would be employed; also in communicating the more intense degrees of such feelings as anger, scorn, determination, enthusiasm, hilarity, and contempt. It is comparatively easy to know when to use energetic force; the more difficult thing is to acquire the habit of discrimination, physical capacity, proper management of the strong voice, and sure control. Some speakers have no idea of fitness regarding the relation of matter to manner. Many who know better, but have not the habit of discrimination, use energetic force when there is no occasion for it. Others, who have not accustomed the throat muscles to vigorous action, become hoarse after a few sentences; or, if they have strong throats, they may exhaust the tissues by unwisely over-driving their tones, or forcing a large volume of air through the closed throat, and failing to take advantage of the amplifying cavities. Finally, any of these speakers may be unable to control the loud voice, or to shift flexibly from one degree of force to another within the energetic range. It is, indeed, a very common thing to hear a loud speaker pound his words uniformly. Intelligent practice, which strengthens the muscles, cultivates correct management, with resultant good quality in the loud range, and establishes a habit of flexibility, - such practice should be devoted to the following selections. SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICAL APPLICATION OVER THE TOP (King Henry): Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man But when the blast of war blows in our ears, That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; (SHAKESPEARE: King Henry V) JUST CAUSE FOR ANGER (Hotspur): My liege, I did deny no prisoners. And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held He should, or should not; for he made me mad And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman Of guns and drums and wounds, - God save the mark!- Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, Betwixt my love and your high majesty. (SHAKESPEARE: King Henry IV) STANDING BY THE PLEDGE TO PUERTO RICO ... I never will vote to violate the promise General Miles made, or to repudiate the pledge. The Republic cannot afford, in this or any other campaign, to violate that sacred promise. It is written in the blood of our heroes that fought at El Caney, San Juan, and Santiago. It was made in the presence of all Christendom, and it is sealed by the God of battles. The Republic cannot violate that promise made to this weak and helpless people, without sullying its honor and tarnishing its fame. Why, gentlemen here say that we are about to inaugurate a policy of colonial government. I want to ask the gentlemen in this House if they desire to signalize their entry upon a colonial government, in their very first act, by a breach of good faith. Do you remember the history of proud Spain? What is it? What is it that has characterized Spain ever since the sixteenth century, ever since Pizarro rode ruthless and roughshod over Mexico, and the Duke of Alva filled the Netherlands with carnage, blood, butcheries, and indescribable horrors, in his infamous attempt to crush out the very beginning of civil and religious liberty? What is it that has characterized her and made her contemptible before every honorable nation upon the earth? It is her duplicity and her breaches of good faith. (LITTLEFIELD: Our Pledge to Puerto Rico) A PLEA FOR INTERVENTION IN CUBA The time for action has come. No greater reason for it can exist to-morrow than exists to-day. Every hour's delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery and death. Only our power can intervene - the United States of America. Ours is the one great nation of the New World; the mother of American republics. She holds a position of trust and responsibility toward the peoples and the affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere. It was her glorious example which inspired the patriots of Cuba to raise the flag of liberty in her eternal hills. We cannot refuse to accept this responsibility which the God of the Universe has placed upon us as the one great power in the New World. We must act! What shall our action be? Intervention means force; force means war; war means blood. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force? Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation; force beat with naked hands on the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood |