women, no matter who they are, belong to this brotherhood; and I am impatient of things that separate them and keep them apart. I want to see them all more closely brought to realize it, because out of that brotherhood will grow beautiful and blessful experiences; ineffable experiences that we barely imagine now. And so your work is of importance, of real practical importance in the world; not merely to entertain men. That is important because we believe pleasure has its part in life. We do not want to go about with long, doleful faces. We want to have some fun as we go along. But still, it is important in helping and inspiring others to speak the truth and to speak the truth artistically; and when I say artistically of course I do not mean artificially. I mean first of all with the great simplicity that belongs to real art, the truth that must be in it and then the ability so to express it that all can understand it. Therefore your coming together among us means a great deal to us and will be of great value to us; and I am glad that you are here and I want to make you feel welcome. We are living in an age when we are working out some of the great problems of our American democracy, and nowhere are these problems so important as they are here in the American cities, because here are great masses of people who do not always agree, people of all kinds and conditions, economic and otherwise, crowded together, and questions arise that must be solved. We are solving those questions and those problems slowly in American cities. The problems of one city, of course, are the problems of all cities; but we are solving them, slowly evolving solutions as we go along; and the American city is the hope of American democracy. I believe that in these cities we are going to establish such a democracy as will afford a model first for the state and then for the nation and finally for the whole world.

I therefore take pleasure, as I have said before, in welcoming you. I know that you will be of benefit to us and I trust that you will have a very pleasant and profitable time while you are here. I thank you for your kind attention. (Applause.)

MRS. IRVING: Among the many in our city who are working earnestly for its upbuilding, is one who has had

large experience in educational affairs, as well as in moral affairs, one who comes to us today as a friend, because many a time he has expressed himself to me as a friend to this profession: So we are honored with the presence of Rev. John Francis O'Connell, of St. Francis De Sales Church, who will address you. (Applause.) REV. JOHN F. O'CONNELL:

Mr. President and Members of the Association: It is certainly a pleasure for any one who has made even a slight investigation of the value of educational affairs to be able to invite the members of this Association to his home city. I am not quite certain that as a people we value sufficiently the power of the various elements of education that we possess. Sometimes I think that this branch of education is not properly understood by the people at large. If we could but analyze the purpose of the membership of this Association we would find that it stands as truly for moral and intellectual life as any of the forces that openly proclaim that as their purpose. The Greek language gives us an idea of what this Association stands for. They use the same word, logos, to express truth and speech, and the implication is that truth must ever find a corresponding representation in speech and that speech must be the representation of truth. We are speaking ever and ever of progress, and there is no progress like the progress of the mind, the intellectual development. That is the nature of the human mind,to know. It reaches out and out ever. Its purpose is to know more and more; and in eternity the purpose of the human mind shall be to know more and more as it looks into the face of God. The real progress is the progress that befits man, and man is man precisely because he is an intelligent being with an intelligent soul united to the human body that by its sense perceptions affords him. material by which truth can be developed and made known; and, consequently, when an association has for its object and purpose the idea of developing truth, that association stands as a benefactor of mankind. There is a story told of a sculptor brooding over the work that was to make his name immortal among men. There were the deft strokes of the hammer until out of that dead and cold marble there crept a being, and then there

was one stroke that broke the fetters and it came out perfect almost into life. Fable said the Goddess sprang out of the foam that whitened about Cypress. So there is in the human soul ever an effort to find expression, and there is no means to give that expression except human speech. We are seeking truth. Truth must be the keystone of progress. Any progress that is not built on that is vain and foolish. And so one must, of necessity, pay a tribute to the purpose of those who are gathered in these conventions because they gather for a real humanitarian purpose to help the happiness of peoples, to help the development of the human soul. As we look back into the history of this Association, not as an organized body, but as we look back to the ideals of the Association we find that its members are ever steady in the course of Justice, in the course of promoting the welfare of people. We can listen to the voice of Demosthenes, and we hear Cicero pleading for the people, and in later days we find Wendell Phillips endeavoring by the sound of his voice to strike the shackles from the slave, and we find Daniel O'Connell speaking for the liberties of the people; and it is a great tribute to those who have devoted themselves to the art of expression, not indeed as an association but as the complement of the art of speech, to find them ever striving manfully for justice, to relieve the poor, to relieve distress, to bring liberty to the souls of people who are crying for liberty above all else. Do you not see, ladies and gentlemen, that you have a high and sublime purpose in your gathering? Do you not see that there is a responsibility there? I believe that you are fully conscious of that responsibility that is upon you. You are educators. You are to teach the human mind how to give expression to its thoughts. But your own human thought represents what is in the soul. If it be correct thought you must be good men and good women in order that the soul may develop itself according to the lines of truth. So that, after all, your efforts come back to justice and morality and truth; and in these have we not the essence of life? In these have we not what is real progress? Consequently it is a favor to the city of Toledo, of which I believe the city of Toledo is conscious, that you come among us to urge

upon others the beauty of your art, and to urge it upon them not only because it is a matter that appeals to the æsthetic but as something that appeals to our moral and intellectual nature. I pray God may bless your efforts and that your meeting in Toledo may be attended with the greatest success, and that you may leave with the consciousness of having fulfilled an obligation to humanity. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT WILLIAMS responded to the address of welcome as follows:

In behalf of the members of the National Speech Arts Association, present and absent, I desire to thank your worship for these words of welcome. Some of our members have pleasant recollections of previous visits made to Toledo, but most of us are strangers here, therefore your message of welcome and good cheer can not but make us feel entirely at ease during our sojourn in your prosperious city, and that we are in the midst of friends, of sympathizers and well wishers. I need scarcely assure you, sir, that we shall take advantage of the various opportunities afforded us of visiting all points of interest in Toledo and vicinity; especially in the vicinity, if this hot weather continues. It may not be amiss to remind you that your guests represent many branches of the speech arts, and come from many states; for the Association's sphere of action has extended until it now covers every state of the Union.

Our members are banded together for mutual improvement, and for the advancement of the Speech Arts, and it is safe to say that there is no member present who does not make a personal sacrifice to be in attendance. The majority of our members are teachers of spoken English in the advanced grades of the public schools, and in the higher institutions of learning. Some are engaged in teaching oratory in the Divinity Schools, others are steadily employed in the correction of defective speech. Some devote their entire time to the preparation of students for public reading, and others to the training of young men and young women for the stage. Some of our members give much of their time to the teaching of physical culture-exercises developing grace and bodily expression through physical training A portion of our

membership includes men and women who do little or no teaching, but who devote their time and talents to the interpretation of good literature from the platform.

Hundreds of capable, conscientious teachers, such as you no doubt have in your own city, though you may be entertaining them like angels unawares, are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land, each doing his best toward the advancement and elevation of every phase of the noble art of speech, from simple conversation and plain reading, to the finished discourse and perfected platform effort.

Schools of Expression, and Schools of Elocution; Schools of the Spoken Word, and Schools for Practical Platform Work; Colleges of Oratory; Institutes, Academies and Colleges of the Dramatic Arts, are now found in nearly all the large cities of the Union, and some, form an auxiliary to the University proper-as, for example, The Northwestern University of Illinois, with nearly 500 collegians enrolled; and the Ohio Wesleyan University in your own state. While a great variety of subjects are studied in these various schools. the curricula are not dissimilar, and all have a direct bearing upon the one great subject of effective oral English delivery.

Since the organization of this Association, and almost entirely through the practical, well-directed efforts and indefatigable labors of a few of our charter and present members, the subjects of oratory, public speaking and debate have been placed upon an elevated plane in the universities and colleges of this country, and they have awakened an interest in university student-bodies hitherto unknown in the history of public speaking in the United States. These gentlemen, of whom little if anything has been written in this connection, have placed all lovers of oratory under lasting obligations, and if the extension of their work continues, as its present popularity promises, the extent and future influence of their good offices can scarcely be imagined. There is, however, one branch of the speech arts that has not, in my judgment, received either at the hands of teachers or of this Association, the time and attention which its importance. deserves; and that is the branch in which you, sir, have