V. ANNIVERSARY SPEECHES

Anniversary speeches are much like dedication speeches, but they, in a sense, look backward rather than forward. They are delivered on birthdays or other anniversaries of men or institutions. Here, as in all other commemorative types, the speaker must consider himself something of a spokesman for those to whom the occasion belongs. He must avoid all business, professional, partisan, and personal ends, and must serve the particular occasion in a way wholly in keeping with the history and purpose of the subject being celebrated. The speakers of the great anniversary occasions, particularly the anniversaries of great institutions which are looking forward to many other great anniversaries, are, in a sense, speaking not simply to the men of the present day, but to all men of the future who may be interested in the institution. Such speeches as those given at the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of a college, will be preserved in the archives of the college and will probably be read and reread on all of the great anniversaries. The speaker on such an occasion is speaking for all of the past and speaking to all of the future. Something in keeping with this conception, which is quite inconsistent with the discussion of the personal and factional problems of the immediate present, should govern the great anniversary speeches.

EXERCISES

1. Write a 300-word speech of personal tribute on one of the following, to be read aloud in class for class discussion:

(a) Some well-known resident of your community, who has recently died.

(b) The first president of your college, at a celebration of his birthday anniversary

(c) The best athlete in the history of the college, at an athletic

celebration

(d) The dramatic coach, at a dinner after a school play

(e) The leading political figure in your community, at a dinner in his honor.

2. Write out and memorize for speaking in class a single paragraph of not less than 100 words on one of the following. Choose an occasion on which a brief tribute would be appropriate.

NOTE: Let the class prepare similar lists for this exercise on:

(a) Living authors

(b) American statesmen

(c) Present day American political leaders

(d) American inventors.

3. Prepare a 500-word speech to be read to the class, appropriate to a birthday celebration of one of the following. Emphasize one or two traits or qualities that should be of interest or significance to your audience and which you strongly admire.

4. Bring to class one of the following. Be prepared to read it aloud and then tell the class in what respects you think it very good, and in what respects you think it might be improved.

(a) A speech of personal tribute from some collection of public speeches

(b) A speech of personal tribute printed in a newspaper account of some public meeting.

5. Prepare in outline form to fit a specific situation, which is carefully explained in a prefatory note, a speech to be delivered at the dedication of one of the following:

(a) A public library in your home town

(b) A new building on your college campus
(c) A church

(d) A hospital

(e) A monument of some hero of the World War.

6. Deliver in class a ten-minute speech based on the work done

for Exercise 5.

7. Repeat Exercise 4 for an anniversary speech on one of the following occasions:

(a) Memorial Day

(b) Fourth of July

(c) Lincoln's Birthday

(d) Washington's Birthday

(e) Anniversary of the Founding of your College

(f) Anniversary of the Founding of your home town.

8. Repeat Exercise 6 on the work prepared for Exercise 7.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References to the following books are made in the footnotes in this text:

Ainger, Alfred, Lectures and Essays, Vol. II, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1905.

Allport, F. H., Social Psychology, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924.

Aristotle, Rhetoric, translated R. Roberts, Oxford University Press, 1924.

Bainbridge, F. A., and Menzies, J. A., Essentials of Physiology, New York, Longmans, Green and Company, 1920.

Baker, G. P., and Huntington, H. B., Principles of Argumentation, New Edition, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1925.

Bassett, L. E., A Handbook of Oral Reading, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917.

Borden, R. C., and Busse, A. C., Speech Correction, New York, F. S. Crofts and Company, 1925.

Cannon, W. B., Bodily Changes in Pain, Fear, Rage, and Hunger, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1915.

Cicero, Oratory and Orators, translated by J. S. Watson, George Bell and Sons, London, 1909.

Clapp, J. M., Talking Business, New York, The Ronald Press, 1920.

Clark, S. H., The Interpretation of the Printed Page, Chicago, Row, Peterson and Company, 1915.

Corson, Hiram, The Voice and Spiritual Education, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1897.

Daggett, W. P., The Spoken Word, New York, Longmans, Green and Company, 1924.

Darwin, Charles, The Descent of Man, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1922.

Drummond and Others, Speech Training and Public Speaking for Secondary Schools, New York, The Century Company, 1925. Gardiner, J. H., Forms of Prose Discourse, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912.