Outdoor meetings are mainly organised for propaganda or protest purposes. There are two principal forms of such meetings, namely the street corner meeting where the audience is chiefly collected from passers‐by, and the one which is an
organised assembly, referred to as a demonstration, which takes the form of the crowd converging on the meeting place individually or in organised procession.
STREET CORNER MEETING
Let us first consider the procedure at the Street Corner Meeting. The platform is usually a small folding rostrum, a chair or a box, upon which only one person can stand at a time.
The chief function of the Chairman is to attract the audience and then hand the meeting over to the speaker. There is a technique about collecting “the crowd”. The essential thing is to arouse curiosity amongst passers‐by sufficient to cause them to
stop to find out what the meeting is about. Unless a body of supporters are already assembled round the platform, the Chairman must rely upon building his audience one by one as people come along. This often means that when he first gets up on the platform he must be prepared to talk to an open space. The tendency is – unless he is well‐experienced in such meetings – for him to shout loudly in an effort to make himself heard‐by persons whom he sees in the distance. In so doing he discourages them from coming close to the platform to find out what is going on, because they can hear all about it from a distance. In other words he is abating the curiosity which might draw them close enough to form a crowd. If they stop at all they remain at a distance and after a few moments, not feeling that they are part of the meeting, they wander away.
If the Chairman at a Street Corner Meeting will remember that he depends upon curiosity to collect his crowd he will not speak loudly, but quietly, so that the people have to come closer to hear what he is saying. Having come closer they feel that they are part of the meeting and are more likely to stay.
Often when a Street Corner Meeting is started there are half a dozen supporters already present, including the speaker and literature sellers. When the Chairman opens up, these supporters should not stand behind him but should get in front and form the nucleus of a crowd. Strangers are much more likely to come to the platform if they see others there. The stranger is reluctant to stand in front of the platform alone because he hesitates to make himself conspicuous.
A very effective method of drawing a crowd is for one of the supporters to interrupt the Chairman with questions or remarks which create the impression of opposition. It is a development of the curiosity trick which seldom fails to draw others in. The
average person finds it difficult to resist listening to an argument between two or more persons and quite unconsciously he helps to form the crowd which the Chairman requires to make a meeting.
I remember a street‐∙comer speaker in the days of mass unemployment who had a novel method of arousing curiosity for attracting a crowd to start his meeting. He would attract attention by simply roIling up a newspaper in the shape of a torch, setting fire to it and holding it in front of him whilst it burnt out. He would sometimes burn half a dozen newspapers one after the other without saying a word. Passers‐by attracted by the strange spectacle would come closer to watch, then, when he had his crowd, he would say: “You saw me burn those newspapers, well I did so because they are hiding the truth from the people and I want to tell you about that.” Having heightened their curiosity he would begin to address them about social conditions and accuse the newspaper editors of refusing to publish the facts. He charged them with deceiving their readers, but all this was only part of his introductory remarks, and as he talked on the crowd forgot about the newspapers and became interested in his general arguments about social conditions, whilst newcomers helped to swell the crowd to a successful gathering. That was a simple form of showmanship which usually achieved its purpose because the average person is naturally curious.
I am not advising this method, I am simply quoting it to impress upon the Chairmen of Street Corner Meetings that they must bear in mind the part which curiosity plays in gathering an audience.
When the Chairman has collected his crowd he should announce the speaker and give him the usual build‐up about ability and qualifications. At this stage he should ask the audience to close in to the platform so that the speaker does not have to strain his voice unnecessarily, and so that they can hear∙ more distinctly what he has to say. People in a compact audience are less likely to stray away from the meeting. The Chairman, having done his job, then steps down and makes way for the speaker. From then on the speaker must depend upon his own ability to hold the crowd and secure an attentive hearing. If there are interruptions he must deal with them himself. He cannot keep stepping down to let the Chairman call for order.
Of course, if the interruptions are persistent and the speaker is unable to proceed with his address, the Chairman should ask the speaker to make way for him to appeal to the crowd. He should then appeal to their sense of fair play and inform
them that if they will quietly listen to the speech they will be given the opportunity of putting their questions to the speaker as soon as he has finished. Unless it is an organised opposition, such an appeal from the Chairman – with the promise of questions – seldom fails to produce the desired results. The Chairman then steps down and the speaker resumes his address from where he left off.
When the speaker finishes, he should step down from the platform and the Chairman should then take over again for a few minutes to make any announcements necessary about literature and collection. He should then, without undue delay, call for questions to the speaker. When the first question is put, the Chairman should repeat it so that everybody in the audience can hear, and then immediately, call upon the speaker to mount the platform to reply.
If there is a hesitancy in the audience to start the questions the Chairman should give them encouragement by reminding them of some of the principal points in the speech and thereby help to give them ideas for questions. If he still has difficulty in getting the first question he can turn to one of his known supporters and say: “I have noticed that you listened very attentively to what the speaker had to say. Surely there is some point on which you would like further information?” This prompting should produce a response from the supporter in the form of a question which might even have the appearance of challenging something which the speaker had said. The audience, in most cases, will think the questioner is one of them, and once the questions have been started they will lose their hesitancy and will follow up.
At a Street Corner Meeting it is not necessary for the subsequent questions to be put through the Chairman. They can be put direct to the speaker. The first question is put through the Chairman, but when the speaker has answered that he should remain on the platform and ask for the next question direct. Otherwise it means that the Chairman and speaker have to change over twice with each question, and that introduces a break in the proceedings and affords an opportunity to some of
the audience to leave the meeting. To retain a standing audience in the open it is essential to hold their attention all the time.
Before the speaker replies to a question he should repeat it to the audience, because often those who are standing behind the questioner are unable to hear what he is saying. If some of the audience do not know what the speaker is replying to they will lose interest in the meeting and leave.
In replying to questions the speaker should make his reply to the crowd. He should not answer direct to the questioner because that will encourage him to interrupt the reply and result in a personal argument that will disturb the order of the proceedings.
Hecklers frequently crop up at Street Corner Meetings and often, without realising what they are doing, they turn a sparsely attended meeting into a mass gathering by the attention which they arouse from passers‐by. The experienced Street Corner
Speaker is not upset by their appearance – he welcomes them as a magnet for his crowd and a target for his wit.
It is most important when dealing with a Heckler for the speaker not to lose his temper. An irate speaker will lose the sympathy of the audience and play into the hands of the Heckler. If the speaker remains calm he will generally find that after a short time the crowd will turn on the Heckler and insist that he remains quiet or gets out of the meeting so that they can listen to the speaker without interruption.
Of course, the speaker who is clever at repartee can often make quick, humorous retorts to the Heckler which makes him the object of laughter from the crowd and drives him away from the meeting feeling very small. That is the most effective way
of dealing with the Heckler.
When the time arrives for closing the meeting the speaker must step down and hand the meeting over to the Chairman. Before stepping down he should announce that the Chairman has something to say before the meeting closes. This helps to hold the crowd so that the Chairman can make his final remarks and formally declare the meeting closed.