Power Through Speech

Twenty-one members of the Massachusetts legislature--Republicans to a man --turned out last week for night courses at Brookline's Staley College of the Spoken Word.

Was it a gag? Far from it. Explained one G.O.P. legislator: "It used to be that when the Republicans had control of the House we'd let the Democrats do the talking, and we'd get the votes. But now the Democrats have control, and we've got to find a way to be more effectual."

The first lesson in effectuality was Rienzi to the Romans, from Mary Russell Mitford's old 1828 melodrama. Charles Gibbons, 50, minority leader of the lower house, veteran of five terms, hardly got through the first line. "Friends," he began, his hands outstretched in appeal, "I come not here to talk."

"Keep your hands at your side!" cried his Staley College professor. "Speak up! Straighten up!"

Gibbons straightened up, raised his voice. "The bright sun rises to his course," he continued."and lights a race of slaves!" The professor stopped him again: "Where does the sun rise? Show us!"

"A race of slaves," Gibbons repeated.

"He sets, and his last beams fall on a slave."

"But where does the sun set?" shouted the professor. "Don't point till you've looked to make sure it's there." The Republicans had a lot to learn.

Politicians and would-be ones have been rapping on Delbert Moyer Staley's door since 1900.

Almost the first student Staley had was a young ward worker named James Michael Curley, later famed as mayor, congressman, governor and convicted con-man.* "He had the harsh Boston voice," recalls Delbert Staley, "and the vocabulary of a fishmonger. But I straightened out his grammar, gave him a vocabulary, and trained his voice." Curley, says Staley proudly, is "the greatest American orator since Daniel Webster."

To become an orator, a student must plow through dozens of speeches, from Rienzi to Wendell Phillips' Toussaint L'Ouverture. "Learning these speeches puts forms into your head," says Staley. "Instead of saying, 'I am about to tell you the story of a Negro, Toussaint L'Ouverture,' one can paraphrase, 'I am about to tell you the story of a man, James Michael Curley, gleaned from the reluctant testimony of his enemies, the knaves who despised him because he defeated them." As the new semester began last week, Founder Staley gave the new class his usual thunder. "I want every person in this room to sit up!" he bellowed. "Get your chests out! Don't wobble like a hog . . . Breathe deeply . . . Breathe! Smile! Smile! Repeat after me--Ha! Ha!"

'Ha! Ha!" repeated the class.

'Hee! Hee!"

'Hee! Hee!"

'Hurrah!"

'Hurrah!"

*Other notable old students: John W. McCormack (now majority leader of the House of Representatives), Elsie Janis, Robert Ripley.

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