s really a news story. As soon as the
speech is mentioned, the reader unconsciously asks a number of questions
about it and the reporter must answer them in the first sentence. As in
any other news story the questions are: _What?_ _Who?_ _Where?_ _When?_
and perhaps _How?_ and _Why?_ Reduced to the case of the speech report,
they amount to what did he say, who said it, where did he say it, when,
and perhaps how and why did he say it. You may answer the _what_ by
giving the subject of the discourse or by giving a striking statement in
it. In every report the answer to some one of the questions is of
greater interest and must be placed in the first line. If the speaker is
of more than ordinary prominence his name makes a good beginning. If an
ordinary person makes a speech at some meeting of prominence the _when_
or _where_ takes precedence over his name. But in most cases the
reporter will find that none of these things is of sufficient importance
for the beginning. Most public utterances that he will be called upon to
report will be made by ordinary men in ordinary places and at ordinary
times, and the most interesting part of the story will be what was said.
Sometimes it suffices to give the title of the speech, but more often a
striking statement from the speech makes the best beginning. However,
although the speaker, the time, the place, etc., are overshadowed in
importance by the subject or content of what the speaker says, they must
be included in the same sentence with the title or striking statement.
That is, in short, we catch the reader's interest with a striking
statement from the speech and then delay the rest of the report while we
tell who said it, when, where, etc. The necessity of this is obvious.

In accordance with the foregoing there are several possible ways in
which to begin the lead of the report of any speech. It would be wrong
to say that any one is more common or better than the others; the choice
of the beginning must rest with the reporter. And yet there are various
things to be noted in connection with each of these beginnings.

=1. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Sentence.=--The quotation that is to
have the first line must of course be the most striking or the most
interesting statement in the speech. If it consists of a single
sentence--and it cannot be less than a sentence--the report may begin
thus:

| "Participation in government is not |
|only the privileg