Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-02
STAR FISH OF TIN HORNS
KILLS CONVENTION ORATORY
The Anecdote Is No More Ferud Gestures Are Pase Aud
Listens to Cold Metallic Drone of Sound Amplfers
BY CLINTON w. GILBERT
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San Francisco. July 2.-What has
become Of the story, the little opposite
anccdote that American orators always
used to tell when they made speech!
Is the story going the way OF the
flowcry language with which speakers
used to sprinkle their addresses! In
two days of nominating and seconding
speeches only one story was told. and
that one was told by a woman seconding
the nomination Of John w. Davis, OF
West Virginia.
It was the rather familiar one about
the little girl in the Sunday school class
who described the creation of woman
by saying that God took the brain out
of man and made in into woman.
But why was only one story told!
Have speakers got as self-conscious
about stories as they have about the
purple patches Of oratory? DO they ask
themselves painfully, Is this story old!
And then refrain from telling it through
fear? Old fashioned speakers like
Chaunccy NJ. Dcpew, who addressed the
Chicago convention, tell stories. VICE
President Marshall, who hasn't ad-
dressed this gathering, always tells
stories.
But oil these picked proposcrs OF
| On ndidatcs here made nomination a
serious business. They rccited the
achievements Of their heroes as if they
| were reading an extract from Who's S
Who, They told how their candidates
| if nominated would carry their party
| TO victory. They were stiff, dull, con-
vcntional and imporsonal. They never
ventured on raising laugh. They
never established any relation OF IN
timacy between themselves and their
audiences. They were like school boys
speaking pieces, except two or three
tized what they had to say better than
any of the men.
Tin Horns Difficulty
| The most successful Of the women
sneakers acted their parts to certain
extent. though it is difficult to act when
YOU must stand in one spot all the time
for fear the tin boxes of the amplitier
which catch up the voice and carry it
to the big house over the speaker 3 head
and thus shoot it to the remOtcSt parts
of the hall shall not get the sounds
properly. Chairman Robinson had to
run out and catch one of the women
who was moving forward on the ros
trum to establish relations of more
intimacy with the audience and lead
her back to the correct spot. In a
moment more she would have been too
close to one of the sound traps and her
voice would have come out of it like
n roar of tin thunder. 1t is hard
| In be dramatic when you must keep
your toe on a certain flower on the
carpet and your eye directed at GER
tain spot in the gallery.
Oratory has been killed by self con
sciOusness. We are ashamed of elO
ouence for fear it may be false elo
ouence, spread eagleism, Fourth of July
stuff, and now we seem to have got
ashamed Of the story or anecdote which
took the place of eloquence when striv
ing for effect became questionable.
We have cultivated style of speak
ing which is suited to a meeting of @
chamber of commerce or board of direc
TORS, or committee, or Il hearing oi
an appellate court, an informal, bust
nesslike talk, and 1t is utterly unsuitet
to appearances before big crowds ant
in large halls like the Auditorium or thu
Coliseum.
Public Wants Drama
In a big crowd a speaker is rather
seen than heard. A big crowd haj
! drama in its consciousness rather thar
: anything else. 1t goes to the conven
tion to see the show; besides, no peopl
was ever more occupied with drami
than the American people. 1t is
, movie going people. 1t demands ant
receives drama in its press, PERSONAL
. ties, incidents, sidelights rather thar
serious discussion such as is found il
European journals.
Yet there is no drama in orator,
0 now; it is going to be difficult to pu
! drama in oratory which has to come ou
,, of big star fish of tin horns suspende
!. in the air before it reaches the audi
) ence. The convention finds its dram
In the demonstrations, the cheering
= singing OF songs, waving Of flags, carry
J Ing Of standards in parades about tn