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The role of oralcommunication in the worldtodayMarcus H. Boulware aa Hampden InstitutePublished online: 01 Apr 2009.

To cite this article: Marcus H. Boulware (1947) The role of oral communicationin the world today, The Southern Speech Journal, 13:1, 21-26, DOI:10.1080/10417944709371014

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THE ROLE OF ORAL COMMUNICATIONIN THE WORLD TODAY

MARCUS H. BOULWARE

Hampden Institute

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, of New York, in a series oflectures in six Texas cities during April, 1945, said: "The old worldwe once knew went up in smoke over Hiroshima. We are living in anew world and the atomic age. There is no turning back."

There is no desire on the part of Americans, I am sure, to turnback the pages of history and live in colonial times. Colonial Ameri-cans were more or less isolated because of the lack of oral and otherforms of communication. For instance, John Adams, second president-elect of the United States of America, attended his first ContinentalCongress in Philadelphia in 1774. In a letter to his wife, he com-plained that they were "all strangers, not acquainted with each other'slanguage, ideas, views, and designs."1 James Madison, our fourthPresident, wrote during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that"of the affairs of Georgia I know as little as of those of Kamchatka."2

Pierce Butler of South Carolina felt himself among strangers at theConstitutional Convention and remarked, "The interests of the southernand eastern states were as different as the interest of Russia and Tur-key"3—which were then very much at odds.

Today America is unified by modern methods of communication.For example, the radio has brought each section of this country inneighborly contact with one another. Every section of America hasbecome a neighbor with the rest of the world. Oral communicationhas a solidifying effect, and let us hope that it will make all mankindbrothers.

People talk about "Science in the Atomic Age," or "Education inthe Atomic Age." They might easily say "Oral Communication in theAtomic Age." Modern inventions—telephone, radio, and movies—have made the Atomic Age one in which people are speech conscious.Oral communications somehow have drawn men of all races andnationalities together as never before. Ralph E. Danforth,4 in theSeptember, 1930, issue of the Scientific Monthly, says:

Human progress comprises both constant improvement inliving conditions and steady improvement in man. Rapid in-crease in communications is speeding up both processes. Com-munication is like a net thrown around the world drawing

1. See Lewis S. Gannett, "Close-up; communications have foreshortened time and space,"Survey Graphic, XXXIV (May, 1945), pp. 159-161.

2. Ibid.3. Ibid.4. Ralph E. Danforth, "Communication as a Factor in Human Progress," Scientific Monthly,

XXXI (September, 1930), p. 270.

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22 The Southern Speech Journal

mankind together, thereby multiplying his power, for in unionthere is strength.

The solidarity of the United States is the secret of ourpresent prosperity quite as much as our natural resources. Thestrength of this union over so vast a territory and operatingthrough such lively channels of communication is increasing ourpower at an almost incredible rate.Besides drawing men together, oral communication is an important

force in the world today, because it enables men to improve theireducation through increase in knowledge. People listen to forums,operas, dramas, speeches, concerts, and quiz programs. Through suchprograms their knowledge is increased. One writer has said that"Knowledge is power." Another remarked that "Knowledge andtruth are the kingdom of God, and adherence to these is progress."Through the movies and radio knowledge is being communicated asnever before to the people of the world.

Oral communication aids in the discovery of knowledge and helpsmen to sift and evaluate it by discussion before it is disseminated overthe world. Oral discussion enables people to know the truth. Wehave all heard the statement that "the truth shall make you free."Only the educated and enlightened man is free. Liberty which doesnot enlighten is not true freedom.

It is said that communication by its improved methods has speededup the circulation of money in ways which would be absolutely impos-sible under our former modes of communication, and thus increasesthe wealth and prosperity of the people. In response to this statement,the critic would say that the wise can be wiser and fools be morefoolish till their folly chokes them and the wise survive. Ralph E.Danforth, on this point, declares:

Disseminating knowledge, wealth and power is a more hu-mane way than warfare to kill off the unfit and fortify theintrinsically worthwhile folk. Give a man money and power,in short, real success, and he will quietly show what mettle he ismade of. Mr. Firestone has said that only a small proportion ofmen can stand prosperity.

If success goes to his head, by which we mean makes himconceited, he is too small a man; if it goes to his belly he is notrue man. If prosperity elevates and refines him, increasing hiseffiency, adding to his knowledge and making him more usefuland more generous, he is then the typical American of whom hiscountry is proud. This type of man, found in abundance in theUnited States, is making the world take notice and send commis-sions over to see how we got that way. We are communicatingto the world, and the world communicates with us. Without

efficient communication this would not be.6

5. Ibid.

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The Role of Oral Communications 23

The advance in oral communication goes hand in hand with newknowledge, new machines, new chemicals, new fruit, new foods, newflowers, new sources and more sources of power, new means of travel,transportation. Perhaps intelligent men will respond quickly to furtheradvances of oral communication. All around the world we will listento one another's speeches. Better still than that, we will talk freelyand inexpensively with one another around the world. When we talkmore freely with one another all over the world, then we will desireto travel more universally. In this way, Danforth6 says that oralcommunication will greatly aid the increase of joy in the world. Beautywill be cultivated and abound. Fragrance and sweetness will fill theearth. Man himself will become healthier and wiser. He will thinkever in terms of human progress.

If all progress in human endeavor is dependent upon speech, thenoral communication is a world force for the food of mankind. Borchersand Wise, in their volume Modern Speech, say:

All national movements are motivated, explained, and di-rected by oral communication. Life at school and at home,during and after college, requires speech. In all of these activi-ties the individual finds himself alternately on the giving andthe receiving end of the speech process. One citizen may belongto one or all of the sections of woman's club, another to a men'sclub, and another may be the president or the most recent andleast known member of these groups; but the need for effectivespeech will be there and the success of each one in the organi-zation will depend on his or her ability in social adjustment andcommunication.7

Oral communication has made men conscious of the need for betterrepresentative government. Good government is guaranteed only whenmen and women govern themselves with honesty and intelligence. It istherefore the duty of every citizen to prepare himself for this respon-sibility. Democracy cannot hope to survive until the voters becomeeducated and intelligent. We seem to be moving in this direction,for the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt once remarked, "One ofthe greatest achievements of the last seven years in this country hasbeen the awakening of many millions of American men and women toan understanding of the processes of their own government—local,state, and federal."8 This awakening, to which the President referred,has been brought about largely through the radio, community gather-ings, improvement organizations, women's clubs, men clubs, and churchgroups, "where various forms of speech have made it possible forindividuals to exchange ideas."9 Borchers and Wise tell us thatthese groups:

6. Ibid.7. Borchers and Wise, Modern Speech, Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York, 1947, pp. 7-8.8. Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times, from Roosevelt's seeech under date of February 10,

1940. Reported also in other newspapers.9. Borchen and Wise, Op Cit., p. 8.

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24 The Southern Speech Journal

Crystallize their opinions and final action is decided. As aresult of these, many campaign speakers or advocates of socialchanges have been forced to present facts, rather than unfoundedopinions; logical reasoning, rather than melodramatic appeals;accurate, typical illustrations, rather than exceptional, overdrawnexamples; and stable policies, rather than rash promises.10

From a social viewpoint, oral communication is a world and localforce. You have no doubt heard people complain of women gossipingover the telephone. Take the rural telephone, for example. It existsprimarily for this purpose. It keeps a woman from going insane fromloneliness. This is far more important than using the telephone tofind a market where pigs sell three cents higher a pound. The telephonein its social uses saves people, particularly women, an immense amountof time and drudgery. What they do with their spare time is theirbusiness. At night when their husbands come home, they offer himhelpful suggestions gleaned from contact with the outside worldthrough the newspaper, magazines, and the radio. "Time saved givesmen and women the extra time to experiment with the high art ofliving without having the experiment entirely controlled by the timeand difficulty of making a living."11

Oral communication is further a world of force, because it enablesmen to share their ideas. H. D. Arnold, Director of Research, BellTelephone Laboratories, says:

To have ideas and to share them—that makes civilization.Of course the ideas must be good ones if the civilization is to beworthwhile. Society recognizes this when it entrusts to Educa-tion the stupendous task of teaching us how to think and whatto think about. But sharing is really the kernel of the matter.For civilization is not a solitary affair; no individual becomescivilized by and for himself alone. Civilization is a communityaffair and grows and spreads only as fast and as far as peoplecan come to a common understanding. It is the business ofcommunication to provide facilities to broaden and speed thiscourse of thought and feeling. In any business it is the duty ofresearch to carry forward its ideals and provide always bettermeans of achieving them. Thus in communication, researchseeks as its ultimate goal to break down their barriers of timeand distance, and expense which prevent the quick and easymeeting of our minds.12

The spoken word is now an integral part of our international lives.We cannot look at it from a local, sectional, or one-nation point ofview. It is far too much a part of our international lives, and moreand more our lives are less local and more international. This makesoral communication mean more to people of a country as a whole andthereby to the world at large. We no longer educate the masses of

!0. Borchers and Wise, Op. Cit.11. Arthur Page and others, Modern Communication, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1932, p. 23.12. Ibid., p. 25.

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The Role of Oral Communications 25

citizens in a country for that country alone, or for one section of thatcountry. M. E. DeWitt tells us that "we are in a new era in whichthe air itself connects all villages and far-flung communities within asingle moment of the uttered word. Through it all it is the oral wordthat is the homely bond between the widely different temperamentsand works of man, between the workaday and the other world."13

Oral communication is a world force, because it is the basis forinternational friendship. Through the speaking of a foreign language,men and women learn to understand their foreign neighbors, theirculture, and their aspirations. Perhaps in the United States, ouruniversities have laid too much stress on French and German, therebyneglecting the other languages. "This grew no doubt out of the notionthat Europe was our educational neighbor. The artistic and scientificliterature of Germany and France," says J. W. Studrake, "has seemedmore significant to our scholars than has the literature in other foreignlanguages, consequently the principal modern foreign languages de-veloped in the high schools in this country have been French andGerman."14

The United States can improve its international understanding withthe South American countries through speaking and studying Spanishand Portuguese. This idea is truer to day since we have abandoned"the Big Stick" policy for that of "the Good Neighbor" policy. Stu-drake, in this connection, says:

Especially is it true that with the strengthening of Pan-Americanism and the vitalizing of our good-Neighbor policywith Central and South America, Spanish and perhaps Portu-guese became more important. Commercially we need thiscommon medium of exchange of ideas. More significantly still,we need it as a means of understanding the aspirations andcultural development of our southern neighbors. Widespreadfamiliarity in this country with the Spanish language and tosome extent at least with the Portuguese language is one of thesurest ways to build up friendly relations with the countrieswhose native speech is Spanish or Portuguese.15

The slow progress toward setting up a plan for world peace hasmade the United Nations Organization seem a farce and failure. Menand women have hoped that the representatives of the various nationsof the world could solve their problems through round-table discussion.We have hoped that these representatives would realize that "speechis a power that may indeed have the greatest influence of all powersto change the world for better or for worse, to weaken it or tostrengthen it, to save it or destroy it."16

13. M. E. DeWitt, Our Oral World, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London: E. P. Dutton, NewYork, 1928, pp. xxiv-xxv of the introduction.

14. J. W. Studrake, "Language as a Basis of International Friendship," School Life, XXIV(July, 1939), p. 289.

15. Ibid.16. Carrie Rasmussen and Franklin H. Knower, "The Modern World and Speech Education,"

Role of Speech in the Elementary School, National Education Association, 1201 SixteenthStreet, N.W., Washington 6, D.C., 1946-1947, p. 4.

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26 The Southern Speech Journal

A. T. Weaver, writing in The Role of Speech in the ElementarySchool makes oral communication speak for itself under the title of"The Servant of Men."17 Among the many things uttered by GoodSpeech, the following relate to oral communication as a world force:

1. I form the stream of consciousness which is called themind. I make men in my own image. I help them to sympa-thize with their fellow men.

2. I am good speech. Without me man's intelligence wouldlapse to the level of the beasts, men would exist in isolationfrom their neighbors, society would fall apart, and the verytexture of democracy itself would disintegrate.Our representatives at the UNO, in their quest for a guide to world

peace, might do well to heed the words of King George of Englanduttered on Christmas Day, 1940:

I asked the man who sood at the Gate of the Year to giveme a light so that I might find my way into the darkness thatlay ahead. And the man replied, 'Go place your hands into thehands of God for the light that He giveth is better than anyknown way.'

They might also heed the words of Mentor Graham, teacher of "theGreat Emancipator" Lincoln. Graham charged Lincoln "never toforget that 'The right words will guide the world.' "18

For the many benefits that oral communication has bestowed uponus, let us hope and believe that it represents the greatest move towardenhancing the hopes, aspirations, and good-will of all people upon theface of the earth.17. Ibid.18. Ibid.

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