<P> Street - corner oratory could also present its share of problems . Chief among these was the policy of local law enforcement authorities, who sometimes saw in radical political discourse a form of incitement to crime and violence and a threat to public order . Additionally, large street corner crowds listening to "soapboxers" would often obstruct public walkways or spill into public streets, creating inconveniences to pedestrians or vehicular traffic alike . Consequently, local authorities would often attempt to restrict public oratory through licensing or prescriptive banning . </P> <P> This conflict between dedicated political or religious partisans, on the one hand, and civil authorities intent upon the maintenance of public order, on the other, made soapboxing a matter of frequent public contention . Throughout its history, soapboxing has been tied to the right to speak . From the period 1907 to approximately 1916, the Industrial Workers of the World conducted dozens of free speech fights in the United States, particularly in the West and the Northwest, in order to protect or reclaim their right to soapbox . Many prominent socialists and other radicals cut their political teeth in these or similar free speech fights, including Seattle newspaper publisher Hermon Titus, Socialist Party of Washington leaders Alfred Wagenknecht and L.E. Katterfeld, IWW activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and prominent syndicalist William Z . Foster . </P> <P> Additional problems could be presented to street corner orators from rival political groups or hecklers . A skilled and effective "soapboxer" had to be quick on his feet, figuratively and sometimes literally, having the ability to express political opinions with clarity, to have ready answers for common objections, to be able to deflect hostility with humor or satire, and to be able to face difficulty or danger with fortitude . Soapboxing proved to be what one historian has called "a hard, but nevertheless necessary, process in the development of revolutionary leaders ." </P> <P> During the 1960s, a Free Speech Movement was initiated on the Berkeley, California Campus over fund - raising at an intersection and other political freedoms, and the fight eventually spread to other college campuses across the United States . </P>

Where did the saying get off your soapbox come from