Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence Part 10

That is, in short, we catch the reader's interest with a striking statement from the speech and then delay the rest of the report while we tell who said it, when, where, etc. The necessity of this is obvious.

In accordance with the foregoing there are several possible ways in which to begin the lead of the report of any speech. It would be wrong to say that any one is more common or better than the others; the choice of the beginning must rest with the reporter. And yet there are various things to be noted in connection with each of these beginnings.

=1. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Sentence.=--The quotation that is to have the first line must of course be the most striking or the most interesting statement in the speech. If it consists of a single sentence--and it cannot be less than a sentence--the report may begin thus:

"Partic.i.p.ation in government is not only the privilege, but the right, of every American citizen and should be considered a duty," said the Rev. Frederick W. Hamilton, president of Tufts College, who spoke on "The Political Duties of the American Citizen" at the monthly men's neighborhood meeting in the Roxbury Neighborhood House last night.--_Boston Herald._

Here the reporter has given us a sentence that is practically a summary of the speech, has told us who said it, when and where, and has completed the paragraph with the t.i.tle of the speech. Sometimes the t.i.tle of the speech is not of great importance and its place in the lead may be given to a little summary as in the following:

"The modern man isn't afraid of h.e.l.l," was the concise explanation which W. Lathrop Meaker gave in Franklin Union Hall yesterday afternoon and evening of the fact that the churches are losing their grip on the average man.--_New York Sun._

A question which embodies the content of a speech may often be quoted at the beginning; thus:

"Will the Baptist church continue to maintain an att.i.tude of timidity when John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil is mentioned?" asked the Rev. R. A. Bateman, from East Jaffrey, N. H., of the ministers a.s.sembled in Ford Hall last evening at the New England Baptist conference.--_Boston Herald._

The opening quotation may sometimes be made an excuse for a brief description of the speaker or his gestures as in the following. This is good at times but it may easily be overworked or become "yellow" in tone.

"There is no fire escape," remarked Gypsy Smith, the famous English evangelist, yesterday before the fashionable audience of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. He held aloft a Bible as he made this declaration during an eloquent sermon on the possibility of losing faith and wandering from the narrow way.--_New York World._

=2. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Paragraph.=--You notice that in each of the foregoing the quoted sentence is incorporated grammatically into the first sentence of the lead. It is followed by a comma and the words "said Mr. ----," "was the statement of ----," "declared Mr. ----," etc.

This construction is possible only when the quoted sentence is short and simple. When it is long or complex, it is well to paragraph it separately and to put the explanations in a separate paragraph, thus:

"If the United States had possessed in 1898 a single dirigible balloon, even of the size of the one now at Fort Myer, Virginia, which cost less than $10,000, the American army and navy would not have long remained in doubt of the presence of Cervera's fleet in Santiago harbor." This statement was made today by Major G. O. Squier, a.s.sistant chief signal officer of the army, in an address on aeronautics delivered before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at 29 West Thirty-ninth street.--_New York Mail._

This same construction must _always_ be used when the statement quoted in the lead consists of more than one sentence, as in the following:

"The climate of Wisconsin is as good for recovery from tuberculosis as that of any state in the union. It is not the climate, but the out-of-doors air that works the cure." So said Harvey Dee Brown in his tuberculosis crusade lecture in Kilbourn park last night.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

It is to be noted that the statement quoted in the lead is never split into two parts, separated by explanation. The quotation is always gathered together at the beginning and followed by the explanation.

=3. Indirect Quotation Beginning.=--This method is best adapted to the playing up of a brief resume of the content of the speech. It is sometimes called the "_that_-clause beginning" because it always begins with a _that_-clause which is the subject of the princ.i.p.al verb of the sentence--"was the statement of," "was the declaration of," etc. The _that_-clause may contain a resume of the entire speech or only the most striking statement in it. Here is one of the latter:

That the cruise of the battleship fleet around the world has taught the citizens of the United States that a powerful fleet is needed in the Pacific was the statement of Rear Admiral R. C. Hollyday, chief of the bureau of yards and docks of the navy, at a luncheon given to him by the board of trustees of the Chamber of Commerce at the Fairmont Hotel yesterday.--_San Francisco Examiner._

It is not always necessary to use the phrase "was the statement of." A variation from it is often very good:

That it is the urgent mission of the white people of America, through their churches and Sunday-schools, to educate the American negro morally and religiously, was the sentiment of the twelfth session of the International Sunday-school Convention last night, voiced with special power and eloquence by Dr. Booker T. Washington, the chief speaker of the evening.--_Louisville Courier-Journal._

That the Irish race has a great destiny to fulfill, one greater than it has achieved in its glorious past, was the prophecy of Prof. Charles Johnston of Dublin university in his lecture at the city library Sunday afternoon.--_Wisconsin State Journal._

It is perfectly good usage to begin such a lead with two _that_-clauses or even with three. The two clauses in this case are of course treated as a singular subject and take a singular verb. It is usually best not to have more than three clauses at the beginning and even three must be handled with great care. Three clauses at the beginning, if at all long, bury the speaker's name too deeply and may become too complicated.

Unless the clauses are very closely related in idea, it is usually better not to use more than two. Naturally when more than one _that_-clause is used in the lead, all of the clauses must be gathered together at the beginning; never should one precede and one follow the princ.i.p.al verb. Here is an example of good usage:

NEW YORK, Feb. 25.--That America is entering upon a new era of civic and business rect.i.tude and that this is due to the awakening of the moral conscience of the whole people was the prophecy made here tonight by Governor Joseph W. Folk of Missouri.--_Chicago Record-Herald._

=4. Summary Beginning.=--This is a less formal way of treating the indirect quotation beginning. It is simply a different grammatical construction. Whereas in the _that_-clause beginning the princ.i.p.al verb of the sentence is outside the summary (e. g., "That ... was the statement of"), in the summary beginning the princ.i.p.al verb of the sentence is the verb of the summary and the speaker is brought in by means of a modifying phrase; thus:

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 1.--Both the free trader and the stand-patter are back numbers, according to Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, who delivered a tariff speech here tonight.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

Federal control of the capitalization of railroads is the solution of the railroad problem suggested by E. L. Phillipp, the well-known Milwaukee railroad expert, in the course of a speech at the third annual banquet of, etc.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

The summary beginning may be handled in many different ways and allows perhaps more grammatical liberty than any other beginning. The summary may even be given a sentence by itself as in the following. This kind of treatment may easily be overdone and should be handled with great caution:

If you have acute mania, it is the proper thing to take the music cure. Miss Jessie A. Fowler says so, and she knows. Miss Fowler discussed "Music Hygienically" before the "Rainy Daisies" at the Hotel Astor yesterday and prescribed musical treatment for various brands of mania.--_New York World._

=5. Keynote Beginning.=--Very closely related to the summary beginning is the keynote beginning, in which the subject of the main verb is an indirect presentation of the content of the speech. Whereas the summary beginning displays its resume in a complete sentence, the keynote beginning puts the content of the speech in a single noun and its modifiers. Thus:

The ideal state university was the theme of a speech delivered by, etc.

The mission of the newspaper to tell the truth, to stand for high ideals, and to strive to have those ideals adopted by the public was the keynote of an address delivered by, etc.

=6. Participial Beginning.=--This is less common than the other kinds of indirect quotation beginnings but it is often very effective. The summary of the speech or the most striking statement is put into a participial phrase at the beginning and is made to modify the subject of the sentence (the speaker). It must of course be remembered that such a participial phrase can be used only to modify a noun, as an adjective modifies a noun, and can never be made the subject of a verb. Here is an example of good use of this beginning:

Upholding the right of public criticism of the courts on the theory that there can be no impropriety in investigating any act of a public official, Judge Kennesaw M. Landis last night addressed the students of Marquette College of Law and many members of the Milwaukee bar.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

Just as it is perfectly possible to begin an indirect quotation lead with two _that_-clauses instead of one, it is also possible to use two participial phrases in the participial beginning; as:

Pleading for justice and human affection in dealing with the delinquent child, and urging the vital need of legislation which shall enforce parental responsibility, Mrs. Nellie Duncan made an address yesterday which stirred the sympathies of an attentive audience in the First Presbyterian Church.--_San Francisco Examiner._

Although the participial phrase usually gives the summary of the speech, not infrequently the participial construction is used to play up the name of the speech or some other fact and the summary comes after the princ.i.p.al verb of the lead; thus:

Paying tribute to the memory of President William McKinley last night at the Metropolitan Temple, where exercises were held to dedicate the McKinley memorial organ, Judge Taft told in detail of his commission to the Philippine service and his subsequent intimate connection with the President.--_New York Tribune._

=7. t.i.tle Beginning.=--There are two reasons for beginning the report of a public utterance with the speaker's subject or t.i.tle. The t.i.tle itself may be so broad that it makes a good summary of the speech, or it may be so striking in itself that it attracts interest at once. In the following examples the t.i.tle is really a summary of the speech:

NEW YORK, Dec. 15.--"The Compensation of Employes for Injuries Received While at Work" was taken by J. D. Beck, commissioner of labor of Wisconsin, as the theme of his address before the National Civic Federation here today.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

"The Emmanuel Movement" was the subject of an address by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue yesterday morning.--_New York Evening Post._

In the following stories the reporter began with the t.i.tle evidently because it was so strikingly unusual and also because it was the t.i.tle of a strikingly unusual speech by an unusual man. This kind of t.i.tle beginning is always very effective:

"Booze, or Get on the Water Wagon," was the subject on which Rev. Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist, addressed an audience of over 4,000 persons at the Midland Chautauqua yesterday afternoon. For two hours Sunday fired volley after volley at the liquor traffic.--_Des Moines Capital._

"If Christ Came to Milwaukee" was the subject of the Rev. Paul B. Jenkin's Sunday night in Immanuel Presbyterian Church.--_Milwaukee Sentinel._

=8. Speaker Beginning.=--It is obvious that this is the easiest beginning that may be used in the report of a speech. But just as obviously it is the beginning that should be least used. Just as in writing news stories a green reporter always attempts to begin every lead with the name of some person involved, in reporting a public discourse he has a strong desire to put the name of the speaker before what the speaker said. But the same tests may be applied to both cases.

Are our readers more interested in what a man does than in the man himself; do our readers go to hear a given speaker because they wish to hear what he has to say or because they wish to hear _him_? Whenever the public is so interested in a man that it does not care what he says, then you may feel safe in beginning the report of what he says with his name. This test may be altered, especially in smaller cities, by previous interest in the speech; if the speech has been expected and looked forward to with interest, then, no matter if the speaker is the President himself, his name is not as good news as what he has to say.

Even if the lead does begin with the speaker's name, the reporter usually tries to bring a summary of the speech or the most striking statement into the first sentence after the name. For example:

Speaker Joseph G. Cannon placed himself on record last night in favor of a revision of the tariff in accordance with the promise of the Republican party platform and declared that so far as his vote was concerned he would see to it that the announced policy of revision would be written in the national laws as soon as possible. The words of the speaker came at a luncheon given to six rear admirals of the United States navy by Alexander H. Revell of Chicago in the Union League Club, at which the need of more battleships and increased efficiency of the fighting forces of the republic were the princ.i.p.al themes of discussion.