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CHAPTER VI.
How to Make Speeches That Will Have Effect

Table of Contents

By Elmer E. Rogers, Member of the Chicago Bar

The general public is quite wrong in its estimate of the requirements for a career in successful oratory. On the discovery of oratorical talent, or having decided to make an orator of yourself, commence excavating for a good foundation. I endorse elocutionary training. The most eminent orators and actors stimulate their emotional nature by daily drill in vocal exercises. A good practice is the repeating of the alphabet and its various sounds in different tones, pitch and force. Constant practice clears and strengthens the vocal powers, as observed in newsboys, train callers and auctioneers. Disguise yourself and be a newsboy for a few days. Great actors and orators drill days and weeks on single words and sentences. The voice is susceptible of achieving marvelous results. In the voice is much of the orator’s power.

Gesture the Universal Language

Gesture is the only universal language; combined with the language of countenance, it is understood by the entire world, for it is the language of nature. Prepare a few sentences with appropriate gestures. To thrill an audience you must arrange sentences and accompanying gestures so that both at the same time shall reach the climax in your eloquence.

On stepping to the front of the platform have a full breath as you greet your audience; surely never meet it with all your batteries run out. Physical attitude induces psychic conditions; and being a sort of dynamic battery, a strong, vigorous appearance is a valuable asset in the successful orator. You are to exercise strong willpower and to keep in electrical sympathy with your audience.

Some Speakers’ “Don’ts and Dos”

Do not forget that public speaking is good conversation; don’t yell, and, therefore, talk over the heads of your auditors; do not talk at them, but to them. When practicable, a good idea is to scan the faces of your hearers, beginning at the front on your left and proceeding from left to right, back and forth, until you have observed the occupant of the last seat on your right in the rear of your audience. I have often thought that with developed oratorical talent and literary skill, what a magnificent orator would be a world’s champion prize fighter.

To drink water during a speech is one sign of the inexperienced speaker. Once in a plea for the life of a human being I talked for three hours (to the disinterested audience it must have seemed like six hours), and I never partook of a sup of water during the speech. Water taken while speaking irritates the throat. For relieving hoarseness take a crumb of muriate of ammonia.

It is easier to talk to a large audience than to a small one. Tact and resourcefulness are gained by speaking on different topics and before audiences of varying sizes. Speeches are of many kinds, and each, like an essay, aims for the accomplishment of a particular object. “Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.”

The most difficult of all oratory is the campaign political speech, and he on whom the politicians agree as a first-class “spellbinder” may by preparation put up a good speech on any topic.

Outdoor speaking is perplexing, as in the attempt to reach all hearers the speaker is liable to pitch his voice too high, which then does not carry so well as a more natural tone. If convenient speak toward the noise or music.

Brevity a Winning Quality

The less a speaker knows the longer it takes him to say it; therefore, cut your speeches short. Cicero says “brevity is a great praise of eloquence.” The audience frequently believes it is doing the speaker an inestimable favor by “sitting down there” and spending its precious time, and all for the purpose of giving the “speaker” a chance, at its expense, to make (or lose?) a “reputation.” Some audiences ought to be paid for their time.

Where a meeting is to be addressed by several speakers arrange the program so as to avoid overlapping one another’s time. Th~ audience surely would vote the president, or chairman, a success. I have observed when it was not half so insulting to tell the speaker to “sit down” as it was insulting to his audience to grin and bear the speaker’s prolix harangue.

Many “Big” Men Poor Orators

Because a man has distinguished himself in business or in politics is no sign that he is able to make a speech. I have seen a most prominent business man of one of our largest cities, a candidate for high political office, become so confused in a speech before a large audience—he was reading it, too—that he actually danced around on the platform in his appeal for votes, and, unable to endure the merriment of the audience any longer, he quit, sat down, and put on his hat in the house, which, to his audience, was the most amusing incident in his whole speech, and the only part the audience remembered.

If, inexperienced, you may hire some one to write your addresses for you. Many noted people do so, either from want of literary skill or the time to do it themselves. I recall a one time governor who paid $75 each for his speeches. It is said that Ex-President Roosevelt and Emperor William, of Germany, are among the few who do their own literary work. It is an insult to an audience to be obliged to listen to a “speech” being read. The true orator scarcely will do so.

Public Speaking a Profession

Public speaking is a profession. Animal food promotes eloquence, and the orator ought to have a good sleep just before his appearance to speak. No one except a political candidate is obliged to shake hands and accept hospitality, so avoid this physical drain before speaking.

The orator of to-day must be a student, reader, thinker and writer; in olden times the orator was a disseminator of knowledge, but now the public itself is quite well informed. The best speeches and orations of all ages are the result of toil. True, the man, the time, and the occasion contributed much toward the orator’s success. The budding orator is urged to study the speeches and the ways and manner of the best and most distinguished speakers and orators.

Constantly gather material for your speeches. Read, think, write; learn all you can, but tell your wisdom not in private conversation, but to audiences. Stories, if not quite original, when used in a speech, are liable to be ineffective. Practice until you are able to make a speech perfected in architectural beauty. Toil will accomplish miracles in the consummate orator. A great advantage is that the graceful, vigorous diction of the finished orator becomes of inestimable service in any other line of literary endeavor. Oratory is a book, essay, or speech concentrated in a few great thoughts clothed in simple language.

Oratory Superior to Professions

Oratory is superior to the learned professions as represented exclusively in law, medicine and theology, for oratory is the pure diamond of thought gleaned from the wisdom of these professions. What theology, law, or medicine could have exercised the charm and swayed the people of our revolutionary times as did that crystallized expression from the eloquent lips of Orator Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

For healthy development the orator needs the thrill of an audience, and audiences are inspired by the magnetic thrill from the genuine orator.

I close with one thought from Cicero: “It is glorious to excel men in that which men excel all other animals.”