The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1888-09-16
HINTS FOR CAMPAIGNERS.

make one SuSSeStloH W lnO OldUOAo VI
both parties, and that is to give their
audiences credit for little common
sense and some slight knowledge of
facts. The public is not such a fool
as it looks. 1t knows a good deal
more than it shows on the surface. 1t
can distinguish falsehood from truth |
about as well as party speakers, and
it can draw an inference from given
premises with fair accuracy. Stump
speakers who deliver orations full OF
errors of fact and faults of reasoning
pay so poor a compliment to their au-
diences that it would be better for
their cause if they had held their
peace.
Modern etiquette in this part of the
country does not generally justify the
interruption of a speaker. 1t would
be better for both speaker and audi
ence if it did. 1t would make the for
mer more careful, and it would leave
the latter better informed. No stump
speaker who makes any pretensions to
proficiency as a debater objects to
being interrupted. Interruptions are
the clash of flint against the speakers
steel. If the steel be true sparks will
fly. 1t is because lawyers are always
liable to be interrupted if they wan
der from the law and the facts that
they become effective reasoners; it is
because clergymen are not liable to
interruption that they are such poor
hands at argument. Webster, giving
advice to a young man who proposed
to enter the lecture field, warned him
against presuring on the Ignorance
of his audience. "You never can tell"
said he, "but away back in some cor
ner there may be sitting some old
crank who has made an especial study
of the very subject of which you as
sumo your audience to know nothing;
if you risk any flights of fancy ten to
one he will interrupt you and bring
you to grief, But, as rule, as stump
speakers are let to ramble on with no
Interruptions, however sorely they
may try the common sense or patience
of their hearers.
And they do try them. The writer
of this has time and again heard ora.
tors and stump speakers, Republican
and Democratic, say things that he
knew weren't so, and that he knew
that they knew that he knew weren't
so. And he has during nearly twelve
years of reporting these speeches, ig-
nored a great deal of their verbal ar.
gument for this reason. What does
a Republican orator expect to gain by
describing all Democrats as disloyal
or Democratic orator calculate to
make by depicting all Republicans as
corrupt? The only effect of such talk
is to satisfy the audience that the
speaker is an ass. When an orator
tells us that the election of Mr.. Cleve-
land will have a serious effect on the
Alaska question, in what contempt he
must hold the intelligence of his
hearers. When another orator vehe-
mently assures us that Gen. Harrison
is opposed to the working-man, he
must surely assume that his audience
is destitute of the reasoning quality,
And here is where they make their
mistake. When campaign orators
think they can make votes by sophis.
try and false facts, they
labor under a monstrous delusion
The audience see through the sophis,
try and explode the false facts, and
though it sits quiet and says never &
word while the Boanerges is bawling
it goes home and concludes that {
pdll luttoL pC III PASblJ bh't teioS
when it can only be defended by ly
ing and prevaraicating. We believ,
that if the state central committee;
would reverse their action and lie
loose on the community speakers o
the faith opposite to theirs; if Mr.
Bush would hire a few fluent Repub
licans, while Mr.. BARN engaged fou
or five sturdy Democrats, each to ad
dress the people from party stand
point with the staple campaigl
thunder, they might do more effectiv
work than the present style of can
vassing sometimes accomplishes.
Astorians well know that Gov. Pen
noyer and John P. Irish and John N
Gearin in their speeches here las
May and June made republica
votes, and it is open to conjecture tha
some of the republican speakers di
more to aid democracy than republ
canism in some of their speeches.
Political speakers must also bear
mind one fact. The age of orator
has passed. The eye has supplante
,oaace, 10 4ho hro