and correctly interpreted by the average person attending a political meeting, with resultant increase in the effectiveness of the arguments they support.
In municipal campaigns, especially, the lantern talk could be of very great interest to the voters if the slides were carefully prepared and arranged in a logical sequence. By using simple methods of charting, almost any kind of facts could be portrayed so that they would surely be correctly understood. Concise statements in conjunction with the charts should, of course, be used, somewhat as the main titles are placed under the illustrations of this book. Slides showing snappy questions could be thrown on the screen rapidly, and the succeeding slides could then answer the questions. Recent public improvements, bridges, etc., could be illustrated by maps and actual photographs. Pictures of fire apparatus and views showing the efficiency of the street-cleaning methods, etc., could be used to add interest and to bring out certain points in regard to the operation of specific departments. There is no doubt that properly prepared lantern slides would have great weight with the voters, for lantern slides might seem to present a less biased point of view than would the average partisan campaign orator.
In using lantern slides for campaign purposes it is not necessary to have a large hall for each showing of the lantern slides. Automobiles could readily be equipped so that two cars could work together. One auto would carry a screen, which could be very quickly put up, somewhat in the manner of a sail, when that part of the town had been reached where the lantern talk was to be given to a crowd in the street or on some vacant lot. The other automobile could carry the lantern on a stand between the front and rear seats. The power for the lantern would be obtained in the ordinary manner from tanks of oxygen and hydrogen carried in the car. A car containing the lantern equipment would be entirely self-contained and no electric wires or other attachments would be necessary. The lantern car would be stopped the proper distance away from the lantern screen on the other car, and the slides could be shown on the screen within three minutes after arrival in any desired section of the city. In thickly populated districts it would probably not be necessary to announce a political meeting of this kind, as word would be passed very rapidly that a lantern talk was in progress and the desired crowd would collect spontaneously.
