Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-23

Mistakes Frequently Made by People
Who Ought To Know Better.

Mistakes Frequently Made by People
h Ought To Know Better.
A distinguished journalist, testifying
before the Congressional Telephone
Committee, was guilty of the verbal
crime of calling a Cabinet officer a
Cabinet Minister. This malversation
is common enough, yet we have no
more got (this verb is used knowingly
and adviscdly) a Cabinet Minister than
we have got a constitutional monarchy.
We have no ''Ministry," consequently
we have no Ministers. We have merely
Cabinet officers. who are not voted out
of Office, and whose status is so totally
unlike that of Cabinet Ministers that 1t
is not necessary to enlarge upon the
subject. Quite as is the APP
pcllation of the Secretary of State as
the Premier. Mr.. Bayard has figured
rs Premier until he must be weary unto
death of being called what he is not
and never can be. The Premier is the
responsible head of an administration.
The Secretary of State is by no means
that. He is merely the chief of an
Executive department, and in IL Gov
eminent the smallest and least impor-
tant of all the Executive departments.
He is no more a Premier than he is II
pterodactyl or a xcrocolyrium, and if
he is an American he won't want to be
any or either.
is the calling an interviw with the
President an '.audicnce." One con-
stantly reads in newspapers which
ought to know better of these ''audi-
ences," us if the President were the
Rajah of Cawnpore. An audience with
the President of the United States!
Psha!
Nine newspapers out of ten, and
ninety and nine persons out OF a hun.
dred, when they speak Of Congress-
mean the lower house alone, and call 4
Representative q congressman" The
Senate and the House of Representa-
tives taken together constitute the
Congress, and a Senator is as much a
Congressman as a Representative is.
A like confusion of terms exists regard
ing the words "Ministcr" and CAM
%bassador." Our representatives at
foreign courts are not in any sense
Ambassadors. They are merely Min
listers Resident. Only six countries in
the world-the five great European
powers and Turkey-send or receive
Ambassadors.
The difference between an act and a
law is also very great, but the contcm-
porary press generally speak of them
as identical. An act may be passed by
both Houses of Congress, receive the
Presidents signature and go on the
statute books, but until the courts
have passed upon it is not a law.
Many acts are unconstitutional; others
are imperative; others again conflict
with established laws. An act does
not become a law until it has proved
its r0ison u ctre. Another un-Amcri-
can blunder which is constantly made
is speaking of u private soldier as Il
common soldier. This may do in
European countries, where class dis
tinctions are rigidly observed in civil
as well as military life. but it won't do
at all in this free and glorious republic,
where, rs the Evangelist says, there is
nothing common or unclean. These
are errors picked up at random-but
one starting out to find them in books,
newspapers and magazines of the best
class could light upon two or three
billions of them a ycar.-N. Y. Mail
and E1press.