University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-10-21
New York Post Replies to
Attacks on English of
Daily Journals.
MUST HAVE CLEARNESs
What Style Lacks in Grace
Is Made Up by Forceful
Expressions.

pIluleu lue loliONluS eullOIldlp HAS d
daily circulation of $4,000, almost en-
tirely among cultivated people. The
paper is noted for it's careful English
and also for the brlliancy of the let
tiers from voluntary correspondence.
The present editor is Rollo Ogden)
The headline announcement of some
body or other "Smartening Windsor
Castle" and another to the effect that
certain occurrences "peeve" the in
habitants of an afflicted American vii
lage, are the latest examples offered to
the critics, who are as numerous as
they are unmerciful of the English
that is used by newspapers. Their
complaints are, indeed. comprehensive.
In the first place, newspaper diction is
bad, ranging from 'indisposition 20
ward fine distinctions" down to the
most inexcusable improprieties and
even barbarisms, if not barbarities.
Words, or at least combinations of
letters looking like words, are coined
out of hand, synonyms are used inter-
changeably, and meanings are
stretched and narrowed regardlessly.
Moreover, sentence and paragraph
structure is so naive, to put it gently,
that rhetoric-makers, however they
may fail to acknowledge their indebt-
edness, owe almost as much to the un-
known writer's of the "stories" that
have caught their interest as they do
to their own unconsciously collabor-
ating composition classes. Nor are
their explanations of this deficiency
In the art which would be supposed
to find its natural development at the
hands of those whose profession it is
to marshal the columns that daily
challenge the attention of the world,
any more flattering to the press. Haste.
the necessity, always assumed by the
critics, often real, of writing at 4
speed that leaves no time for style, is
the least discreditable of the excuses
vicariously presented, the favorite one
being the irresistible desire of the
reporter-it is his callous shoulders
that bear the brunt of the blame
not to inform, but to startle.
Require Terse Headlines.
1t is to be said in the first place
that every conceivable and inconceiv-
able monstrosity of rhetorical crime
can, like everything else, be found in
the pages that today give the age anu
body of the time his form and pres
sure But, while it is easy to cite in
stances of careless diction and spine
less structure, nothing less than an
Examination as broad as the arraign.
ment is sweeping will furnish grounds
sufficient for trustworthy conclusions
In such an examination headlines are
as much to be considered as the title
of book is to weigh in ones judg
ment of an authors style. A headline
is, indeed, a title, and. while we should
not dream of defending poor English
anywhere, we would insist that news
papers headlines are about as much
of an indication Of the same newspa
per's stylistic quality-we say moth
ing of its journalistic-as an auc
tinnaor'c nhroSnS nf his
letters. The paramount desirability
in a headline of short words-a usage
upon which rhetorics are not unknown
to insists responsible for most O
the offenders there found. When W.
turn to the articles beneath them, how
ever, we come upon very differen
condition. OF the tree general,
recognized qualities good style
| clarity, force, and grace--it is tn
| last and the last alone in which critic
| of newspaper English find their ma
| terial. 1t would be ludicrously super
| f1uous to illustrate here the prevailing
| clearness of what one reads in tn
| daily press. To it everything else i
| sacrificed. He who runs through tn
| pages of his paper at speed tina
| keeps even pace with that of his ca
| or train, and yet understands what Il
| reads, without difficulty and witho.t
| delay, would give short hearing to
complaint on this score. The sam
assertion may safely be made Of tn
second of the trio of good qualities
Whenever and wherever force
needed, the reporter, no matter wha
his limitations of time and distractin
circumstances. manages to put it int
his writing.
Newspapers Express Culture.
The result is plain-and inevitabl'
Beauty. grace, suggestion of that fin;
touch which confers upon its objes