Speeches, 1938-1985

This subseries includes speeches made by Harold Brayman, primarily in his capacity as public relations director at Du Pont, but also on various other occasions. The speeches were presented to the board of directors of Du Pont, press conferences, professional public relations seminars and conferences, and annual business meetings of corporations. Brayman also presented guest lectures on business and public relations at graduate schools, made introductions at numerous meetings, spoke at clubs such as Rotary or the Lincoln Club in Wilmington, and made presentations to alumni groups and the executive council of Cornell University.

The topics of Brayman's speeches most often concerned the relations of business with the public. He spoke about American consumers, the power of choice in the market, the need for business to meet the consumer's demands, and the importance of public support to successful business ventures. Brayman promoted the benefits of business to the American standard of living and spoke about the responsibility of industry to contribute to social progress. He frequently chose to speak about management issues such as production, research, monopoly, competition, bigness in business, and the relations between business and government. The miscellaneous speech cards at the end of the subseries include several "sales speeches" and speeches made at the National Press Club during the late 1930s.

Interesting speeches representative of the diverse audiences and topics in this subseries include a press conference announcing the development of cellophane as a new product at Du Pont, a lecture on the business organization of the Du Pont company delivered to a graduate class at the U.S. Naval Academy, and a testimony before the Finance Committee of the U.S. Senate for the Frear-Simpson bill which concerned the court-ordered divestment of General Motors and Du Pont stock.

The "lines and stories" files at the end of the Speeches subseries consist of quotes and anecdotes which Brayman collected. Much of the material is clippings from newspapers and magazines, but Brayman also typed accounts of stories he had heard or quips that he picked up in conversations. The frequent subjects of the "lines and stories" are politics and politicians, public relations, journalists, and economics.