Show Public Sp Speaker aler American Bane 4 Needing Rebuke By BRUCE CATTON CATlON If It there is anything this country needs it is a person who will be brave enough to lead the American audience out of i its stat of placidity and forbearance For if there is any my group of ot individuals indi that has suffered from the strain of all sor sorts of public speakers it is the American public The other day came the climax the final stinging blow to great reat tolerant tol tole tol- tol crant tribe Eva Le Gallienne and Ethel Barrymore leading actress in their own right rose before a meeting meeting meet meet- ing of ot Philadelphia women and hurled hurleda a bolt of temperamental rebuke at th them m. m It was une unexpected It was d devas vas tating It left the audience cowed and dazed All the comment that could be heard from the women as they left the auditorium was a vague impudent impudent im km and insolent to case ease their feelings No up at her seat to berate be- be rate either of the speakers They simply t took ok it as nearly every other audience has t taken ken it from rom year to year without protest Of course this is ian islan an extreme case But in its extremity it is an excel excellent lent example of th the lengths length to which L speakers will go in haranguing their listeners without incurring their open L displeasure It shows how docile how unprepared unprepared pared how tractable the American audience is Ls s Yet it should should not not be so No speaker speak er is infallible No public charac speak speak-j ter not ter-not not even the great Barrymore Barrymore- is perfect Yet speakers do not hesitate to tell tel L their audiences from the rostrum I things they might think twice to uttel ut ut ter tel on the same level They do so sofe safe fe in the thc knowledge that not one of that placid mass before be be- fore them will have the courage to tc get up and challenge their remarks Some day a liberator will arise Someday Some day someone will lead th the American audience out of i its lassi tude toward oward a type of expression so sorely needed to protect itself against the declamations o of self-appointed self au au- au- au |