By 1902, the year when John Marcy, their first child, was born, Walter and Anna were settled in a little house on the lake shore in Evanston.  Walter was getting along nicely.  He liked teaching and had begun to follow his own personal approach in both classroom and laboratory.  He liked experimenting, and he found great satisfaction in his ability to imbue his students with his own enthusiasm for experimentation.

His home life was pleasant and being a young father was exciting.  Evanston was congenial, and adjoining Chicago was challenging and stimulating.  Scott had a vivid anticipation of great departures just beyond the horizon.  He saw the signs of them in technological developments, and he related these with findings disclosed in his psychological laboratory.

This was his state of mind when a big new opportunity came his way — in 1902. How this happened is told by Edwin Balmer, the novelist and associate publisher of Redbook, in a letter written on February 2, 1950:
"As you may know, my father (Thomas Balmer) was in the early years of this century one of the leading advertising men of the country.  He was a very forwardlooking executive and he realized that advertising lacked a theoretical study, that is, it had not been presented as a profession based upon an examination of the theory of public appeal.  There had been no work of any consequence whatever done on the psychology of advertising.
"I had just graduated from Harvard; and Dr. Muensterberg was professor of psychology at Harvard and he had a very great reputation at that time.  Naturally he occurred to us first as a man to make the proper studies.  I went with my father to see Dr. Muensterberg who was very much interested in the idea but he turned it down-because it was practical.  At that time, and perhaps even now, many a professor thought anything practical was beneath him.
"The second best-known psychologist at that time was Dr. Thorndike who was at Columbia; and we went to see him and he was equally interested, and he almost did it.  But he also was somewhat moved by the feeling that if he made this study, it would not be so much a study for university purposes as for the practical use of business.  And a sort of curse was still on that.
"Fortunately Walter Dill Scott was a younger man and he had the instinct for the future rather than for the past; and almost immediately he saw that the study would be an important one.  And it would not condemn itself to him because it would be put to practical use.
"I believe my father agreed to meet all the costs of the publication of the book ... anyway it was through his co-operation that Dr. Scott was able to write the first book The Theory and Practice of Advertising, which was followed by The Psychology of Advertising and others.  It was a very important series of books for the advertising profession and for my father; and it was equally important to Dr. Scott because it made him almost at once a national figure. . . . "

According to Scott's own recollections, Thomas Balmer first took up the matter with Prof. Coe, head of the philosophy and psychology department.  Coe was interested, but suggested that Balmer present the idea to Scott.

This Balmer did.  And he and Scott took an immediate liking to each other.  Balmer's sideburns, his forceful manner of speech, his zealous devotion to an idea, and his rather formal garb gave him the air of a scholarly clergyman or a high-minded schoolmaster.  His large head and medium build went well with his magnetism, his dynamic drive.

His specially was advertising, but his quick, keen mind ranged widely.  He was interested in world affairs and had an understanding of history.  This, together with his general orientation in culture and in humanism, enabled him to see the possibilities of advertising as a popular educational force, in the broad sense of the term, and made him eager to raise its standards of veracity and effectiveness.

Scott's recollection that Coe had introduced him to Thomas Balmer is confirmed by Coe;
 "The manner in which he (Scott) became the world's Number One authority in the field of the psychology of advertising is vivid in my memory," Prof.  Coe wrote.
 "The head of a great advertising corporation came to me with remarks and questions like these:
"Advertising seeks to produce changes in men's minds.  There must be laws of mind that determine whether an advertisement shall be effective or ineffective.  Should not advertising be investigated from a psychological point of view?  Otherwise, how can we know why some advertisements click and others do not?'
"When I agreed with what he had said, he asked whether I would consent to undertake such a study.  I replied that I was fully occupied otherwise, but that if Dr. Scott cared to undertake such a study I would approve his doing so.  The important consequences of Dr. Scott's consent to do so are well known."

Scott liked the idea.  An analysis of advertising from a psychological standpoint struck him as an appealing opportunity to apply the principles of psychology functionally.  He recognized that the field of advertising had a tremendous future, and that made the possibility of raising its standards a particularly alluring challenge.  These factors, together with Balmer's sincerity, enthusiasm, and objectives, helped Scott overcome his reluctance to defy the canons of academic tradition.

Balmer told Scott of a national convention of advertising men soon to be held in Chicago.  He said he would like to arrange for Scott to give a talk before that gathering on what psychology could do for advertising.  Scott agreed to deliver the lecture.  It was received so enthusiastically that John Lee Mahin, another leader in the advertising field, undertook to start a magazine primarily for the purpose of publishing an article by Scott each month.

The periodical bore the name of Mahin's Magazine.   Through it Scott's articles, under the general title of "The Psychology of Advertising," were soon reaching the advertising men of the English-speaking world.  The series ran several years, and in 1903 a number of the articles were reprinted in a volume called The Theory and Practice of Advertising, the first book on that subject ever published.

It was dedicated to Thomas Balmer "in recognition of the services he has rendered in elevating the ethical standards of the advertising world and in assisting to place advertising upon a scientific basis."

An interesting review of the book appeared in the Woman's Herald for Men, a periodical in which Scott's writings later appeared.  It commented on the fact that Scott's analyses of advertising had "excited widespread comment and discussion."
"Some of this," it continued, "has been not only scornful but denunciatory, for the day of hit-or-miss advertising and the necessity for its defense by its representatives has by no means passed.  For the most part it has been discriminating and appreciative; and it is safe to say that in some respects, Prof.  Scott's writings, have revolutionized advertising opinion."

A passage from The Theory and Practice of Advertising shows how Scott handled the subject:

Most people can imagine with some degree of satisfaction how things look.  Not quite so many can imagine how things sound or feel.  Very many have difficulty in imagining how things taste or smell.  This would be sufficient ground for appealing especially to visual images if the commodity was primarily a thing of sight.  When the objects advertised are things primarily perceived by other senses than the eye, the greatest care should be taken to awaken those more difficult images, i.e., those of sound, touch, taste, smell, etc....

The sense organs have been called the windows of the soul.  The more sensations we receive from an object the better we know it.  The function of the nervous system is to make us aware of the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, etc., of the objects in our environment.  The nervous system which does not respond to sound or to any other sensible qualities is defective.

Advertisements are sometimes spoken of as the nervous system of the business world.  The advertisement of musical instruments which contains nothing to awaken images of sounds is a defective advertisement.  That advertisement of foods which awakens no images of taste is a defective advertisement.  As our nervous system is arranged to give us all the possible sensations from every object, so the advertisement which is comparable to the nervous system must awaken in the reader as many different kinds of images as the object itself can excite.

Scott's magazine articles, along with his books of this period, The Theory and Practice of Advertising, The Psychology of Advertising, The Psychology of Advertising in Theory and in Practice, Increasing Human Efficiency in Business, Influencing Men in Business, and Aids in Selecting Salesmen, all published between 1903 and 1917, entitled him to be called the first business psychologist.  Such other books of his as Personnel Management and Science and Common Sense in Working With Men, both of which were written and published later, greatly enhanced his standing in the field of business and advertising.

Scott, the writer and experimenter, did not confine himself, however, to the field of business psychology alone.  In 1906 he wrote The Psychology of Public Speaking, another first in another sphere of study.  In his introduction to the book, Scott wrote:

   There is, to the author's knowledge, no published work under this title, and indeed no psychology published for the special use of public speakers....

   The public speaker's whole task is to influence the human mind.  Psychology is a systematic study of this same mind.  It is absurd to suppose that psychology could have nothing of benefit for the public speaker.  The connection between psychology and public speaking is so direct that psychology as a science will be extended by a careful study of the action of the mind as manifested in public speeches, in their delivery and their influence upon audiences.  At the same time every public speaker should be benefited by systematizing his knowledge of the human mind, for his success depends upon his ability to deal with this same human mind.

How did Scott happen to become concerned with the problem in the middle of the first decade of the 20th century?  The reason was a practical one, just before then he had emerged as a national figure.  He spoke before large gatherings of business and professional men and women.  On many occasions he spoke before such gatherings on the psychology of advertising.  It became his responsibility to inform, enlighten, and influence large audiences, to get certain ideas across to them, and
to persuade them of the desirability of adopting departures in their work.

Moreover, he addressed them as an expert on the theory and psychology of advertising.  He undertook to point out and explain to advertising men how advertisements might be made much more effective.  He thought and talked in terms of getting the maximum message-conveying impact across by means of printed words and accompanying pictorial illustrations.  It was only natural that he should become conscious of the need for similar study of the spoken word.

His dedication indicates he had an early interest in the subject.  That is not surprising, since he was both a teacher and a psychologist.  The dedication of The Psychology of Public Speaking is "to the artist, Prof. Robert McLean Cumnock, who awakened in [the author] an abiding interest in public speaking, and to the scientist, Prof. George A. Coe, who inspired in him a love for psychology."

As a student, Scott had taken a course in public speaking under Prof. Cumnock, and the experience had left a lasting impression.  The fact that he called Cumnock an artist tells us much not only about Cumnock but also about Scott's attitude toward public speaking.

Scott has always been inclined to deprecate his own performances on the public rostrum.  The fact is, however, that both in content and manner of delivery his speeches and lectures have served their purposes well.

By and large they have been functional in substance, tone, and approach rather than declamatory and rhetorical.  But they have been witty and wise.  They have made memorable use of allusions and figures of speech.  They have marshaled facts with telling ingenuity and forcefulness and at the same time touched the emotions and the senses by means of imagery and dramatic invocation of concrete examples.  His tone and manner of delivery have been direct and intimate, yet not sentimental nor merely conversational.

In breaking ground for the implementation of applied psychology early in the century, Scott had to contend with opposition in academic circles.  He had also to keep ever in mind that he was dealing with a subject that was then a mystery to most people.  How foreign psychology seemed to the uninitiated he learned when he returned to central Illinois after ten years to visit boyhood friends.

When Walter told his old Sunday School teacher he was teaching psychology, she threw up her hands in horror and exclaimed, "What under Heaven is that?" Scott noted that the emphasis was on the word under, thus indicating that it could have nothing to do with Heaven, and hence not worthy of the consideration of an earnest young man.

When an old farmer heard the word "psychology," he exclaimed, "What on earth is that?" This, observed Scott, was a little more encouraging, for it at least seemed to imply that the farmer assumed psychology had a place on our planet.

In telling of this episode in the introduction to his Psychology of Public Speaking, Scott adds: "But when a more profane youth substituted for the two words, on earth, an expression which is excluded from polite society, it became evident that the farmer had no intentions of praising."

Another former acquaintance who had read articles on witchery, telepathy, astrology and kindred subjects, believed that he knew what psychology was.  He showed what he thought of the waywardness of his former boy acquaintance by asking him, 'What yer teachin' that tom-foolery fer?"

Examining the content of The Psychology of Public Speaking and noting how full it is of quotable passages that remain perennially pertinent, brought to mind the prominent Chicago clergyman, S. Felix Mendelsohn.  When he was told a biography of Walter Dill Scott was being written, he exclaimed, "Wonderful," and then proceeded to relate how he had been using Scott's Psychology of Public Speaking profitably for more than 35 years.

Equally enthusiastic were the remarks made about the book by Prof. James Luther Adams of the University of Chicago.  Mendelsohn  recalls that when he first picked up the volume in a bookstore in Cincinnati, he was particulary impressed by a passage that caught his attention when he first leafed through it:
 "There are certain well-established methods of securing homogeneity in a group of individuals.  One of the most helpful methods is to get the audience to sit close together.  It is easy to speak to a packed house, but it would take a Demosthenes to make an impression when separated from his audience by a yawning abyss of empty seats .... The touching of elbows adds to the consciousness of the presence of others in a way that cannot be secured in any other way."

These sentences occur in Chapter XII, which bears the title: "Psychology of the Crowd and of the Audience." They come in a subsection of that chapter, headed: "Methods of Changing an Audience into a Crowd."

The first of these methods is getting the audience to sit close together.  "A second method," for organizing a homogeneous crowd, says Scott in his still highly helpful and stimulating book, "is that of ritual.  Here all the members perform the same acts, all rise and sit together, all read or recite the same formulae, etc. . . .
 "A third method of creating a crowd is to get all the audience to cheer during the first part of the performance.  One of the usual methods of securing such cheering is to have the speaker introduced in such a way that he will be applauded as he steps forth to speak.  Another favorite method  is to begin by telling a funny story.  It does not seem to matter what sort of story it is just so it ‘brings down the house.' Another method, and one more frequently employed in operas than on the lecture platform, is to have the performer enter in a more or less formal and impressive manner just as he is to begin his performance.  Under such conditions the applause seems to be greater than when the performer has been visible for some length of time before he is presented to the audience
 "A fourth method of welding heterogeneous individuals into a homogeneous audience is by the presentation of common ideas.  Such ideas should be saturated with feeling and must be recognized as universal ideas which will impress all the individuals in the same way.  Among such ideas which are frequently used might b mentioned the following: Freedom, liberty, equality honest labor, character, culture, manhood, chivalry bravery, industry, liberality, brotherhood of man, Christianity, salvation; also such personages as Moses, Christ Paul, Washington, Lincoln, etc. . . ."

The chapter ends with a sub-section on "Methods of Swaying a Crowd."

On every page of the 222 page book there are ideas suggestions, insights, and compact nuggets of illuminating information that are still vital, valid, useful, and entertaining .

The approach and scope of the volume are indicated by the headings of its 14 chapters: Mental Imagery, Mental Imagery in Public Speaking, Modern Theories of the Emotions, Emotions and Their Expressional Control, Emotions and Their Proper Expressional Methods.  Darwin and Wundt's Principles of Emotional Expressions, The Fluctuation of Attention, Rhythm, Rhythm in Written and Oral Discourse, Suggestion, Rendering an Audience Suggestible, Psychology of the Crowd and of the Audience, Memory, Practical Applications of the Psychology of Memory.