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The Art of Public Speaking ills and troubles. George Cohan made himself a millionaire before he was thirty by writing cheerful plays. One of his rules is generally applicable to conversation: "Always leave them laughing when you say good bye." Dynamite the "I" out of your conversation. Not one man in nine hundred and seven can talk about himself without being a bore. The man who can perform that feat can achieve marvels without talking about himself, so the eternal "I" is not permissible even in his talk. If you habitually build your conversation around your own interests it may prove very tiresome to your listener. He may be thinking of bird dogs or dry fly fishing while you are discussing the fourth dimension, or the merits of a cucumber lotion. The charming conversationalist is prepared to talk in terms of his listener's interest. If his listener spends his spare time investigating Guernsey cattle or agitating social reforms, the discriminating conversationalist shapes his remarks accordingly. Richard Washburn Child says he knows a man of mediocre ability who can charm men much abler than himself when he discusses electric lighting. This same man probably would bore, and be bored, if he were forced to converse about music or Madagascar. Avoid platitudes and hackneyed phrases. If you meet a friend from Keokuk on State Street or on Pike's Peak, it is not necessary to observe: "How small this world is after all!" This observation was doubtless made prior to the formation of Pike's Peak. "This old world is getting better every day." "Fanner's wives do not have to work as hard as formerly." "It is not so much the high cost of living as the cost of high living." Such observations as these excite about the same degree of admiration as is drawn out by the appearance of a 1903−model touring car. If you have nothing fresh or interesting you can always remain silent. How would you like to read a newspaper that flashed out in bold headlines "Nice 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? "1_1_32">CHAPTER XXXI. MAKING CONVERSATION EFFECTIVE 204 The Art of Public Speaking "1_2">APPENDICES "1_2_1">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? "1_2">APPENDICES 205 The Art of Public Speaking 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? "1_2">APPENDICES 206 The Art of Public Speaking 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? "1_2_2">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. "1_2_2">APPENDIX B. THIRTY THEMES FOR SPEECHES 207 The Art of Public Speaking 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. "1_2_2">APPENDIX B. THIRTY THEMES FOR SPEECHES 208