CHAPTER I : SPEECH
Importance of Speech. There never has been in the history of the world
a time when the spoken word has been equaled in value and importance
by any other means of communication. If one traces the development of
mankind from what he considers its earliest stage he will find that
the wandering family of savages depended entirely upon what its
members said to one another. A little later when a group of families
made a clan or tribe the individuals still heard the commands of the
leader, or in tribal council voiced their own opinions. The beginnings
of poetry show us the bard who recited to his audiences. Drama, in all
primitive societies a valuable spreader of knowledge, entertainment,
and religion, is entirely oral. In so late and well-organized
communities as the city republics of Greece all matters were discussed
in open assemblies of the rather small populations.
Every great epoch of the world's progress shows the supreme importance
of speech upon human action--individual and collective. In the Roman
Forum were made speeches that affected the entire ancient world.
Renaissance Italy, imperial Spain, unwieldy Russia, freedom-loving
England, revolutionary France, all experienced periods when the power
of certain men to speak stirred other men into tempestuous action.
The history of the United States might almost be written as the
continuous record of the influence of great speakers upon others. The
colonists were led to concerted action by persuasive speeches. The
Colonial Congresses and Constitutional Convention were dominated by
powerful orators. The history of the slavery problem is mainly the
story of famous speeches and debates. Most of the active
representative Americans have been leaders because of their ability to
impress their fellows by their power of expressing sentiments and
enthusiasms which all would voice if they could. Presidents have been
nominated and candidates elected because of this equipment.
During the Great War the millions of the world were as much concerned
with what some of their leaders were saying as with what their other
leaders were doing.[1]
Speech in Modern Life. There is no aspect of modern life in which the
spoken work is not supreme in importance. Representatives of the
nations of the world deciding upon a peace treaty and deliberating
upon a League of Nations sway and are swayed by speech. National
assemblies--from the strangely named new ones of infant nations to the
century-old organizations--speak, and listen to speeches. In state
legislatures, municipal councils, law courts, religious organizations,
theaters, lodges, societies, boards of directors, stockholders'
meetings, business discussions, classrooms, dinner parties, social
functions, friendly calls--in every human relationship where two
people meet there is communication by means of speech.
[Footnote 1: See _Great American Speeches_, edited by Clarence
Stratton, Lippincott and Company.]
Scientific invention keeps moving as rapidly as it can to take
advantage of this supreme importance. Great as was the advance marked
by the telegraph, it was soon overtaken and passed by the convenience
of the telephone. The first conveys messages at great distance, but it
fails to give the answer at once. It fails to provide for the rapid
_interchange_ of ideas which the second affords. Wireless telegraphy
has already been followed by wireless telephony. The rapid intelligent
disposal of the complicated affairs of our modern world requires more
than mere writing--it demands immediate interchange of ideas by means
of speech.
Many people who in their habitual occupations are popularly said to
write a great deal do nothing of the sort. The millions of typists in
the world do no writing at all in the real sense of that word; they
merely reproduce what some one else has actually composed and
dictated. This latter person also does no actual writing. He speaks
what he wants to have put into writing. Dictating is not an easily
acquired accomplishment in business--as many a man will testify.
Modern office practice has intensified the difficulty. It may be
rather disconcerting to deliver well-constructed, meaningful sentences
to an unresponsive stenographer, but at any rate the receiver is
alive. But to talk into the metallic receiver of a mechanical
dictaphone has an almost ridiculous air. Men have to train themselves
deliberately to speak well when they first begin to use these
time-saving devices. Outside of business, a great deal of the material
printed in periodicals and books--sometimes long novels--has been
delivered orally, and not written at all by its author. Were anything
more needed to show how much speech is used it would be furnished by
the reports of the telephone companies. In one table the number of
daily connections in 1895 was 2,351,420. In 1918 this item had
increased to 31,263,611. In twenty-three years the calls had grown
fifteen times as numerous. In 1882 there were 100,000 subscriber
stations. In 1918 this number had swelled to 11,000,000.
Subordinates and executives in all forms of business could save
incalculable time and annoyance by being able to present their
material clearly and forcefully over the telephone, as well as in
direct face-to-face intercourse.
The Director of high schools in a large municipality addressed a
circular letter to the business firms of the city, asking them to
state what is most necessary in order to fit boys for success in
business. Ninety-nine per cent laid stress on the advantage of being
able to write and speak English accurately and forcibly.
Testimony in support of the statement that training in speaking is of
paramount importance in all careers might be adduced from a score of
sources. Even from the seemingly far-removed phase of military
leadership comes the same support. The following paragraph is part of
a letter issued by the office of the Adjutant-General during the
early months of the participation of this country in the Great War.
"A great number of men have failed at camp because of
inability to articulate clearly. A man who cannot impart his
idea to his command in clear distinct language, and with
sufficient volume of voice to be heard reasonably far, is not
qualified to give command upon which human life will depend.
Many men disqualified by this handicap might have become
officers under their country's flag had they been properly
trained in school and college. It is to be hoped therefore
that more emphasis will be placed upon the basic principles
of elocution in the training of our youth. Even without
prescribed training in elocution a great improvement could be
wrought by the instructors in our schools and colleges,
regardless of the subjects, by insisting that all answers be
given in a loud, clear, well rounded voice which, of course,
necessitates the opening of the mouth and free movement of
the lips. It is remarkable how many excellent men suffer from
this handicap, and how almost impossible it is to correct
this after the formative years of life."
Perhaps the most concise summary of the relative values of exercise in
the three different forms of communication through language was
enunciated by Francis Bacon in his essay entitled _Studies_, published
first in 1597: "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and
writing an exact man."
Speech and Talk. The high value here placed upon speech must not be
transferred to mere talk. The babbler will always be justly regarded
with contempt. Without ideas, opinions, information, talk becomes the
most wasteful product in the world, wasteful not only of the time of
the person who insists upon delivering it, but more woefully and
unjustifiably wasteful of the time and patience of those poor victims
who are forced to listen to it. Shakespeare put a man of this
disposition into _The Merchant of Venice_ and then had his discourse
described by another.
"Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any
man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid
in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day 'ere you find
them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search."
But the man who has ideas and can best express them is a leader
everywhere. He does the organizing, he makes and imparts the plans, he
carries his own theories and beliefs into execution, he is the
intrusted agent, the advanced executive. He can act for himself. He
can influence others to significant and purposeful action. The
advantages that come to men who can think upon their feet, who can
express extempore a carefully considered proposition, who can adapt
their conversation or arguments to every changing condition, cannot be
emphasized too strongly.
Speech an Acquired Ability. We frequently regard and discuss speech as
a perfectly natural attribute of all human beings. In some sense it
is. Yet an American child left to the care of deaf-mutes, never
hearing the speech of his own kind, would not develop into a speaker
of the native language of his parents. He doubtless would be able to
imitate every natural sound he might hear. He could reproduce the cry
or utterance of every animal or bird he had ever heard. But he would
no more speak English naturally than he would Arabic. In this sense,
language is not a natural attribute as is hunger. It is an imitative
accomplishment acquired only after long years of patient practice and
arduous effort. Some people never really attain a facile mastery of
the means of communication. Some mature men and women are no more
advanced in the use of speech than children of ten or fifteen. The
practice is life-long. The effort is unceasing.
A child seems to be as well adapted to learning one language as another.
There may be certain physical formations or powers inherited from a race
which predispose the easier mastery of a language, but even these
handicaps for learning a different tongue can be overcome by imitation,
study, and practice. Any child can be taught an alien tongue through
constant companionship of nurse or governess. The second generation of
immigrants to this country learns our speech even while it may continue
the tongue of the native land. The third generation--if it mix
continuously with speakers of English--relinquishes entirely the
exercise of the mother tongue. The succeeding generation seldom can
speak it, frequently cannot even understand it.
Training to Acquire Speech Ability. The methods by which older persons
may improve their ability to speak are analogous to those just
suggested as operative for children, except that the more mature the
person the wider is his range of models to imitate, of examples from
which to make deductions; the more resources he has within himself and
about him for self-development and improvement. A child's vocabulary
increases rapidly through new experiences. A mature person can create
new surroundings. He can deliberately widen his horizon either by
reading or association. The child is mentally alert. A man can keep
himself intellectually alert. A child delights in his use of his
powers of expression. A man can easily make his intercourse a source
of delight to himself and to all with whom he comes in contact. A
child's imagination is kept stimulated continually. A man can
consciously stimulate either his imagination or his reason. In the
democracy of childhood the ability to impress companions depends to a
great extent upon the ability to speak. There is no necessity of
following the parallel any farther.
Good speakers, then, are made, not born. Training counts for as much
as natural ability. In fact if a person considers carefully the
careers of men whose ability to speak has impressed the world by its
preeminence he will incline to the conclusion that the majority of
them were not to any signal extent born speakers at all. In nearly all
cases of great speakers who have left records of their own progress in
this powerful art their testimony is that without the effort to
improve, without the unceasing practice they would have always
remained no more marked for this so-called gift than all others.
Overcoming Drawbacks. According to the regularly repeated tradition
the great Greek orator, Demosthenes, overcame impediments that would
have daunted any ordinary man. His voice was weak. He lisped, and his
manner was awkward. With pebbles in his mouth he tried his lungs
against the noise of the dashing waves. This strengthened his voice
and gave him presence of mind in case of tumult among his listeners.
He declaimed as he ran uphill. Whether these traditions be true or
not, their basis must be that it was only by rigorous training that he
did become a tolerable speaker. The significant point, however, is
that with apparent handicaps he did develop his ability until he
became great.
Charles James Fox began his parliamentary career by being decidedly
awkward and filling his speeches with needless repetitions, yet he
became renowned as one of Great Britain's most brilliant speakers and
statesmen.
Henry Clay clearly describes his own exercises in self-training when
he was quite a grown man.
"I owe my success in life to one single fact, namely, at the
age of twenty-seven I commenced, and continued for years, the
practice of daily reading and speaking upon the contents of
some historical or scientific book. These offhand efforts
were made sometimes in a corn field, at others in the
forests, and not infrequently in some distant barn with the
horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early practice in
the art of all arts that I am indebted to the primary and
leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and
molded my entire destiny."
Abraham Lincoln never let pass any opportunity to try to make a
speech. His early employers, when called upon after his fame was won
to describe his habits as a young man, admitted that they might have
been disposed to consider him an idle fellow. They explained that he
was not only idle himself but the cause of idleness in others. Unless
closely watched, he was likely to mount a stump and, to the intense
delight of his fellow farm hands, deliver a side-splitting imitation
of some itinerant preacher or a stirring political harangue.
The American whose reputation for speech is the greatest won it more
through training than by natural gift.
"I could not speak before the school," said Daniel Webster.
... "Many a piece did I commit to memory and rehearse in my
room over and over again, but when the day came, and the
schoolmaster called my name, and I saw all eyes turned upon
my seat, I could not raise myself from it.... Mr. Buckminster
always pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I would
venture, but I could never command sufficient resolution.
When the occasion was over I went home and wept bitter tears
of mortification."
Results of Training. The significance of all these illustrations is
that no great speaker has come by his ability without careful and
persistent training. No molder of the world's destinies springs fully
equipped from the welter of promiscuous events. He has been training
for a long time. On the other hand the much more practical lesson to
be derived from these biographical excerpts is that these men started
from ordinary conditions to make themselves into forceful thinkers
with powers of convincing expression. They overcame handicaps. They
strengthened their voices. They learned how to prepare and arrange
material. They made themselves able to explain topics to others. They
knew so well the reasons for their own belief that they could convince
others.
In a smaller way, to a lesser degree, any person can do the same
thing, and by the same or similar methods. Barring some people who
have physical defects or nervous diseases, any person who has enough
brains to grasp an idea, to form an opinion, or to produce a thought,
can be made to speak well. The preceding sentence says "barring some
people who have physical defects" because not all so handicapped at
the beginning need despair of learning to improve in speaking ability.
By systems in which the results appear almost miraculous the dumb are
now taught to speak. Stutterers and stammerers become excellent
deliverers of speeches in public. Weak voices are strengthened.
Hesitant expressions are made coherent. Such marvels of modern science
belong, however, to special classes and institutions. They are cited
here to prove that in language training today practically nothing is
impossible to the teacher with knowledge and patience in educating
students with alertness and persistence.
Practical Help. This book attempts to provide a guide for such
teachers and students. It aims to be eminently practical. It is
intended to help students to improve in speech. It assumes that those
who use it are able to speak their language with some facility--at
least they can pronounce its usual words. That and the realization
that one is alive, as indicated by a mental openness to ideas and an
intellectual alertness about most things in the universe, are all that
are absolutely required of a beginner who tries to improve in
speaking. Practically all else can be added unto him.
As this volume has a definite aim it has a simple practical basis. It
will not soar too far above the essentials. It tries not to offer an
elaborate explanation of an enthymeme when the embryonic speaker's
knees are knocking together so loudly that he can not hear the
instructor's correcting pronunciation of the name. It takes into
account that when a beginner stands before an audience--and this is
true not only the first time--even his body is not under his control.
Lips grow cold and dry; perspiration gushes from every pore of the
brow and runs down the face; legs grow weak; eyes see nothing; hands
swell to enormous proportions; violent pains shoot across the chest;
the breath is confined within the lungs; from the clapper-like tongue
comes only a faint click. Is it any wonder that under such physical
agonies the mind refuses to respond--rather, is incapable of any
action whatever?
Speech Based on Thought and Language. Every speech is a result of the
combination of thought and language, of material and expression. It
would be quite possible to begin with considerations of the thought
content of speeches--the material; but this book begins with the
other;--the language, the expression. If this order have no other
advantage, it does possess this one;--that during the informal
discussions and expressions of opinion occasioned by the early
chapters and exercises, members of the class are attaining a feeling
of ease in speaking among themselves which will later eradicate a
great deal of the nervousness usually experienced when speaking
_before_ the class. In addition, some attention to such topics as
voice, tone, pronunciation, common errors, use of the dictionary,
vocabulary, may instil habits of self-criticism and observation which
may save from doubt and embarrassing mistakes later.
EXERCISES
1. Recall some recent speech you heard. In parallel columns make lists
of its excellences and deficiencies.
2. Give the class an account of the occasion, the purpose of the
speaker, and his effect upon his audience, or upon you.
3. Explain how children learn to speak.
4. From your observation give the class an account of how young
children enlarge their vocabularies.
5. Using the material of this chapter as the basis of your remarks,
show the value of public speaking.
6. Of what value is public speaking to women?
7. What effects upon speeches by women will universal suffrage have?
8. Choose some profession--as law, engineering--and show how an
ability to speak may be of value in it.
9. Choose some business position, and show how an ability to speak is
a decided advantage in it.
10. What is the best method of acquiring a foreign language? For
example, how shall the alien learn English?
11. Choose some great man whom you admire. Show how he became a
speaker. Or give an account of one of his speeches.
12. Show the value of public speaking to a girl--in school; in
business; in other careers.
13. Explain the operation of a dictaphone.
14. How can training in public speaking help an applicant for a
position?
15. Explain the sentence quoted from Bacon's essay on studies.
CHAPTER II : THE VOICE
PUBLIC SPEAKING By CLARENCE STRATTON
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