Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-25

a live subject. Speech clubs are
formed, lectures given. Schools,
welfare centers, and Women's CLUBS
r arranging courses in speaking.
The association is trying to show
that language is most useful when
It is used correctly. A person may
be able to get through life with
slipshod speech and a nasal twang.
He a undoubtedly make himself
understood without bothering to
modulate his voice and pronounce
words distinctly. But in encounters
with other human beings a pleasing
voice is an asset having a dollars
and cents valuation.
Good Speech Pays
Actors and public speakers have
always studied to make their voices
flexible and resonant because they
could not help seeing the direct con-
nection between their voices and the
effectiveness of their work. More
recently persons engaged in other
lines of activity have discovered a
relationship between pleasing speech
and a pay envelope. Travelling
statesmen, agents. and individuals
who use the telephone for business
r coming to realize that their
voices as much as tehir words make
an impression on the other person.
Business firms, too, are noticing
the effect of their employees voices
on customers. Telephone operators
r taught to speak in certain tones
so that they can be heard distinctly.
A carrying voice is more a matter
of resonance than of volume. Tele-
phone girls learn to lower their
voices so that there is no confusion
of sound even in a large exchange.
A few stores have taken up the
idea of teaching clerks to speak in a
distinct tone and with a pleasing
manner. One large department
store in New York city recently be-
gan to give its employees lessons in
the speaking voice. At first the
management arranged the course af-
ter working hours, but the lessons
are now being given in store time.
This is pointed out by the speech
association as significant because
a business organization of this sort
would not allow time put of the
working day for employees to study
If it were not regarded as a prac-
teal investment.
The usefulness of correct speech
is we'll demonstrated, and it is
equally apparent that Americans do
not speak well. The average Am
erican is not altogether responsible,
however, for his careless and reck-
less method of expressing himself
Few people have n opportunity to
improve their speech except through
initiating desirable qualities in the
voices they hear.
The speech association holds that
children should be taught Il talk
correctly at school; that training in
elocution and dramatics is not train
ing in everyday speaking. The child
who can recite 1.-THE Village Black
smith" with all the necessary dra-
matte effects may whine or swallow
his words in ordinary conversation
The final point that Miss Per
kins stresses is that almost every
body has a vague feeling that he
would like to play or sing we'll
Comparatively few people possess
real talent for playing the violin OF
for singing. But the speaking voice
is an instrument which every one
has at his command. In most of us
the apparatus is in sufficiently good
condition to produce music, and the
results are mor a question of per-
severance and practice than of spe-
cial ability. 1t only rests with the
individual whether he will use his
instrument like a master musician
or like a bungling amateur.