El Imparcial. (San Juan, P.R.) 1918-197?, 1918-11-07
EDITORIAL VIEWS.
As wethe entire world-are the
actors in the tremendous drama.
whose end now seems to be rapidly
ON mortal
SPEECH.


fled to pass unbiased judgement about the multitude
of things that hear see relation with the conflict
We are so heated with passion that shall not live
enough to cool down. and on the coming generations will
fall the task to situate every thing in its proper place
Distance in time has the same virtue distance in
space, and consequently people living hundred years
from will be able to analyze actual events such
manner that each separate thing will appear to them
with due perspective and Individuality
Take for instance the many utterances Of the leal
ing figures How could determine what is going to be
'scassc to remain immortal to be repeated and quot
ed centuries from today and what is but trash common
place talk not worth the paper it is written and des
tined to oblivion like soap bubbles in the air? We
told that Lincoln's Gettysburg address passed almost
& aunnoticed at the time it delivered. Napoleon's
famous harengues, and his short ncisive napoleonc
phrases certainly did not gain their title literary
ter leces when they read or shouted to his armies
In the can tell now what will remain
of everything said by Lloyd George. Wilson, Clemen
ceau, DAnnunzo Maeterlnck etc. although everything
thafows from their pens mouths naturally
enough worthy Of being written with gold letters in the
book of Fame.
On the other hand we should abstain ourselves
from crltcizlng according to conventional standards
of Grammar and Rhetoric the saying Of these world fl
cures Let postegty decide if they really erred if they
Werenot justified in placing the verb before the subject
vceversa in such and such sentence, or if the very
import of the idea that the writer wished to convey
required to break and recas the rules of speech Apro
pose Of all this notice what The New Yo,k Time has to
Say some school teachers that Mr. Wilson has found
Oh his way:
"IMPROVING' MR. WILSONS'S ENGLISH
In Mr.. Wilson's note of Oct Is to Germany is this
passage:
'Cities and villages, if not destroyed, are
being stripped of all they contain not only, but
l ofthen Of their very inhabtants.''
The unusual placing of ''not on1y;' Mr. Wilson's fe
citous refusal to make it follow stripped" " the en-
phasis derived from its later place. evident Just
DANTE forced words to say what he meant them say
Mr. Wilson's arranges them that they speak with the
most force.
I'll Who cold have thought that in friendly, gallant
Canada these lines in Mr.. Wilson'S note would find bit
of correction revision excision, such his writings
have probably not been subjected to since he an
undergraduate at Princenton and the Professor Rhe
toric unwontedly severe having ravaged his CHR,
perhaps at shaving time? The Montreal Gazette res
trcts its correction to removing ''not only' from the
station to which Mr. Wilson's appointed it and making
it buffer phrase between strpped and ''of stripp
ed not only of all they contang" This is piece of
thodox restoration The judicous corrector for the
press keeps in mind however, that to change extraor
dnary position Of words is probably to Disregard to
deliberate intention of the writer
In The Toronto Globes version ''not only has dis
appeared and ''but often' is replaced by and often
times, poetical substitute. Surely these Canadian
recensons from whmsey Of the wires but from
the benevolent and honest desire to ''improve Mr.
Wilson's English