Mr. G. H. Reid on Public Speaking,

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 119, 15 November 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

Mr. G. H. Reid on Public Speaking,

The Melbourne Argus has interviewed Mr. G. H. Iteid, the well-known Australian politician, op the subject of public speaking. "At the age of 15," Mr. Reid says, "I joined a debating society, of which I was by a good deal tlie youngest member, the ages of the others ranging up to 50, perhaps. Probably many of the members re-ssiit-ed a boy of my years offering opinions upon any subject, and that first six months wus a cruel expei-ience. A youth With anything in him has nearly always a secret beliet that hvs is going to become a great man, and many of them who have the natural capacity are discouraged at the outset by the fact that their pluck ia not equal to their ambition. The nerves are severely tried, and to survive those earlier shocks of the debating society, the youth needs persistence, or some such quality — call it hide if you wish. He must have Che capacity to realise his own. failure, to feel a smite, to know humiliation, and to keep on trying in spite of it. "My first attempt at something more ambitious than merely taking a weak part in an abstract discussion was to open a debate on one of the stock subjects of debating societies, 'Is the Pen Mightier tb.au the SworS?' All my ideas on tha subject were yet so utterly crude, that I could conceive no better plan than carefully reading up the biographies of some six great writers, getting an immense number of facts, and few impressions, and trying to use as many of them as possible. At the end of half an hour, I had only dealt with two of the six. Then some one rose to order, pointed out with, what seemed to me malicious candour that I had utterly misconceived the task, and that on the lines I had adopted the debale was likely to last three mouths. I went, no further — it was a complete and humiliating breakdown. It is just the inability to Survive those first shocks that prevents so many from finding out whether they are fitted to be public speakers.. To a youth who has reached that stage, realised it, suffered it, my advice would be, never take part in a debate or a discussion unless he knows exactly what he is going jo say, and not to attempt to say too much. He should read up liiß subject, carefully select with what judgment he possesses a, few points, write them out, and learn them. It is absolutely fatal for him to rjse to speak:, trusting to the inspiration of the moment — for inspiration conies only with experience. After many snubs, and many failures, there comes the day when the worm begins to turn, and the novice has reached the second stage in his experiment. He tastes for the first time the pleasure of intellectual conflict, and his own earlier experiences will not prevent him being equally merciless to i-o beginner who has gone astray. "A common mistake with young speakers is to stay too long in a debating society. Their chief defect is, I think, a tendency to chop logic, and there is a danger of one's being content with the championship of mediocrity. A young speaker should take every opportunity of hearing good plays and good preachers. I think the pulpit is absolutely the best educational influence a young speaker can have,' apart altogether from what his religious impulses may be. I remember that I used to take the very keenest delight in hearing my father preach, and, judging him as I think I can now without bias, he was a very fine preacher. The tone of the pulpit is invariably lofty, earnest, and sincere, and those are the best aspirations a young speaker can have. If he has in him the qualities of a public speaker, inspiration will come, not with conventional, but the higher subjects patriotism, public duty, and humanity. •"It is as yet only an experiment, and' the second stage consists mainly in discarding methods that were essential to success in the beginning. The first overpowering sense of nervousness has worn off, and the speaker has acquired one or two degrees of confidence.' He is confident from experience that if he really; has something to say -he will' be able to say it, or he is so confident in his powers as a speaker that he dpes not trouble much about what he intends to say, which is the surest way to develop into an insufferable bore. Shorthand writers, I understand, have to study and practise many forms and outlines which, are never used by an expert stenographer, but are absolutely necessary to the foundation of the system. So the young speaker who has- been accustomed to wriU and learn his speeches reaches tlie stage where the selection and grouping of ideas takes place in the mind only. The better plan then is to think ouj.the various phases of the, subject, working along perhaps six different trains of thought. The advantage is that, though some may be forgotten, two or three will be remembered, and will be sufficient to secure one from absolute failure. An audience will sympathise with the speaker who fails in the effort to say something which he has obviously considered, but experiences the keenest satisfaction in the downfall of the man who has talked a great deal in the effort to find something to say, and lias forgotten to equip himself with an intellectual' search warrant. At that stage, too, conies imagination — a fine quality iv a public speaker ; not the imagination that distorts, but the imagination that clothes matters of common knowledge with a style and expression that gives them al< most the appearance of originality. Nc thought was ever fully elaborated — tc every mind it has its variations, and hers the speaker's imagination aids him. ButJ too freely exercised it becomes a dangerous quality, and, like that false con» fidence 1 have mentioned, if given a free rein it will lead the speaker into many pitfalls. Imagination is a quality which helps a speaker tc illuminate, to illustrate his theme, but it should never be permitted to take him too far away from it, to wander in the pleasant but perilous fields of impulsive speculation, .the happj blending of fact and imagination is to my mind the art of the ideal public speaker. How often it happens that a man who knows his subject thoroughly, and is brimful of facts, becomes tiresome; while another with a tenth of the absolute knowledge, but the imaginative faculty, maker, a fine impression. The one is a speaker, the other a phonograph. That to my mind completes the second stage in the test as to whether a man is fitted to be a public speaker. It may not make him a speaker, but if he has discernment and any faculty of selfanalysis he will know whether it is waste of time or not to go further with tho experiment. Without such training it is impossible, I think, either for the individual himself or his friends to decide whether he has the qualities wliich makea speaker. A difficulty of expression at the outset or a fatal facility for words are neither of them necessarily a drawback — the one may be stimulated, the other restrained. "The preparation of a successful athlete is an exact analogy. No one is born a great oarsman. He is first taught to row, then' he is trained to gel fit to row. If he is put into the boat untwined all his natural capacity and acquired know-

ledge goes for little, but if he be thoroughly taught first and thoroughly trained afterwords, and still fails, he can take it for granted that he will not make an oarsman. It is exactly the same on the platform — a public speaker, until he has applied such tests as I hav"e described. Lacking them hundreds who. might' have been great -speakers never appeared on a platform.",-,' as 'to the qualities which • aie of most service to a speaker who, trained himself as described, has 'entered public life, Mr. Reid considers that the first is to 'gauge the. feeling .of - his audience.- "I have repeatedly planned ,an address on definite lines," he explained; "then some subtle intuition tells me almost at -the outset that the plan is 'faulty, and X have discarded the whole ithing on the instant, and trusted' largely t6 the inspiration of the 'moment, or an Adaptation of my ideas to what I have conceived' to be- the ione of the meeting to 'carry* me through.' --To". have persisted on the original lines would have been stupidity, iteven though I might have gob the meeting with me in the end." Humour is, I thinks absolutely essential to success in public \life, and for this reason: A great public audience represents-; many degrees of mental capacity. To urge a point on 'the highest plane of reasoning and cold logic would be to appeal 1 " to a minority, .-but every one likes a laugh, every one .appreciates a joke, and a meeting pleased is a meeting half convinced. In the same way I. put great value on an illustrative.; anecdote if it be unmistakably apt-^though a defect in logical reasoning -may be more manifest to the few than a defect in the application of the anecdote is to the .many. Still, one shouldn't have to point out the application. Absolutely the best form of anecdote is one"-, where your audience imagine they see the whole point before it actually occurs, and are then fairly caught with an unexpected climax. A double-barrell-ed story, in a sense, with the second and unexpected charge^ hitting hardest.". „ , It is generally said, Mr. Reid, that you like -interjections — that they help rather than,; .hinder you? Is that really. the case? ''-' .*•■■' , •■• ,'• "1 >» "Yes, I would far rather have mter- ' jections.from a hostile meeting than one absolutely apathetic. Absolute i silence disconcerts a speaker, makes him doubt his own effectiveness for the moment, prevents him gauging the exact ,"tone_ of the meeting. An apathetic audience should be treated as -a hostile .audience. If the speaker is a man of Tepitt'e the audience' like to see him disconcerted by an interjection, but if the retort- is more effective, than the 'interjection;, it' catches the sympathy of the audience wonderfully, while to ignore a pointed interjection, or pretend not to hear ifc, -is generally accepted as' a. sign of weakness. .Even, where the speaker /may be in high .favour with the audience, they secretly 'enjoy a -clever interjection, and 'doubly enjoy the retort if it be' effective. The capacity is one 'which comes only with long experience, --though, , course, .much < depends upofr-the mind of the- speaker- and his capacity to grasp the situation, , quickly. 'Without' a sense of. , humour, ' however, neither readiness nor experience ,can help him in ordinary platform work." fWhat is your plan, with an absolutely hostile meeting? - ' : • , "Not to cajole or coax it— and, above all, not to jump too hastily ,to" the con■(jlusion that you will -have to fight it from the outset. A too early- challenge 'to mortal combat is" a mistake." Yon are one —^the meeting many — and numbers ' tell in -wit -and wisdom as well as,in t weight.' The" better" plan ' is to begin i&oderaetly to take those points which appeal to the average man's sense of .justice, foi v the preponderating 'spirit of any meeting is that, of fair play. Get them to listen first by advancing propositions' which ate not absolutely stale, yet manifestly just. Having induced them -to .listen, make .them laugh ifi'you can. and before long- you may hammer* away 'at' 1 therturds you ' please." ." v? 'What do you 1 regard as^ your 'greatest triumph in that way? ' • , "A" meeting I addressed in Sydney, in 1891, during -the' federal 'campaign. " I had taken a line which was not acceptable to the majority, and stood almost alone, with' many leading'' public men on the other ' side. The meeting was in East Sydney, where, for years, I had always been either first or second on the poll in a four-seat constituency. I had to speak from the hustings, with. my voice already gone, and" to reach- 10,000 hostile peopfe in the open air. At the first effort my voice" cracked, and there was a roar of laughter, but I stuck to it under- extraordinary . disadvantages, got the meeting right round; and > nearly every hand of the teri thousand went up in my favour at tke finish. Had the poll been taken then I should have been at the head of it easily— four days later, when the impression had Avorn off, I -was only fourth. I take that night's address" to be the best bit of work I ever did upon a public platform."