The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-08
GREAT SPELLB|NDERS OF
BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES
Roosevelts Methods on the Stump and Those
of Bryan, Taft, Kern, Sherman, Cannon,
La Toilette and Many Other Leaders,

GU PSOp4o persist III DolIeNlHS LndC IL
will be upon the stump for Taft be
fore the campaign is over, frequent
semiofieial declarations from Oyster
Bay to the contrary notwithstanding
Many man, quite as firm in his con
victions as the President, has yielded
to the call of the campaign. 1t is al
most a superhuman temptation to heal
the Macedonian cries multiply from
many quarters. Few men who have
been elevated to high Office can with
stand the artful appeals to party 10y
atty and ignore assertions that speech
, may save the vote of a sovereign com
mOnwealth. The managers would give
him a special train de luxe, if he would
move from Oyster Bay and out upon
the hastings, although if the President
goes it will PROBABLY be upon some ex-
cuse for a public address, with polit-
zeal paragraphs injected, rather than
for an out and out stump effort.
The American people are tolerably
familiar with the President IS speaking
methods. He is not an orator in the
full acceptance of that term. He is a
preacher, terribly in earnest, thorough
ly informed, able to enter the hearts
and feelings of his hearers. His man
nerisms of voice and delivery are pro-
nounced. He bounded into prominence
as a stumper long before he became
President, in spite Of those manner
isms. As much as any other star
stumper of American politics, his
speaking acumen represents long and
varied experience. He was stumping
even before he graduated from Har-
ward College.
The crowds like his combative Ian
guage, his determination, his outspoken
qualities. He can not be disconnected
He keeps shooting away at the enemy
like trained and valiant gunner in
desperate naval warfare. He fights
the reealcitrant persons in his audi
ences, if such there be. In 1892, when
a Civil Service Commissioner, he was
speaking in fremont Temple, Boston
Someone far up in the top gallery yell
ed, "Hurray for Cleveland. 1t was
by prolonged Cleveland
cheer that fairly shook the foundations
If the temple. 1t would have swept
many a speaker off his feet. The then
Civil Service Commissioner coolly stood
ais ground. When the cheering was |
,ver, he made a dozen verbal dashes,
each with ponderous right
lrm gestures and thumped the unsym-
into submission.
Mr.. Roosevelt, as a public speaker,
5 versatile in catching and holding
he attention. He is not a man of
many gestures, but he has a knack,
lone the less, of appealing to the eye
5 well as the reason of the man in
he audience. He arouses a curiosity.
econd time, and, as it looks, of course,
stens. In some of his more notable
ours, Mr.. Roosevelt has produced
ONE good stage effects. One of these
-as on his New York tours, when a
candidate. He toured
4 his khaki uniform as Colonel of the
tough Riders, surrounded by a num-
er of his comrades, also in khaki.
Roosevelt and Bryan are undoubted-
the two leading stumpers of the
nited States. Bryan excels in oratori-
Il powers. He has the voice and the
races of a Cicero, which Roosevelt
rs not But apart from the fact that
oosevelt has been President, it is a
lestion whether Bryan could hold an
ldience better than he. 1t is certain
lat Roosevelt can speak more con-
The two have appeared
vice in what virtually amounted to
int debates at large dinners of the
ridiron Club in Washington. The
,eeehes were never published. On one
, the two occasions Bryan was credit
| with having made one of the wit
est and happiest speeches of all his
Ireer. But Roosevelt, on that occa-
on, while a speaker of far different
pc. less dignifed in bearing, less re-
,seful than Bryan, met his opponent
It'll the same ready courtesy and
ignant thrust. He spoke from notes
Silly scrubbed on the corner of
emu card. His, too, was really fin .
led utterance. But with all the lev
?, such as was fitting for such an
.ent, the remarks of the two men
ere filed with preaching, for both of
EN-, at heart, are preachers in the
mplete sense of that word. Both
Continued on Page Ten.)