The Tucson citizen., 1902-08-27
CRANKY PROFESSORS.

The big institution of learning
endowed largely by Rockefeller, the
Standard Oil magnate, and known as
the University of Chicago, seems 20
have a wonderful congregation of &C.
centric professors. We do not charge
Professor E. Benjamin Andrews to the
University of Chicago He is the head
of an institution in Nebraska, but II
has doubtless been observed that he
has reserved a large portion of his
hardest and most powerful thoughts
for distribution at the University Of.
Chicago. A few days ago Professor
Andrews paid his respects to the un-
married, then he fired off number OF
'don 'ts'' about the rearing of children
and yesterday he told the world that
beef was better than a cocktail the
morning after a jamboree, provided
you could keep the beef on your stom-
ach. There was the rub: can you
entertain beef in your stomach, let
alone keep it? We fear Professor An
drews is not experienced in that line
Then there is Triggs, the exceptional
remarkable, ne plus ultra Triggs. Yes
terday Triggs took US into socialistic
utopia, and told us that we were to be-
come stockholders in the United States
insead of citizens of sovereign States
The imagination of Triggs is peculiar:
and if he were not college professor
charged with teaching and directing
the minds of the young, he would per-
haps be harmless. And there is a
professor at the Chicago University
named Hall. This gentleman is not
known in crankdom as extensively as
Triggs and some others, but every
once in while he sends forth bid
for fame.
A week or so ago Professor Hall
came to the front as a defender of
slang. In an address to a gathering
of teachers and students, he is reported
to have made the following statement:
Boys and girls need slang. It's good
for them. Let them use it. 1t keeps
them from becoming tongue-bound. If
a youngster tells you of 'hunch,' or a
straight tip or a pipe don't correct
him and give him a stiff substitute. He
has found the right word
This is very bad advice. The teach
ers are said to have "gasped with
astonishment" when the professor rem
dered the recommendation. And no
wonder. The English language is not
so poor as the learned professor seems
to think. 1t abounds in words of good
origin which will express accurately,
graphically and sensibly any idea
which person may desire to clothe IN
decent garb. If Professor Halls ad-
vice were accepted by teachers gener-
ally, children would never learn how
to speak with any degree of elegance
Slang" says the professor, "aids the
young man and young women to ac-
for them never to be fluent than
that they should clothe their ideas in
vulgar garb 1t is true some slang is
witty and picturesque in a way. This is
especially true of the contributions 10
the language that have come from the
mining camps and frontier, of which
Arizona has furnished it's full share 1t
is not necessary that the genealogy of
words should be well defined-that
they should be sired by Greek verb
or damned by a Latin noun-to find
a respectable place in the language
But the use of slang should not be
encouraged, certainly not by those
who teach the young icea how to
shoot.
Some curious statements have been
made recently by Chicago University
professors, but none that is more sur
prising than this defense of slang II
slang is as good as the most elegant and
refined forms of speech, it would seem
that the best way to train children to
the use of language would be to take
them into the slums, where they can
acquire a vocabulary of piquant ex-
pressions that would probably gladden.
the heart of Professor Hall.
1t is we'll that college professors
should be progressive and make m
effort to earn their salaries but really
nowadays there is a growing fear that
some of the great and richly endowed
colleges are being made developing
grounds for cranks.
------Sf----