The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-18
The Coming Hot Air Tornado The American People Are Now Confronted By An Ora
 torical Crisis

uine 1earning-a quite remarkable mind and wealth of literary allusion. He speaks in a staccato manner, every sentence being perfectly constructed. and the effect is like lot of stillettoes thrown by an unerring hand. It would be impossible to imagine any speaker more different from MT. Hughes than Leonard Wood. General Wood has no sparkle none of what I may call that minute literary discrimination that is abel to combine two or three words together and produce laughter. But his oratory has the remarkable effect of common sense. He tells you what you already know in a perfectly sim pie manner without establishment. It seems remarkable indeed that men of large affairs. men who have executive ability to a degree, rarely have fine sense of humor or satire. The two things do not go together. Many of us have heard Irwin Cobb, and know what astonishing effects he produces one might say almost by his mere pres ence. If Cobb, indeed, rose to his feet and just looked around without saying Ia word his oratory would be convinc- ing. When he speaks, however, he gives you a full meal with every sen tence. He is so homely that the humor he exudes is quite beyond his vocabu- lary. l sat next to him once al ban quet when Arnold Bennett was on the side. Cobb said of Bennett that in spite of the fact that he didn't eat, didn't smoke and didn't talk he was a h-u of a good fellow. Bennett was asked to speak upon this occasion and at first flatly refused even to get up. The persistence of the crowd was, how eyer too much for him, and he finally rose merely to say that he never spoke and didn't intend to, but he was glad to be there. In spite of his rather English manner he is, however. quite human, and confessed to me that he could not bear the presence of anybody else when he was writing. Once he hired stenographer in a nemergency to take dictation that had been ordered by his publishers in a hurry He se- cured the most expert lady he could, he said, and prepared his notes before hand But when she came and he tried to talk to her, he said her awful pres ence seemed to fill the whole room; he could do nothing and had to request her to leave.
 stephen Leacock, whose fame as humorist is even greater than his mo- toriety as professor of political econ- omy in a Canadian college, is ora tor of no mean parts. The other day I heard him discourse on whiskers. It was evident that his discourse was pre- pared ana that ne ndd IL perIecty under control. A quite finished per rfomance, but one could not help but wonder how MT. Leacock would come cut if left to his own resources. I inn agine he would come out quite well. as ghe is very forceful person, with ap- parently no embarrassment. Perhaps of all casual seekers. however, the most delightful sense of humor is conveyed by Charles Dana Gibson, who makes +f. ly the talk with him--a remarkable gift of thinking aloud. all this is born of genuine humor and comradeship.
 One thing is certain we cannot di vide MT. Bryan up into sections and have him deliver all the campaign speeches that are to be made this year. There would probably be enough of him to go round, and as for the va riety of views to be expressed, if Mir. Bryan were united with Ole Hanson and Hiram Johnson and Elihu Root, out of the combination enough variety of oratory could doubtless be obtained to satisfy every requirement.
 But it does seem a pity that if the enc hundred worst orators are to be let loose upon us something cannot now be done about it in advance. It is enc thing to listen to the issues of the day, most of which we are all too fa- miliar with, and another thing to be bored to death. So long as we have to listen to campaign speeches for the next six months or so. why not have q national censor appointed and get the thing right?
 At bottom. the American people want to be amused and interested. They do not want to be bored. The only gov ernment that can stand is that which interests the greatest number. We should remember that our government
 is competing in popular interest with baseball and the movies Therefore, the campaign orators who talk il up ought to provide enough amusement to make it worth while.