---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Evans, John Henry
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 17
number: 3
published: 1914-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'John Henry Evans, "The M. I. A. Contests—III," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 3 (January 1914): 218–220.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1703unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1703unse
start_page: 218
end_page: 220
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1703unse
  publication_year: 1914
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The M. I. A. Contests—III

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The M. I. A. Contests
l!Y TOIIX IIKNKY I'.V.WS. OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS UNIVERSITY
/// — Public Speaking.
"Real oratory," said Chaunccy M. Depew, who was himself one oi
America's most graceful speakers, "is one of Heaven's gifts which a
man may well pray for. The gift of speaking — of being able to make
people listen to what you say; of inspiring men with ideals and convincing them of truth — surely than this no more superb work a man
can have. ***** Eloquence is the master element in politics
— the most interesting and absorbing game that human beings play.
It is the universal and beneficial agent of civilization and religion.
At the bar, it is the dependence of the State and the last hope of the
accused. Without its graces, no public celebration is complete. For
it- inspiriting purposes, it places science, statistics, poetry, history,
and art under contribution."
Mr. Depew instances as "perhaps the greatest triumph of a
public speaker in our generation" the addresses of Henry Ward
Beecher in England at the time of our Civil War. At Liverpool
and Manchester, especially, mobs were turned into audiences by
the magic of "the truth, the word, and the man." And Mr.
Depew goes on to say: "'I have heard one of England's greatest
speakers describe his own impressions as a youth in the audience
at Manchester. He said as he entered the hall, he saw a crowd of
people enraged beyond anything he deemed possible, and apparently endeavoring to get at the speaker. It was half an hour before Mr. Beecher could be heard. A hearing was secured by the
leading men of Manchester upon the platform begging an opportunity and protecting the speaker. At the end of five minutes the
passion of the crowd broke out once more, and it was thirty minutes before Mr. Beecher could start again. At the end of two
hours the converted audience had become his enthusiastic admirers, and wanted to carry him about the streets of their city."
A gift such as this is to be accounted among the great natural
forces of the world.
One always has use for the gift of public speaking. Not
only the lawyer, the preacher, and the politician find the talent for
public address an indispensable part of their training, but the man
of affairs who is to be anything higher than his own clerk also

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THE M. I. A. CONTESTS. 219
has many occasions arise in his life when the ability to express
himself before an audience is almost as necessary. Among the
Latter-day Saints the ability to speak in public is at a high
premium. Practically every man in the Church is supposed to be
able to preach, either at home or abroad. Very naturally one is
anxious to do as well as possible what one has to do. Besides,
every young man ought to have an ambition to develop to the
highest his talent in this direction, not only for his own gratification and good but even more for the pleasure and profit of others
in the spread of truth. The ability to preach the gospel effectively
should be among the aims of every young Latter-day Saint.
Can the ability to speak in public be acquired? This is a
question which the young aspirant for the oratorical prize frequently puts to himself. No doubt some have a higher natural
endowment in this respect than others, but that this endowment,
be it little or much, may be cultivated is also beyond question.
"While a really great orator," says Mr. Depew, "is as rare as a
really great artist or poet, yet the art of effective public speaking,
with all its possibilities for individual and general good, is a
natural gift to many men, requiring only practice and self-control
on their part for its development." But how can I tell whether
or not I have this gift? may be asked. The answer is already in
the question : 'By your desire to know whether you have the gift.
For if you did not have in some degree the gift of public speech
the question would not even occur to you. You would not care
whether or not you had it. If you feel that you would like the
gift, the probability is that you already have the gift. And all
that you need to do is to study, to practice, and to exercise selfcontrol.
There are five distinct kinds of public discourse, according
to the end to be reached. They are, the clear address, the impressive address, the moving address, and the entertaining address. If your subject is Faith and you wish merely to explain
it so that your hearer shall understand it, your aim is clearness.
If you wish to arouse his emotions with respect to it, your aim
is impressiveness. If you assert that faith is the first principle
of the gospel and that it is necessary to salvation, your end is
belief — you wish him to agree with you. If you wish him to go
out and advocate faith by reason of a conviction you have helped
to produce in his heart, then your end is action. If you dilate on
the subject in its various human aspects mainly to give pleasure,
your aim is entertainment. If the speaker wishes the hearer to
see, he must be clear ; if to make him feel, he must be impressive ;
if to accept, he must create belief; if to do, he must arouse a
desire to act ; if to enjoy, he must be entertaining.
The end should not be confused with the means employed

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220 IMPROVEMENT ERA
to attain the end. "I talk on 'The Personality of Lincoln,' and
my end is impressiveness, but as the sense in which I use the term
'personality' must be made intelligible, my first step is clearness.
Here clearness is simply a means."
It may be helpful to give here briefly a few general principles
looking to the development of public speaking ability :
In the first place, it is necessary to have a subject. The subject should not be so broad that it cannot be fully treated in the
time allotted — ten or fifteen minutes in contests. The "Character
of Joseph Smith" would cover too much ground. A single aspect
of his character — his manliness, for instance, or his cheerfulness —
would be better. Similarly, the " 'Mormon' Philosophy of Life"
is too broad for a fifteen minute oration. Again, it is doubtful
whether a straight narration of events might properly come under
the title public speaking. Not that narration is out of place in
an address. Narration may indeed be employed, but only as a
means to an end. If incidents are used, they should be tied
together by means of a general thought. For an address or an
oration is really the development of a central idea or general truth.
In the second place, the end to be sought should be deliberately chosen. What is your purpose in speaking on this particular subject? You must decide that before you go on, for the
means you adopt will depend on the end you are to reach. Is
your end impressiveness, belief, action, or entertainment? I have
purposely omitted clearness, for the reason that I do not think it
likely to be profitable as an end in a contest ; but I have as purposely included entertainment because I believe we should lend
more encouragement to the lighter forms of public discourse than
we do. That which so often- passes for wit among us in public
address more frequently resembles the gambol of the elephant
than the graceful bound of the deer.
The subject and the end selected, there comes, in the third
place, the development of the central idea, or theme.. Every discourse, long or short, falls naturally into three parts. There is
the place where you are getting started — the introduction. There
is the place where you are going on — the discussion. And there
is the place where you are finishing — the conclusion. In general,
the principle which governs all these is proportion ; that is, the
law that the introduction and the conclusion should not be longer
than they need to be. Long introductions are the besetting sin of
the beginner — beware of them, and make them short. Think!
Think ! An address should be well and carefully planned. It is
an excellent practice to write an outline of the whole address, setting down the ideas to be included under the three general headings of Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. The purpose
of an introduction is to state your thought, to win the goodwill of