The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-02
THE DEcADENcE OF oRAToRY.

The Kansas papers have been telling more or less humorousIy how Victor Murdock, the youngest congressman from Kansas, made his maiden speech. The first speech of a congress- man has come to be regarded as "a duty, not pleasant or agreeable, which must be performed like taking quinine in ague weather or milking the cows on rainy morning. It is made and accept ed on the basis of showing that the new congressman can measure up to the tra- ditions of politics; that he is able to stand on his feet and recite the lan- guage which he has laboriously put to- gether in the retirement of his study. It is not asked that, he be eloquent or witty or moving. It is asked simply that he be able to address the body in a
 way that calls out neither ridicule nor reproach.
 It is the custom among old-fashioned folk to regret the days of Webster, Cal houn, Clay Phillips and Sumner. They feel that American public men have
 become decadent because the thunder of 6iCdt OiellOly IS iiO lOii6NA iASNA V AAA SAtS land. But this view gives emphasis to changed conditions rather than to the
 charge of decadence. If the oratory of one hundred or even forty years ago is no longer the greatest agency in sfap- 1 ing public opinion, it is because a. bet ter way has been evolved for approach
 ing the masses of the people, and be- cause the masses themselves have ad- vanced in intelligence.
 l If the founders of our government
 built much of the sentiment which sus- tained it by expounding from the ros- trum all it's merits and advantages, it
 was because the times possessed no oth-
 CT vehicle through which to reach the
 public mind. But even at that time the written word was far more convincing than the spoken one. The pamphlets printed by Hamilton, Jay and Madison, 1 and collected under the name of The Federalist,' did more to convince the
 American people than all the oratory, even though they had limited circula- ton among the masses of the popula- i tion The fiery oratory of the day ap- pealed to the sentiments and the preju-
 dces of the people, but the printed es- I say went deep and abidingly into the recesses of their understanding.
 I And here we may find the real cause 1 of the decadence of political oratory.
 More and more the people of America require that their intelligence shall be satisfied Emotional action is more and
 more relegated to the circles of the ig- norant Sixty or seventy years ago the people took their inspiration from the magnificent forensic display of trained orators. which is but another name for trained actors. One may read the
 speeches of Clay and Webster and mar
 vel at their beautiful rhetoric, their pie turesque slmiles and their gorgeous per orations, and yet smile at their lack of ] reason and logic. A constrast is af- forded by one of our recent presidential campaigns. No orator on either side was more effective than the late Mar GUS A. Hanna in the contest of 1900. He made no pretence of dramatic ora 1 tory or of moving eloauenee. He went | straight at the understanding of his hearers, offering fact and argument in place of rhetoric. And the fact of his
 effectiveness without the arts of the
 polished orator is not reflection on the taste or culture of the people, but proof that the American public has passed the emotional stage in matters political and forms it's judgments on the basis of reason.
 It is a common remark that the news Ipapers have driven the political orator laway from his field. That is true to a certain extent, but the statement does mot grasp and comprehend all the facts in the premises. The newspapers have lnot taken the place of the political ora tor simply because they are the easiest
 way to reach the largest audiences, but because they treat their subjects in 3 way most convincing to the advancing intelligence of the people. The average lspeech in congress to-day is simply ar Ielaborate newspaper editorial. The sci lspeech on the floor of either body is ar lessay, not an attempt at what might be Icalled the Websterian style of matter ol delivery. The orators themselves have abandoned their own peculiar field Iseemingly convinced that the country has outgrown the liking for eniotiona leloquence, and knowing that in this lfeld they must be great indeed if they would escape the half-humorous con. Itempt of a wiser people.
 In recent years the speech which lmost closely patterned after the style ot ancient American oratory was that ot lW. ]. Bryan-delivered before the dem. locratic convention of 1896. It was dra lmatically given and was sent straight lat the prejudices and passions of al
 who heard it. It was wonderfully sug Igestive of one of the rhodemontades in ldulged in by John Calhoun when he wa
 Iorganizing the nullification movemen
 in Carolina. But what a poor thing i appears at this moment when read in
 lcritical fashion. Its cheap fury, its fus tian, it's want of logic or fact, is enougl to make the man who was moved by i
 Iashamed Of his weakness. Yet We ma,
 aver with truth that it is a type of tn
 fold political oratory of which some peo ; Iple speak regretfully, not realizing tha
 distance lends entertainment, and tha
 the world has moved, Kansas Cit. Journal.
 { A young lady of Galesburg who ha
 I11x