The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-11-17
CORRECT SPEECH A NECESSITY
FOR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

panied by a drive
The drive" usually is launched in compliance with a procia-
nation issued by the president, the governor, the mayor or the
county chairman, and may extend for a specified tune soineuneS
for a day, sometimes for a week, and sometimes 1t continues untl
the thing sought is accomplished. II
There have been so many drives" that it is impossible, as it
would be Improbable, to recount them We have had Liberty
loan, Red Cross, y. M. C. A. Y. NJ. II. A., X. OF c, safety hrSt
fire prevention, 90 to church, better babies, and numerous other
drives that will be recalled by the mention of these
Some days ago an effort was made in a modest way 10 ~ IN
terest the people in a week set apart for better speech. Inc
drive against slang and indifferent language did not make much
impression in this section. In some localities the promoters were
more successful.
In order to excite interest and stimulate support from the
public in a drive" it is necessary that the collection of money
shall be the chief aim, and the larger the sum sought the more
But there is no reason why any person should not immeasur
ably profit from the result OF giving thought to the purity OF
language used for a week.
Every young man handicapped with a lack of education and
who desires to fit himself for a higher position should read history,
biography and essays he should read the messages, speeches and
other writings of Woodrow Wilson, whose productions are the
best examples of simplicity Of style and accuracy Of statement OF
any man in America today. AS a rule a person should conhne
his reading to books that have endured at least ten years.
Perhaps the volume that has been the greatest factor in pro
noting the purity Of the language is Boswells Lie Of Johnson.
AT least it has welded a tremendous influence upon some. John
son was a stickler for accuracy in speech. In this connection
Boswell said Of him
"He found fault viii me for using the phrase, to make
money. Don't you see satd"he, the improperly Of it? To
make money is to coin it; you should say get money The
phrase, however, is, think, pretty current. But Johnson was at
all times jealous Of infractons upon the genuine English language,
and prompt to repress c~olloquial barbarisms; such as pledging
myself for undertaking, line, for department or branch, as the
civil line, the banking line.
"He was particularly indignant against the almost universal
use OF the word idea in the sense Of notion or opinion, when it is
clear that idea can only SIGNIFY something OF which an image can
be formed in the mind. We may have an idea or image of a noun
tain, a tree, "a building but we cannot surely have an idea or
image of an argument or proposition.
yet we hear the sages OF the law delivering their ideas
upon the question under consideration; and the first speakers in
parliament entirely conciding in the idea which has been ably
stated by an honorable member or '%reprobating an idea uncon-
stitutional, and fraught with the most dangerous consequences
to a great and free country Johnson called this modern can't"
A great deal fwhat DR. Johnson said in HZ7 is true in 1919.
III he deplored modern cant" or slang, as we call it, what would
he not say if compelled to listen to some of our modern states
men who feel that to get on the level with their audience they
must not only sly but mutilate the language? Only one ia
mihar with his strength of character, his inflexible opinions and
his tremendous power of expression can begin to appreciate the
extent Of the horror that would agitate his giant frame if he were
obliged to read a modern newspaper.
DR.. Johnson did not subscribe to the diplomatsts definition
that language is a collection of words intended to conceal mean
ing, He believed in precision. He believed that precision coulc
tbe attained only by choice of the word that accurately and ade
quately expresses what the writer has in mind, and by exclusion
OF that which either denotes or connotes something else. He be
Il heved, as Quintiian puts it, that the writer should so write tina
his reader not only may, but must, understand.
He would have written the league Of nations so that it woul
have had only one literal and servceable meaning. 1T would no
have required interpretations and reservations il Woodrow Wilson
had written it. The one he did draft was so perfectly Transparent
that European statesmen insisted upon substituting another, whc
precipitated a wrangle that has lasted six months in the senate, AM
will result, II it is ratified, in the adoption OF interpretations an
reservations intended to more accurately define the meaning
the document.
Most of the mistakes in the use of words in newspapers ar
>"eHlA
one often reads of an alleged murderer" The use is mainly
avoid the danger Of libel suit, One can alege a murder but ne
a murderer; a crime but not a criminal.
The use of build for make is a common mistake. We hG
OF men building a fire, a canal and even a tunnel. A writer HI
said that if the woodchuck is skilled in the American tongue
probably speaks Of building a hole.
You will read where a man committed suicide" What
did was to kill himself or take his life, We might as accurate
say a man committed matrimony.
The politician in this section who speaks so glowingly
Democracy when he means the Democratic party would not tmr
Of calling the Christian church the Christianity, though he mig
do SO with equal accuracy.
Within the past week we read where a thief entered a hor
and stole the laundry. We have it from the woman herself, wi
says it was not a laundry, but a bundle Of clothes that was stole
1t is not uncommon to hear a person spoken Of as moneyt
If his wealth consisted Of cattle or oil he might as accurately
spoken of as cattled or oiled.
In this day of scarcity of residences many persons speak
roomers in their homes. A lodger might as well be called a bedt
or a mealer.
There is no limit to the number Of words and expressiC
incorrectly used. But it is almost as great a fault to be hypt
critical as it is to be indifferent, and Of all the pests on earth
most Objectionable is the intolerant pedant.
The important thing is to speak simply, concisely, accurate
and in speaking we'll be sure to speak well Of your ~neighbor.