Roy L. Smith: lectures for life

              1928

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ROY L. SMITH Lectures From Life
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ROY L. SMITH A Worker in the Laboratory of Life
Roy L. Smith knows life.  His lectures spring from vital human contacts.

At fourteen years of age he was traveling from town to town painting signs to pay his way through school.  Before entering college he had worked as a mill-hand, a mechanic's helper, a farm laborer and a janitor.

At nineteen he was paying his college expenses by singing, painting signs and reporting for newspapers.  At twenty-one he was preaching in a Western town and lecturing in nearby communities.  At twenty-five Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus invited him to come to Chicago as his associate.  At twenty-eight he had received degrees from three well-known universities.  He is a man of many interests.

As the pastor of one of Chicago's institutional churches, he preaches every Sunday to audiences which include large numbers of students, young professional people and transients.  His daily work takes him into colleges, hospitals, factories, rooming houses and the offices of big business men.

Mr. Smith writes extensively for the religious press and is the author of several books on social themes and community service.

Outside his regular work he has come into national prominence because of his activity in the field of religious publicity.  Because of notable results achieved through church advertising he has been invited to speak on this subject at three national conventions of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World.


A SUNDAY EVENING AUDIENCE AT ST. PAUL'S METHODIST CHURCH





SCENES FROM A DAY'S WORK

A SUNDAY EVENING LUNCHEON



THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CLUB ROOM


In the midst of a great rooming house population, Mr. Smith has developed service activities in his church to meet the needs of young people away from home in a great city.  Employment bureau, social parlors, club rooms, entertainments, friendship luncheons, etc., are featured.


BOY'S WOODWORKING CLASS



GIRLS' SEWING SCHOOL


Where thousands of children are growing up on paved streets.  Boys' and girls' clubs, industrial classes, printing plant, summer camping trips, movies, etc., in addition to regular religious work, help to train those children in good citizenship.


THE SUMMER INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL


With classes in sewing, cooking, woodworking, printing, hammered brass, art work, hammock and basket weaving, dramatics, kindergarten, and picture framing in addition to lectures on health, citizenship and religious subjects.




Practical Lectures on Labor Problems

NOONDAY MEETING, SULLIVAN MACHINE CO.



NOONDAY MEETING, AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC CO.


In discussing social problems Mr. Smith combines the best university training with daily personal contacts in the working world.  He has walked the picket lines with the strikers, sat in their meetings in labor halls, and addressed thousands in shops, factories and mills.

On the other hand he has a wide acquaintanceship with employers of labor, meets with them in their conferences, finds laborers for them, and enjoys their fullest confidence.  Such a daily experience develops a sanity of judgment and understanding that insures against radicalism.

Dear Rev. Smith:

I want to immediately write you an expression of my deep appreciation for your talk to our employes on the PENALTY OF PEACE, given at the Aiken Institute last week.

There is much to be said of the value of the constructive thought and the able delivery of a theme of this kind for industrial workers.  You have a terse way of expressing your sound judgment which grips the attention and holds the thought of a group of employes in an unusual way.

I am frank to confess that I have had many requests for your early appearance again.  The employes who volunteered their desires in this line have all been deeply impressed by your message.

I think probably our greatest token of appreciation is the number of our repeated requests to you to speak to our employes.  Thanking you cordially for your kindness, and awaiting your word as to when you may find time to favor us again, I am

Sincerely yours,
H. H. HAYLETH, Director Industrial Relations, Benjamin Electric Co.


AUDIENCE OF EMPLOYES OF BENJAMIN ELECTRIC CO.






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AT THE CHAUTAUQUA
ROY L. SMITH Lectures from Life
On the Platform
Mr. Smith's lectures are just like life—full of surprises, bubbling over with good humor, touched here and there with pathos.  He is humorous because he cannot help it—he sees the fun of living.

But pervading all he says is the deep seriousness of a man who is constantly immersed in the pulsing, gripping problems of a complex city life.  His seriousness comes from his own intense living.

His style is unique.  Action characterizes every moment he is before an audience.  You get the impression that he is a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm.  He speaks with unusual rapidity but with perfect enunciation.

Because life is always changing, it is sometimes difficult to announce in advance the subject which Mr. Smith may be expected to use but he has discussed the following titles during recent years:

The High Cost of Low Living.
Pay Day.
The Crime of Consent (Sociological).
The Penalty of Peace.
Up from the Crowd.



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ROY L. SMITH What They Said the Next Day

From Letters to the Bureau
Immense in every sense of the word.

If we buy another course Mr. Smith will be our first choice.

Never did a speaker hold the attention of the big Sunday audience better than did Mr. Smith.

I unhesitatingly commend Mr. Smith to school authorities.

Beautiful language, scientific, intensely interesting.

Never had so many complimentary remarks about a lecturer in the last five years.

A 'One Hundred Point' man.



Some Editorial Opinion

The audience was moved to tears, laughter and serious thinking.—
Chicago Herald.


In great demand as an exponent of church publicity.—
Chicago Examiner.


His work is attracting wide attention in the religious field.—
Chicago Daily News.


Worth going a long way to hear.—
Epworth Herald (Methodist) Chicago.


One of the best Sunday evening audiences in Chicago.—
Northwestern Christian Advocate, Chicago.


Veritable human dynamo.—
Maywood (Ill.) Press.


A wonderful speech.—
Morrisonville (Ill.) Times.


Clever young orator.—
Independence (Kans.) Daily News.


Holds the closest interest from start to finish.—
Caldwell (Kans.) News.


A young man and a genius.—
Carrollton (Mo.) Democrat.


Remarkable grasp of thought.—
Mound City (Mo.) News.


The precision of a master.—
St. Peter (Minn.) Herald.


Best commencement address ever given in Berrien Springs.—
Berrien Springs (Mich.) Era.


Forced to wait many times for applause to cease.—
Grand Haven (Mich.) Tribune.


Unexcelled by any platform man today.—
Decatur (Ind.) Daily Democrat.


One of the greatest public meetings ever held in Bloomfield.—
Bloomfield (Ind.) News.


Many pronounce Mr. Smith's address the best of the ten programs.—
Maryville (Tenn.) Enterprise.


Even more pleased with the second lecture.—
Allerton (Ia.) News.


A dynamic speech, full of wit, every sentence loaded.—
Mt. Pleasant (Ia.) Daily News.


Masterly address crammed full of brilliant thoughts, spoken with machine gun rapidity.—
Portsmouth, (O.) Daily Times.


Long to be remembered for its eloquence, wit and pathos.
Waupaca (Wis.) Co. Post.



From People You Know
A man of vision, splendidly equipped for platform work.—Frank Dixon, Lecturer and Preacher.

To be congratulated on the voice with which he is gifted.—Alice Nielsen, Grand Opera Soprano.

A close and brilliant student, a logical thinker, a genuine whole-souled man.—Ashton C. Shallenberger, Ex-Governor and Congressman from Nebraska.

For originality, variety and all 'round attractiveness, I think there are few men on the American Platform, who are his equals.—Chas. E. Guthrie, Gen'l Sec'y of the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church.



From College Editors

One of the best talks that the students of the university have had the pleasure of listening to this year.
The Vidette, Ill. State Normal University.


The address was full of witty remarks.  A tribute to his oratorical ability was unconsciously given at the end of a very impressive conclusion when someone so far forgot himself as to start to applaud.—
Daily Illini, Univ. of Ill.

A real message from a man who is in vital touch with the greatest problems of Life.—The Chronicle, Northwestern College, Naperville, Ill.




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From Y. M. C. A. Workers
You will be welcome again.—Henry E. Wilson, Secy. Univ. of Ill.

You just hit the spot exactly and everyone was more than enthusiastic.—A. R. Williams, Boys' Secy., North Ave. Larrabee Boys' Club, Chicago.

We have found Mr. Smith a wonderfully effective speaker, always commander of both subject and audience.—Mary E. Wrightson, Gen'l Secy. Chicago Y. W. C. A.

Always in demand with college audiences.—Dickson, State Student Sec'y for Ill.

We have used Mr. Smith in almost a hundred addresses at our building, always acceptably.—W. H. Nagel, Exec. Sec'y, West Side Dept. Y. M, C. A., Chicago.

A power with a student audience.—L. C. Hollister, City Student Sec'y Chicago.



Some Representative School Men
His work along the lines of labor policies as a graduate student showed ability to grasp the complexities of these problems as well as the patience to analyse them and search out the fundamentals on which to develop constructive policies.—F. S. Deibler, Ph. D., Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.

Have heard him again and again, on many themes, and always with interest and profit.—C. B. Swaney, Professor of History, Upper Iowa University.

The permanent value of his addresses very wholesome.—Samuel Weir, Dean of Iowa Wesleyan College.

Remarkable address on the occasion of the thirty-seventh annual class exercises.—Truman W. Brophy, D. D. S., Dean of Chicago College of Dental Surgery.

I have heard many students say his address was the best they had ever heard at the college.—L. A. Bradford, pastor Collegiate Methodist Church, Ames, Ia.

Gripped and held the faculty and student body in a series of addresses in a most remarkable way.—Frank E. Massman, D. D., President Morningside College, Sioux City, Ia.

It has been a long time since I have seen such perfect attention and unstinted appreciation.—Lew R. Sarett.  Head of Public Speaking Dept. University of Ill.