." 19. HOW THE CITY MENACES THE NATION. Economic perils in massed population. Show also the other side. Signs of the problem's being solved. 20. THE ROBUST NOTE IN MODERN POETRY. A comparison of the work of Galsworthy, Masefield and Kipling with that of some earlier poets. 21. THE IDEALS OF SOCIALISM. 22. THE FUTURE OF THE SMALL CITY. How men are coming to see the economic advantages of smaller municipalities. 23. CENSORSHIP FOR THE THEATRE. Its relation to morals and art. Its difficulties and its benefits. 24. FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS. Mordecai's expression and its application to opportunities in modern woman's life. 25. IS THE PRESS VENAL? 26. SAFETY FIRST. 27. MENES AND EXTREMES. 28. RUBICONS AND PONTOONS. How great men not only made momentous decisions but created means to carry them out. A speech full of historical examples. 29. ECONOMY A REVENUE. 30. THE PATRIOTISM OF PROTEST AGAINST POPULAR IDOLS. 31. SAVONAROLA, THE DIVINE OUTCAST.