Evening star., 1942-01-22
BY FRANCIS DE SALES RYAN.


Five years ago Tuesday, on
January 20. 1887. President Roose-
welt delivered the greatest speech
of his presidential career to date,
according to a jury of speech spe-
cialists of2national reputation.
1t was Mr.. Roosevelt's famous
second inaugural address, in which
he galvanized society into action by
his graphic description Of vision
in which he could see "one- third of
a Nation iu-housed, ill-clad, ILL
nourished."
Immediately after President
Roosevelt's historic war address be-
fore Congress, the day following the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I
sent a questionnaire to group of
SO oratorical authorities asking them
to consider all the Roosevelt ad-
dresses, from his acceptance speech
IN 1882 to the stately address at
the Capitol on December 8. 1941,
and to state which one they con-
sidered the greatest, judged accord
ing to the generally accepted stand
ards of oratory. The results Of this
QUESTIONABLE will be presented in
book I am now writing.
They we're asked to consider all
these addresses with regard to
speech architecture" rhetoric, die
ton, climax, dramatic interest and
popular appeal.
Authoritative Judges Asked.
The 9,thorities Included speech
instructSrs at Geofgetown,s Notre
Dame, columbia, Amherst, Vassar,
Yale, Harvard and Princeton Uni
versities, and the Universities Of
Wisconsin, Michigan, California and
Virginia. 1t included also members
of the Senate and House Of Repre-
sentatives, of the National Council
of Teachers of Speech, Of the
Speech League of America, and Of
q group of ardent New Deal editors
who had written from time to time
about President Roosevelt's elo-
Quence.
BY a majority of eight votes the
position of pre-eminence among all
of Mr.. Roosevelt's mastery presi-
Dental orations was awarded by the
experts to the famous Roosevelt
second inaugural address.
A particularly and surprisingly
strong vote for the second inaugural
was cast by the university speech
instructors, who variously described
it as a masterpiece Of architectural
construction, eloquence and rhetor-
ical excellence. Declaring that 1t
is the speech which perhaps more
than other by Roosevelt has set
the ke yfor American thinking" DR..
Dwight Everett Watkins, associate
professor Of public speaking at the
University of California, said:
Its famous phrase ill-housed,
ill-clad, iu-nourished' has made a
more enduring impression than any
other statement of the same fact,
although the fact itself was known
long before Roosevelt so strikingly
stated 1t.
Masterpiece Of Oratory.
"An the cabins of the South, all
the tenements of the great city, all
the dilapidated farmhouses, were
compressed into the one word, ILL
housed All poor beggars, trembling
old men and women, shivering chill
dren, were pictured in fll-clad.' All
the hollow eyes, sunken cheeks, frail
bodies, were depicted by fll-nour-
ished.' 1t is small wonder that the
phrase caught on and furnished the
country with battle cry for further
achievement. . It stands as q
masterpiece Of American oratory."
At Robson University, Los An
geles, DR.. Joseph E. Hawn, head OF
the department of speech, said re-
cordings of Roosevelt's second in
augural address, made as the ad-
dress was actually being delivered
by the President at the Capitol, are
still being used for the training OF
young speakers, not only in speech
composition but also in forceful and
effective delivery.
He claims that in this one selee-
ton the students will hear all the
elements Of oratory, all the points
of skill acquired and used by public
speaker, and all the art there is in