RHETORICAL ROTARIANS

In proposals to their fellows or to their stenographers, business men of Brooklyn have evidently been troubled by stuttering. Under the supervision of the Chamber of Commerce, a sixteen-weeks course in public and private speaking has been instituted to enable the business leaders to become articulate.

The Chamber of Commerce is correct in the assumption that the college degrees of their members do not qualify them to talk intelligently. Even famous scholars sometimes find difficulty in expressing their opinions in public Doubly hard must it be for the mass of college men, who later turn into the mass of business men, to express themselves. During their college course, their ingenuity displayed itself chiefly in concealing a lack of knowledge. No small wonder they never learned how to present ideas of their own.

One hopes that the development of oratorical excellence in Brooklyn, will find some reflection in business letters. Perhaps, after a few courses of sixteen weeks each some more original formula can be devised as an opening sentence than. "Yours of the fifth instant to hand. In reply will say"; and some concluding phrase discovered, more genuine if less hearty, than: "With best wishes, we are."