conclusion plainly asks for the
votes he has been proving that his fellow legislators should cast. A
school principal pleading with boys to stop gambling knows that his
conclusion is going to be a call for a showing of hands to pledge
support of his recommendations. A labor agitator knows that his
conclusion is going to be an appeal to a sense of class prejudice, so
he speaks with that continually in mind. An efficiency expert in shop
management knows that his conclusion is going to enforce the saving in
damages for injury by accident if a scheme of safety devices be
installed, so he speaks with that conclusion constantly in his mind.
In court the prosecuting attorney tells in his introduction exactly
what he intends to prove. His conclusion shows that he has proved what
he announced.

One is tempted to say that the test of a good speech, a well-prepared
speech, is its conclusion. How many times one hears a speaker
floundering along trying to do something, rambling about, making no
impression, not advancing a pace, and then later receives from the
unfortunate the confession, "I wanted to stop but I didn't know how to
do it." No conclusion had been prepared beforehand. It is quite as
disturbing to hear a speaker pass beyond the place where he could have
made a good conclusion. If he realizes this he slips into the state of
the first speaker described in this paragraph. If he does not realize
when he reaches a good conclusion he talks too long and weakens the
effect by stopping on a lower plane than he has already reached. This
fault corresponds to the story teller whose book drops in interest at
the end. The son of a minister was asked whether his father's sermon
the previous Sunday had-not had some good points in it. The boy
replied, "Yes, three good points where he should have stopped."

Length of the Conclusion. It must not be inferred from anything here
stated concerning the importance of the conclusion that it need be
long. A good rule for the length of the conclusion is the same rule
that applies to the length of the introduction. It should be just long
enough to do best what it is intended to do. As in the case of the
introduction, so for the conclusion, the shorter the better, if
consistent with clearness and effect. If either introduction or
conclusion must deliberately be reduced the conclusion will stand the
most compression. A conclusion will frequently fail of its effect if
it is so long that the audience