CHAPTER XXVIII CAMPAIGN SPEECHES I. DEFINITIONS II. THE OBJECTIVE IN CAMPAIGN SPEECHES III. PUBLIC COMMITTAL BY AUDIENCE IV. MAKING THE SPEECH FIT THE AUDIENCE I. DEFINITIONS The campaign speech1 is one type of deliberative speech. Deliberative speeches are, as the name implies, speeches given before groups that are deliberating in regard to future policies. Deliberative speeches are of two kinds, depending upon the organization of the group to which the speech is delivered: legislative speeches and campaign speeches. Legislative speeches are speeches that are delivered to definitely organized legislative bodies, such as the United States Senate or House of Representatives, the State legislature, a city council, a college faculty meeting, the board of directors of a corporation, or a college class meeting for the purpose of transacting business. In fact, legislative speeches are those given in any meeting in which those present have membership standing, in which only certain people are privileged to participate, or which is operating under the rules of parliamentary procedure. Such bodies are really legislatures, and speeches delivered to such meetings for the purpose of getting action in regard to what should or should not be done, are legislative speeches. It seems unnecessary here to devote time to the legislative speech as a type, especially in view of 1 See J. M. O'Neill's Models of Speech Composition, and Modern Short Speeches. the treatment of Discussion in Chapter XXIII and Debate in Chapter XXIV. The campaign speech is a better type for the work of beginners. The campaign speech differs from the legislative in that it is given to a general audience rather than to the members of a formal organization. The general audience listening to the campaign speech are not subject to rules and regulations of parliamentary procedure; nor do they enjoy personal privileges of one kind or another, such as are to be found in legislative assemblies. Of course, legislative and campaign speeches are much alike. It is even possible for a man to deliver the same speech in the United States Senate and before a general meeting of citizens, and yet even so the situation is not precisely the same. In the Senate the speaker has certain privileges and immunities which he does not have before the general audience. In the Senate also he may be subject to interruptions, questions of privilege from other members, decisions of the house in regard to the order of business which will interfere with his speech. In the campaign speech he is without parliamentary restrictions and privileges. By "campaign" is not meant, of course, merely political campaign. The following all call for campaign speaking: propaganda speeches before general audiences in favor of prohibition enforcement or the repeal of the eighteenth amendment; the raising of funds for any cause; the promotion of a movement to secure a new national reservation; tuberculosis prevention; and, in fact, any speech outside a definitely organized assembly, the purpose of which is to influence the belief or action of the audience in regard to future policies. II. THE OBJECTIVE IN CAMPAIGN SPEECHES In campaign speeches the speaker is, or should be, working for a very specific overt act on the part of his hearers. The circumstances are such, of course, that sound analysis and definite aim are not enforced upon the speaker, but if the speech is to be worth while, he must enforce them upon himself. In legislative speeches, all this is perfectly provided for by the motion before the house to which the speaker must confine his remarks, and which will be publicly voted on. The campaign speaker, who wishes to make his speech count, must similarly aim at some specific, overt act on the part of his hearers. III. PUBLIC COMMITTAL BY AUDIENCE The campaign speaker should always make the most of the fact that his audience expect him to be working for a very definite purpose. Vagueness, indefiniteness, lack of point toward which the whole speech shall move, is the greatest offense of which the campaign speaker can be guilty. He should see to it that the enthusiasm which he arouses is utilized by being connected with a very exact purpose. The campaign speaker should realize that once members of an audience have publicly committed themselves by some overt act to a given program, they are much more vitally enlisted in his cause than they would be without the overt act. A speaker who sends his audience away from his meeting without having done anything definite, but simply saying to themselves: "That ought to be done," "We ought to push this thing," "He is exactly right in the position he has taken," is not accomplishing nearly so much for his cause as he would be accomplishing had he induced them to do something open and definite in accordance with their decision. It is always well to get the members of the audience to vote publicly by rising, or to get them to divide (leave their seats and group themselves, all those voting in the affirmative on the right, and those voting in the negative on the left). To have them sign a petition which is passed among them at the close of the speech, or to sign a subscription list and pledge themselves to pay a certain amount of money to further the cause, to drop some money in the basket at the close of the meeting, will help them to hold to the decision of the moment. When a speaker has induced an audience to do any of these things he has gained supporters who are much more likely to remain supporters and do something active and effective for his cause, than if he had worked them up even to greater pitches of enthusiasm and then had dismissed them without having utilized that enthusiasm in definite, overt action. This is so universally true that the campaign speaker should always ask himself in preparing his speech, in phrasing his statement of aim, whether he can connect his aim with some easy, simple, appropriate, overt act on the part of members of his audience. IV. MAKING THE SPEECH FIT THE AUDIENCE In any kind of speaking it is necessary to give most careful consideration to the character of the audience and its relation to the subject and also to the speaker. A campaign speech that does not fit the audience to which it is delivered might as well not be delivered. In many cases, the audience in the campaign situation is not in any sense a selected audience. It is not gathered together on any definite basis of membership; it may be a very heterogeneous audience; an uneducated audience; an audience not trained in thinking or in comprehending the meaning of language, spoken or written. The speaker should try to know to what extent any of these things are true of his particular audience. And he should remember that here, as elsewhere (here, perhaps more than elsewhere), he must speak to his audience in their language and not merely in his. In other words, it is only in so far as he can find a language in common with his audience, that he can make an effective speech to them. He may talk to them in a language which they cannot understand, so as to make them feel that he is a very learned man or a marvelous orator, but he cannot talk to them in a language which they do not understand and make them feel ready to vote, or give, or fight, or die, for his cause. EXERCISES 1. Prepare in outline form a campaign speech on some campus topic. After these outlines have been criticized by members of the class and instructor, use them for the basis of Exercise 2. 2. Give an eight-minute campaign speech on a campus topic. 3. Deliver to the class a ten-minute campaign speech on the proper solution of the political problem in which you are most interested. 4. Prepare carefully in outline form to meet a specific situation, which you elaborately set forth in an introductory note, a campaign speech on some specific topic drawn from one of the following fields: (a) Fraternal organizations (b) Public health (c) Education (d) International relations. 5. After improving the outline used in Exercise 4 as much as you can in the light of the criticism you have received upon it, deliver in class an eight-minute campaign speech on that topic. 6. Deliver an eight-minute campaign speech on a clearly phrased proposition on some phase of one of the following: Proportional representation Monroe Doctrine Single tax Evolution Canadian reciprocity Military training Farm relief Prohibition Co-education The World Court Free trade Muscle Shoals The elective system |