The National tribune., 1907-10-24


not the very best of friends, and that
the President has suspended" two of
them. OF course, the President has no
right to suspend a river pilot on any
thing, and that part of it is probably I,
lie made out of whole cloth, but that
the President had more or less trouble
with the river pilots on the Mississippi
on his trip to bearland is probably true.
A pilot on the Mississippi River is a
privileged character, or at least he used
to be, and if he didn't like the way
things were going aboard his boat he
used to run into a Sandbar or swamp
by way of revenge. 1t seems that Two
specially chartered boats kept buttinS
into the line of march adown the big
river, and once there was great danger
of collision, which angered the Presi-
dent and caused the order of suspsn-
sion" for one pilot, and few hours
later a big boat specially chartered by
some PittSburgers butted in in a very
offensive fashion. 1t is said the Presi-
dent could have stood all else save the
siren" of the boat which kept up its
Screeching the whole night thru as j
salute to Teddy" and the President
could not sleep. Then came the second
suspension. Suspension or no, if it is
true that the boats Captain permitted
such nuisance to be perpetrated some
body ought to be suspended Fun be-
comes criminal when it exceeds the
limits of law and order.
Representative Boutell, of Illinois, has
evolved a plan, or revamped an old one
would probably be nearer the truth, to
make the House once more a "delibera-
tive body" as he states it. He wants
to seat the members on benches. il you
please, drawn close together, and re-
duce the size of the Representative Hall.
He thinks that one reason why the
House has gone back from its former
condition of '.talkee-talkee" is because
the chamber is SO big it takes a fog
horn voice to make ones self heard.
and, beside that, when a member is
making a cut-and-dried speech which
Is not of interest to anybody, the men,
bers of the House turn to their desks
and carry on their correspondence in
stead of listening. MIR. Boutell thinks
that the benches, the smaller room, the
absence of all opportunity to write, will
make the members more attentive. Not
a bit Of it, Mr.. Boutell. What Congress
needs is public men who know how to
talk. There really ought to be a law
which makes it obligatory on every
man elected to Congress to go thru a
school of elocution and learn how to
speak properly; not only how to use
the small voice that nature has endowed
most men with, but how TO speak plain
English without numbering it. 1t is q
torment to listen to men who make the
laws for the country constantly saying
"Guv'ment' when they mean Govern
ment; to hear the Chief Executive called
the Pres dent" ''tfle gentlm'n frum
North Carliny," Consecutive" "certn-
Y,' Cuban AN" for and, Jus for
Just, "argy" for argue, "delibr'tiv'" " for
deliberative,'" "mech'ism'' for mechan-
ism, "leguslashun'' for legislation,
"r'stricshun' for restriction, par
graphs" for paragraphs, ''r'vishun' for
revision, 'quiv'lent'' for equivalent
'propriashun' for appropriation. biz
nus" for business, and SO on ad in
finftum. The everyday member of Con-
gress-House and Senate-is a slouohy
user of the English language. He either
does not know how to pronounce the
commonest words or else he is too lazy
to do it. Consequently when he talks
the scholar, the educated person, gets
so disguised with the diction that he
will not sit still and listen to really ex-
cellent sentiments clothed in English
cut bias and puckered in the seams.
AS matter of fact this sloucliiness of
pronunciation extends far wide of Con-
gress; it goes into the pulpit, the bench
and the bar: and in society-weil, it is
positively painful to listen to a conver-
sation between two society women. /
heard a graduate of Wellesly and a high
school teacher talking to each other at
a luncheon the other day, and really
they talked what would have been an
unknown language when Webster and
Calhoun and Clay and the Adamses and
Jefferson and Hamilton and Monroe and
men like that were making the world
Sit up and take notice. They split in
finitiyes, their verbs and nouns were
evidently unacquainted with each other,
they ellided words scandalousiy and
their infections had never been heard
of by professors of elocution. 1t is all
an evil habit which spreads in ever
widening circles, and it ought to be cut
short. AT any rate, people who hope To
hold public attention from the platform
should learn elegance of diction, enun-
citation and pronunciation if they care
to get hold of their audiences and keep
hold.
Mrs. Adlai Stevenson, wife of ex-vice
President Stevenson and former Presi-
. pdent-General Of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, is as active
mentally as ever. At a meeting of the
State Federation of Woman's Clubs in
Bloomington, Ill, the other day she
went for President Roosevelt's theories
OF motherhood after this fashion:
There u no thoughtful woman in
America said Mrs Stevenson, who
has not been more than startled by the
appeal for larger families. While this
appeal has been most urgent, ] do not
recall that there has been one word in
reference to the health or life of the
mother, nor has the ability of the mtth-
er, physically, mentally. morally, spir-
itually or financially, 10 rear children
been touched upon.
THE question should not be how
many children, but their condition and
what kind of citizens they will make.
This plea for the little ones, that some
thought should be given to prolonging
The life OF the mother and thus protect
the babes, should occupy first place in
the work of mother clubs. The size of
the family is of less importance"
And that is the keynote of the race
perpetuation idea-iiirst, responsible
motherhood; second, respectable moth
erhood: third, willing motherhood. Mrs.
Stevenson's plea is unanswerable.
Rear-Admiral Selfridge, who was re-
tired by law in 1898, and who confesses
TO 10 years-no, II; but what's the diff
ference when the heart is young ?-is
going TO take another wife. Miss Ger
trude Miles, of Boston. She is 6l. and
q lifetime friend of the family.