APPENDIX C
SUGGESTIVE SUBJECTS FOR SPEECHES[36]
With Occasional Hints on Treatment
1. Movies and Morals.
2. The Truth About Lying.
The essence of truth-telling and lying. Lies that are not so
considered. The subtleties of distinctions required. Examples of
implied and acted lies.
3. Benefits That Follow Disasters.
Benefits that have arisen out of floods, fires, earthquakes, wars,
4. Haste for Leisure.
How the speed mania is born of a vain desire to enjoy a leisure
that never comes or, on the contrary, how the seeming haste of
the world has given men shorter hours off labor and more time for
rest, study, and pleasure.
5. St. Paul's Message to New York.
Truths from the Epistles pertinent to the great cities of today.
6. Education and Crime.
7. Loss is the Mother of Gain.
How many men have been content until, losing all, they exerted their
best efforts to regain success, and succeeded more largely than
before.
8. Egoism vs. Egotism.
9. Blunders of Young Fogyism.
10. The Waste of Middle-Men in Charity Systems.
The cost of collecting funds for, and administering help to, the
needy. The weakness of organized philanthropy as compared with
the giving that gives itself.
11. The Economy of Organized Charity.
The other side of the picture.
12. Freedom of the Press.
The true forces that hurtfully control too many newspapers are not
those of arbitrary governments but the corrupting influences of
moneyed and political interests, fear of the liquor power, and the
desire to please sensation-loving readers.
13. Helen Keller: Optimist.
14. Back to the Farm.
A study of the reasons underlying the movement.
15. It Was Ever Thus.
In ridicule of the pessimist who is never surprised at seeing failure.
16. The Vocational High School.
Value of direct training compared with the policy of laying broader
foundations for later building. How the two theories work out in
practise. Each plan can be especially applied in cases that seem to
need special treatment.
17. All Kinds of Turning Done Here.
A humorous, yet serious, discussion of the flopping, wind-mill
character.
18. The Egoistic Altruist.
Herbert Spencer's theory as discussed in "The Data of Ethics."
19. How the City Menaces the Nation.
Economic perils in massed population. Show also the other side.
Signs of the problem's being solved.
20. The Robust Note in Modern Poetry.
A comparison of the work of Galsworthy, Masefield and Kipling with
that of some earlier poets.
21. The Ideals of Socialism.
22. The Future of the Small City.
How men are coming to see the economic advantages of smaller
municipalities.
23. Censorship for the Theatre.
Its relation to morals and art. Its difficulties and its benefits.
24. For Such a Time as This.
Mordecai's expression and its application to opportunities in modern
woman's life.
25. Is the Press Venal?
26. Safety First.
27. Menes and Extremes.
28. Rubicons and Pontoons.
How great men not only made momentous decisions but created means
to carry them out. A speech full of historical examples.
29. Economy a Revenue.
30. The Patriotism of Protest Against Popular Idols.
31. Savonarola, The Divine Outcast.
32. The True Politician.
Revert to the original meaning of the word. Build the speech around
one man as the chief example.
33. Colonels and Shells.
Leadership and "cannon fodder"—a protest against war in its effect
on the common people.
34. Why is a Militant?
A dispassionate examination of the claims of the British militant
suffragette.
35. Art and Morals.
The difference between the nude and the naked in art.
36. Can my Country be Wrong?
False patriotism and true, with examples of popularly-hated patriots.
37. Government by Party.
An analysis of our present political system and the movement toward
reform.
38. The Effects of Fiction on History.
39. The Effects of History on Fiction.
40. The Influence of War on Literature.
41. Chinese Gordon.
A eulogy.
42. Taxes and Higher Education.
Should all men be compelled to contribute to the support of
universities and professional schools?
43. Prize Cattle vs. Prize Babies.
Is Eugenics a science? And is it practicable?
44. Benevolent Autocracy.
Is a strongly paternal government better for the masses than a much
larger freedom for the individual?
45. Second-Hand Opinions.
The tendency to swallow reviews instead of forming one's own views.
46. Parentage or Power?
A study of which form of aristocracy must eventually prevail, that
of blood or that of talent.
47. The Blessing of Discontent.
Based on many examples of what has been accomplished by those who
have not "let well-enough alone."
48. "Corrupt and Contented."
A study of the relation of the apathetic voter to vicious government.
49. The Moloch of Child-Labor.
50. Every Man Has a Right to Work.
51. Charity that Fosters Pauperism.
52. "Not in Our Stars but in Ourselves."
Destiny vs. choice.
53. Environment vs. Heredity.
54. The Bravery of Doubt.
Doubt not mere unbelief. True grounds for doubt. What doubt has led
to. Examples. The weakness of mere doubt. The attitude of the
wholesome doubter versus that of the wholesale doubter.
55. The Spirit of Monticello.
A message from the life of Thomas Jefferson.
56. Narrowness in Specialism.
The dangers of specializing without first possessing broad
knowledge. The eye too close to one object. Balance is a vital
prerequisite for specialization.
57. Responsibility of Labor Unions to the Law.
58. The Future of Southern Literature.
What conditions in the history, temperament and environment of our
Southern people indicate a bright literary future.
59. Woman the Hope of Idealism in America.
60. The Value of Debating Clubs.
61. An Army of Thirty Millions.
In praise of the Sunday-school.
62. The Baby.
How the ever-new baby holds mankind in unselfish courses and saves
us all from going lastingly wrong.
63. Lo, the Poor Capitalist.
His trials and problems.
64. Honey and Sting.
A lesson from the bee.
65. Ungrateful Republics.
Examples from history.
66. "Every Man has his Price."
Horace Walpole's cynical remark is not true now, nor was it true
even in his own corrupt era. Of what sort are the men who cannot
be bought? Examples.
67. The Scholar in Diplomacy.
Examples in American life.
68. Locks and Keys.
There is a key for every lock. No difficulty so great, no truth so
obscure, no problem so involved, but that there is a key to fit the
lock. The search for the right key, the struggle to adjust it, the
vigilance to retain it—these are some of the problems of success.
69. Right Makes Might.
70. Rooming With a Ghost.
Influence of the woman graduate of fifty years before on the college
girl who lives in the room once occupied by the distinguished "old grad."
71. No Fact is a Single Fact.
The importance of weighing facts relatively.
72. Is Classical Education Dead to Rise No More?
73. Invective Against Nietsche's Philosophy.
74. Why Have we Bosses?
A fair-minded examination of the uses and abuses of the political
"leader."
75. A Plea for Settlement Work.
76. Credulity vs. Faith.
77. What is Humor?
78. Use and Abuse of the Cartoon.
79. The Pulpit in Politics.
80. Are Colleges Growing too Large?
81. The Doom of Absolutism.
82. Shall Woman Help Keep House for Town, City, State, and Nation?
83. The Educational Test for Suffrage.
84. The Property Test for Suffrage.
85. The Menace of the Plutocrat.
86. The Cost of High Living.
87. The Cost of Conveniences.
88. Waste in American Life.
89. The Effect of the Photoplay on the "Legitimate" Theatre.
90. Room for the Kicker.
100. The Need for Trained Diplomats.
101. The Shadow of the Iron Chancellor.
102. The Tyranny of the Crowd.
103. Is Our Trial by Jury Satisfactory?
104. The High Cost of Securing Justice.
105. The Need for Speedier Court Trials.
106. Triumphs of the American Engineer.
107. Goethals and Gorgas.
108. Public Education Makes Service to the Public a Duty.
109. Man Owes his Life to the Common Good.
FOOTNOTES:
[36]It must be remembered that the phrasing of the subject will not necessarily serve for the title.
