PUBLIC PUBLIC SPEAKING

When a Sophomore addressed a group of Rotarians in Stoneham yesterday afternoon, he unwittingly inaugurated a new program of cooperation between the University and its immediate territorial neighbors. This was the first of a series of speeches to be made by members of Harvard's public-speaking classes to various high school, church, and teachers groups in behalf of the current Community Fund drive.

Not only does such a program serve to strengthen the tenuous bond between town and gown, but it also supplies an extremely valuable type of training to the participating students. There is a certain point beyond which no amount of classroom instruction will improve a speaker's technique; then it is that experience comes into its own as the best possible teacher.

Public speaking has thus joined the various English composition courses in providing vocational training for their more promoting students. Just as the "Advocate" and the "Monthly" provide a practical outlet for the talents of budding authors, so does speaking in behalf of the Community Fund give invaluable aid to aspiring orators.