Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-01-06
IoWa's F0ur-Minute Men
New York Evening Post.

io"a uuiiHs tie wal Is IeSdTueQ Dy the his
torical society of that state as deserving OF
record in one of the bulletins issued by it under
the general title, iowa and War" The speak
ing was OF two sorts-that of the four minute
men and that OF more than four-ininute men
The latter are old friends. 1t is in no spirit of
self lorhcation that we say that Iowa has
nothing to teach us about them. OF New York
as OF any other state or country, it might be
written
When it came to the test the man who had
been accustomed to taking 10 minutes to get
the audience who had been in the habit of
embelliShing his talks with anecdote and illus
tration, proved to be failure in the our-minute
business. No amount of coaching on the par.
OF the chairman or critic and no warning of the
exhibitor could induce him to start and finish
within the stated time"
One Iowa chairman reported to the central
office speech of. 10 minutes by local celebrity
to whom he had "tactfully pointed out" that to
occupy the platform longer than four minutes
was direct breach of contract. What did you
do about it?' asked a chairman from an ad-
joining county. well, believe me-" was the
good-natured reply, Il forgot him in the next
ASSIGNMENT"
How did the four -lninute men originate ,
The Iowa bulletin solemnly states, they "sprang
into existence without the aid or comfort of the
National Security league" This would be in
credible except upon the authority Of an his
torical society. Credit for the idea is given to
Mr.; Donald NJ. Ryerson of Chicago, who. late
IN March, l9lz "fore,s,eeing our inevitable par
tlcipaton in the world struggle, determined to
do his part in awakening the people to the grav-
ity of the national danger" With friend or
two, and the endorsement of dozen prominent
citizens. he began to make four-minu speeches
between numbers at the motion picture thea
tiers. His subject was universal Military
Training" and he was announced on the screen.
R11t univ fnttr mir, Eor 41o +
reasons:
-Four minutes as the time limit seems to
have originated in the fact that it takes approx
imately four minutes to run off short film in
the motion picture theater."
Moreover:
"Mr. Ryerson and his colleagues felt that
more than that time would not be Just request
to make of the theater managers and further.
it was the general feeling that four minutes was
as long as the average speaker could be depend
ed upon to hold the attention of an audience in
a motion picture theater"
But why so much speaking? Why not rely
upon the newspapers-and, if necessary. phono-
graphs? Because, in the campaigns that, in the
picturesque phraseology quoted by the bulletin,
called for "the everlastin' team work Of every
bloomin' soul" facts had to be presented "in a
manner and spirit that would convince the
listeners Of their truth and soundness and make
them want to do the thing requested" For
achieving this end new speakers were found to
be as good as old, if not better wealth Of
local talent was discovered. There we're even
our-minute boys and girls
What was wanted was speakers with the
essentials Of every effective speaker; to have
something to say to say it, and quit. "If,"
philosophers the bulletin. "the war has taught
$4,000 men to do that one thing, surely it has
not been fought in vain" 1t even draws COM
parison between the winning of the war by
nonmilitary peoples and the winning of audi
ences by unframed orators
And what of the audience? Instances of re-
sentiment, we are told, were very few and were
due, not to four-minute speaking as an institu-
ton, but to lack of preparation or personality
on the part of the speaker. Thus, "These in
stances might be regarded as an evidence of
fine discrimination on the part of the audience
rather than an exhibition of disoyalty!' Be-
sides, if an outsider may say so, Iowans had
been accustomed to chautauqua speakers, and
so may have had special cause for welcoming
the four-rninute man. So popular did he be-
come that theaterless towns soon began to feel
that they were being Disseminated against. In
the background, as is apt to be the case with
great movements, was the busiest figure of all
to look up the auctioneer and ask for four
dent of the agricultural society and make an
appeal for little time at the approaching meet
ing, who must persuade the minister to give up
his pulpit to the cause on Sunday morning or
convince the cemetery association that the gov
eminent has a special message which it wishes
to deliver at the next session" The four
minute innovation must have added to our
stock, not of speakers only, but also of diplo-
mats