'ere you find
them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search."

But the man who has ideas and can best express them is a leader
everywhere. He does the organizing, he makes and imparts the plans, he
carries his own theories and beliefs into execution, he is the
intrusted agent, the advanced executive. He can act for himself. He
can influence others to significant and purposeful action. The
advantages that come to men who can think upon their feet, who can
express extempore a carefully considered proposition, who can adapt
their conversation or arguments to every changing condition, cannot be
emphasized too strongly.

Speech an Acquired Ability. We frequently regard and discuss speech as
a perfectly natural attribute of all human beings. In some sense it
is. Yet an American child left to the care of deaf-mutes, never
hearing the speech of his own kind, would not develop into a speaker
of the native language of his parents. He doubtless would be able to
imitate every natural sound he might hear. He could reproduce the cry
or utterance of every animal or bird he had ever heard. But he would
no more speak English naturally than he would Arabic. In this sense,
language is not a natural attribute as is hunger. It is an imitative
accomplishment acquired only after long years of patient practice and
arduous effort. Some people never really attain a facile mastery of
the means of communication. Some mature men and women are no more
advanced in the use of speech than children of ten or fifteen. The
practice is life-long. The effort is unceasing.

A child seems to be as well adapted to learning one language as another.
There may be certain physical formations or powers inherited from a race
which predispose the easier mastery of a language, but even these
handicaps for learning a different tongue can be overcome by imitation,
study, and practice. Any child can be taught an alien tongue through
constant companionship of nurse or governess. The second generation of
immigrants to this country learns our speech even while it may continue
the tongue of the native land. The third generation--if it mix
continuously with speakers of English--relinquishes entirely the
exercise of the mother tongue. The succeeding generation seldom can
speak it, frequently cannot even understand it.

Training to Acquire Speech Ability. The methods by which older persons
may improve their ability to speak are analogous to those just
sug