ry person can experience or see all he is interested in and wants
to talk about. We must choose presidents but we cannot observe the
candidates themselves and their careers. We must have opinions about
the League of Nations, the Mexican situation, the radical labor
movements, the changing taxes, but we cannot observe all phases of
these absorbing topics. If we restrict speeches to only what we can
observe we shall all be uttering merely trivial personalities based
upon no general knowledge and related to none of the really important
things in the universe.

Nor is it always true that the person who does a thing can report it
clearly and accurately. Ask a woman or girl how she hemstitches a
handkerchief, or a boy how he swims or throws a curve, and note the
involved and inaccurate accounts. If you doubt this, explain one of
these to the class. It is not easy to describe exactly what one has
seen, mainly because people do not see accurately. People usually see
what they want to see, what they are predisposed to see. Witnesses in
court, testifying upon oath concerning an accident, usually produce as
many different versions as there are pairs of eyes. Books upon
psychology report many enlightening and amusing cases of this defect
of accurate observation in people.[1]

The two negative aspects of material secured in this first manner--1,
limited range of observation, 2, inaccuracy of observation--placed
beside the advantages already listed will clearly indicate in what
subjects and circumstances this method should be relied upon for
securing material for speeches.

[Footnote 1: Good cases are related by Swift, E.J.: _Psychology and
the Day's Work_.]

EXERCISES

1. Make a list of recent articles based upon observation which you
have seen or read in newspapers and magazines.

2. With what kind of material does each deal?

3. Which article is best? Why?

4. List four topics upon which your observation has given you
material which could be used in a speech.

5. What kind of speech? A speech for what purpose?

6. Consider and weigh the value of your material.

7. Why is it good?

8. What limits, or drawbacks has it?

9. What could be said against it from the other side?

Interview. If a person cannot himself experience or observe all he
wants to use for material his first impulse will be to interview
people who have had experience themselves. In this circumstance the
speaker becomes the reporter of details of