The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-08-23
oYERwoRKINe AN AUDIENCE.

Our political rallies are overdone. Not
that there are too many Of them. Rather
that TOO much is crowded into one rally.
And last evenings Republican meeting
showed no deviation from the usual rule;
in fact, it impressed upon the audience
the necessity Of a reform In methods at
once II the political rally Il 70 have any
significance, to be Of any benefit at all
The Times says this not in the spirit of
criticism Of the particular meeting of last
evening the fault seems to be general
with all political parties. But the most
recent serves as good illustration. From
fifteen minutes after seven O'Clock until
the hands Of the clock had drifted YEARLY
around to almost fifteen minutes Of eleven,
the audience was supposed to be courteous
to the speakers and remain TO the end.
shades Of Job Three and one quarter
hours Of oratory The three speakers Of
last evenings rally were all good, what
they said was most interesting and 1t was
told in manner which would appeal to
an audience under the proper conditions.
But we must confess that the effect was
largely lost because of the length of the
programme That the last speaker. Mr.
Brown, editor Of the Expansi0nist, was
able TO interest those Of the audience who
remained to hear him Is a compliment to
him and that but two or three left while
he was speaking tells volumes Of his
ability as an orator.
But that is beside the point. What a
political rally is called for is to convince
the voters, that Roosevelt Is ssafe, Z that
Parker is safer, that prohibition will or
will not tend to the good Of the common
wealth. that government control Is the
snmum bonum Of mankind. Now you
can't convince voters BY inviting them to
public meeting and then firing them to
the point Of exhaustion with spell-bindIng.
1t is moss.grown idea Of a former polite
cal era. The matter must be dealt with
in sensible way. One goes to church on
Sunday and listens to sermon Of three
quarters Of an hour duration and considers
that il sufficient. II is. Why should one
20 to political rally and sit through a
session Of three, four, yes, FIVE times that
length Of time9 1t is unreasonable, And
il isa wrong policy for any political or
ganization to pursue. The human mind
becomes wearied Of attempting to grasp
the thoughts presented by the speakers.
In time it refuses to lay hold on the facts
presented
And still the faded intellect is dragged
through a mass Of facts and figures which
would be grasped were the mind not over
worked One speaker concludes and an
other, fresh for the attack takes up the
hammer and proceeds to pound his ideas
into the brains Of bis hearers. And then
perhaps another. The result is that the
ordinary nearer goes home With JUNE
bled mass Of facts and figures out Of which
il is impossible for him to make anything
like complete train Of thought. The
value Of the rally is nothing 10 him He
would have been better off had he remain
ed at home and attempted to reach his
own conclusions. And the efforts of the
three speakers have been lost.
Let there be rallies and plenty Of them,
but let there be one speaker or, at the
most, two, although one ispreferable. The
value Of such win be vastly greater.