davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Pedantic VS.. Unpedantic
} the Editor of The Tribune

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: May | have the privilege Of a
few words relative to the ut is me" dis
cussion in reply to your correspondent
who signs himself Common Sense?
lie says that at is l" sounds pcdantic
and forced Let me assure him that this
is purely matter of habit. To my ear,
for instance, ut is me" is quite revolt
ing. Common Sense" says that usage"
should be a sufficient warrant for his
favorite "idiom." But it is probably
true that the phrase 81 amt had
Common Sense advocate the use of
that expression?
Principally, however, desire to pune
ture (would it were once for alb that
absurd argument that the French say
"It is me" (Cest mol. AS French is
my native tongue, | write with conf
dence upon this subject As a matter
of fact the French objective case of the
personal pronoun is "me" pronounced
"muh"). The word "moi" is properly a
datlve, as IN "a mol,' but 1t can be used
for purposes of euphony either as
nominative or an objective. For in
stance, Frenchman will say, by way
Of emphasis "J'ai fain, moi" Ct am hum
cry y. That moi" is nominative in
this phrase should be obvious, even to
Common Sense" 1t is just as truly
nominative in "C'est moi" and for the
same reason that it is so in English,
namely, the logical reason that the neu-
trail verb "to be" takes the same case
after as before it,
BY the way, Common Sense" uses the
word "ungrammaticism.' "Grammati-
cism" is noun (See Century Dict).
By what usage" can the prefix Gun" be
attached to it? PEDANTIC.
Yonkers, N. Y, July 80, 1920.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03

Allies would, Of course, have been
less and Russian losses smaller than
those which came in consequence Of
her detection.
Excuses, Of course, can be made
for the Russian people. In the
breasts of all, as Roosevelt once re-
marked, turks the beast Of selfish
cowardice. Lenine summoned it into
life by plausible justification. He
broke the morale Of the army by
organizing it's rank and file against
its officers. All this was deliberate
He denies his purpose was to serve
Germany. The whole world knows
that he served Germany.
Baseless is tho claim that Russia
in 1917 had no option but to submit.
Not until Bolshevists succeeded in
destroying the Russian army was
Russia helpless. Lenine and Trotzky
did not stop Russia's life sacrifice; in
fact, they added to it, while on other
fronts they were the direct cause
Of a million unnecessary deaths.
When Germany brought Lenine
from Switzerland and furnished him
funds Germany added UNNECESSARILY
to the woe Of the world Lenine
and Trotzky were the chief personal
agents. Some day doubtless Bertrand
Russell will further recant.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
A ublic Nuisance

cFrom The Louisville Courier-JournaN
The curse of city life is the truck
with muftlers open-charging tumultu-
ously through the streets, ripping,
snorting, crashing, pounding and de-
stroying all the human nerves in its
noighborhood. The driver of such a
truck is fiend. The owner of such a
truck is an enemy to society. Some
time ago the Police Department made
gesture toward ending the careers
of open mufflers. But it ended, as it
began, gesture. The open muller
is to-day one of the most thriving and
obnoxious of industries. 1t is at the
same time one of the most senseless
and unjustitiable. A policeman who
tolerates the operation of a deafening
truck in viola ton Of a quite familiar
law on the subject should himself be
locked up in the penitentiary for life.
If it is impossible to have him shot at
sunrise.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Further Reclamation Needed

The recantation of Bertrand Rus
sell, the British Bolshevist who has
been cured by a visit to Russia,
shows that the falsehoods circulated
about Sovietland in the main have
been in it's favor.
Autocratic and militant, the Boil
shevist power represents the selfish
dominance Of a group less numerous
than the one which sustained the
old Czarism. BY possession Of the
weapon supply 100000, including all
the turncoats and all the jailbirds,
UNANIMOUSLY rule 12o,000,O0O. And
they don't know how. Russia's city
jewellers starve while grain rots,
and they freeze in a land of album
dant fuel supply. A slave labor
system has been introduced, the
hours of labor increased, yet
famine equal to the worst India has
known grips the land.
But Bolshevist views still linger
in Mr.. Russell's system. Speaking
of Russia's abandonment of her
allies, he makes the excuse: "The
Russians were beaten, and only
those who refused to face facts
imagined it possible to continue the
war;"
Russia was not beaten. The Rus
sian armies had been driven out of
Poland with enormous losses, but
Russia proper was untouched. Think
of what Belgium, Serbia, France and
Italy endured without losing stead
fastness! Never were the Russian
armies as numerous as in 1917,
never as we'll equipped. Her allies
had at last succeeded in supplying
her. At Archangel and Vladivostok
were mountains Of stores. Austria,
Hungary, as the world now knows.
had begun approaches for a sepa
rate peace.
If Russia had stood firm for
few months more, as easily she could
have done, Germany could not have
withdrawn hundred divisions from
the Eastern front; without them she
could not have withstood the attack
France, Great Britain and italy
were preparing in the west. The
war would have ended in 1917 ex-
cept for Russia's release of the Ger
man horde. The losses of the other
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
disappearing Poland'
the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: AS chairman of this committee
feel it my duty to make acknowledge
ment to you and to your paper for
your splendid. fearless editorials on
matters relating to Poland.
You have written many such edito-
rails which shed q great light on the
darkened hopes of those longing for
the truth to be published about that
gallant country, whose history and
whose aspirations should appeal to every
fair-minded countryman of ours.
Your editorial entitled "Misrep-
resenting Poland" published in to-day's
Tribune, should be read by every one.
1t is to be hoped that Poland's
great plan to unite the border states
Of Russia into a friendly Slavic feder-
alton, to work in cooperation to bring
order out of chaos in Central Europe
and In stricken Russia herself and
give hope to the unhappy peoples Of
those countries, may yet be accom-
plished. WILLIAM LIE GENDRE.
New York, July Is, 1qo.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
The Battle of the Dictionaries

Every Democrat owning but one
dictionary, and that the wrong one.
was convinced the morning following
Senator Harding's speech of accept
ance that the Republican candidate
must not and could not be elected
President. Normally" was not
among the words present, and was
it conceivable that we could have a
President who invented his own
words? Presently, however, returns
from other dictionaries began to ar
rive, and, to the grief of these loyal
Democratic souls, it developed that
the Senator had used an entirely ac-
curate and permissible form, even if
somewhat rusty from lack of use.
This matter of verbiage seems to
be occupying considerable space in
the campaign. That plain and un-
vanished organ of Democracy 1.-THE
New York Times" made a consid-
cradle TODD in a news story over the
fact that Senator Mccormick, a Re-
publican, of course, had used ''ulula-
ton" IN statement dictated at
Marion. There was no complaint
that he had confused it with a
Hawaiian musical instrument-the
idea seemed to be that statement
had no business with such unfa-
nliliar polysyllables.
Also, in letter from a corre-
spondent, it is asserted that Mr..
Roosevelt actually dared use the
words will be me-" This battle be-
tween the "me-ers" and the I-ers"
Is an old one, and victory has still
TO perch on the banners of the revo-
lutionaries. But the popular bat
talions are putting up a great fight,
and possibly by 1882 it will be quite
impossible to elect a President who
says at is l."
But for the present we are not
impressed by this effort to elect
President on the basis Of the die
tionary count. Quite to the con-
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
The Canadian Challenge

There are able yacht designers in
Canada and a fine amateur seaman
ship, and the challenge Of Mr.. Alex
a1der Ross in the name of two Nova
Scotia yacht clubs offers promise of
great battle for the America S
Cup. There would be a certainty
of wide popular interest and keen
spirit of rivalry.
But we hope that if this challenge
is accepted there will be no repeti-
ton of the esolute-Shamrock w
type of contest. A Canadian yacht
escapes the necessity of a long
ocean trip, and there may be a
temptation to continue to race under
rules which compel designers to
enter fragile machines unable to
face respectable breeze. What we
trust both sides will realize is that
the good Of yachting as the finest
Of stirring sports demands radi-
cal change in the type of yacht de-
veloped in this most conspicuous of
all yacht races.
A race between schooners built
under rules which would require
boats of an ocean-going stanchness-
Ike the famous Westward, of Here
shof design, which defeated all her
rivals in foreign waters-would be
an admirable example and would
look back to the finest of the older
races for the cup. But if a sloop
is preferred there is no reason why
proper regulations should not de-
velop equally seaworthy craft.
Some difficulty may be experienced
in devising the proper rule. Ger
tainly there can be no reversion to
the old simplicity which fixed water
line length and called for a boat
forboat race. Advocates of this
method are not familiar with the
history Of yacht design and the ex-
IRENE freaks which the older rules
inevitably developed, once the long
overhang was invented. The inter-
national rule adopted by England
and European countries is even
more complex than the so-called
universal rule here. Both aim at
sound design and both are efforts in
the right direction. But, as Sham
rock w and Resolute demonstrated
by their failure, there must in ad-
dition be regulations to insure
weatherly hulls capable of standing
up in any sort of blow.
There will be general hope that
the Canadian challenge will prove
acceptable and that 1921 will see a
race with these excellent neighbors
and sportsmen.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03

vote in Indiana is consistently pro.
phetic. Since the days of Tilden--
and even before-this state mas been
the battle ground OF the national par
ties. In season and out of season the
Hoosier talks politics, reads politics and
thinks politics. Centrally located among
the northern states and crossed by
scores of communicating lines, Indiana
cannot escape, if she would, the seeds
Of agitation; and iler voters. alert from
years of training, make up sher minds
on the matter of party change and ex-
press themselves upon il before the
country as a whole has reached con-
clusion.
Just now many persons believe that
there is a strong trend OF sentiment
throughout the country toward the
Republican party. If they will but
glance at the Indiana election returns
for 1918 they will find nothing but
abundant assurance that they are cor.
rect in their guesses. Two years ago
the Republican state ticket won with
$4,000 votes to spare, and the delega-
ton which was sent to Washington
was 100 per cent Republican In tho
national campaign this year the Demo-
Gratis may come forward with persua-
sive arguments and aggressive convic-
tons, but converting will be extreme
ly difficult. To win they must per-
form the miraculous feat of stemmng
a powerful tide of sentiment; snd
powerful it is, for the wave which
swept Indiana in 1918 now reaches
from coast to coast.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Good English Not Priggish

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: | was sorry to see a letter in
The Tribune from a person signing
himself Common Sense" in which he
tries to justify the phrase cts me"
on the ground of usage. l do not
know whether most people would con-
slider it "priggish" to speak good Eng
lish, but it would be better to risk it
than to stamp ones self as having had
no primary education. 1T is l, be
not afraid" said the Lord Jesus.
Great harm is done to children by
person with the type of mind of
Common Sense" as many of them
are frightened out of speaking gram
matically; IN later years they bitterly
regret it, when they are unable to
speak correctly at any public gath
erng.
One of our most popular ambassa-
doris abroad has been openly criti-
cized for not speaking good grammar,
and this criticism pursues him wher-
ever he goes. When Mr. Roosevelt
made the presumable slip at Column
bus: "The compromise candidate will
be me-" he was taken up everywhere
for the lapse
The French expression, "cest moi"
is not an idiom, as Common Sense"
states; it is absolutely correct French,
as the verb "etre" takes no nomina-
tive. The verb $50 be" in English,
however, is invariable like the Latin
"esse," in that it never takes an &C
cusative. F. r.
New York, July 81, 1920.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Not a Solution

The action of the Interstate Com
merce Commission raising railway
rates so as partially to offset the
enhanced cost of railway operation
meets an immediate crisis, but it
would be mistake to regard it as
a solution of the railway problem.
That problem still remains. We
have at work the causes that pro-
duced the railway collapse, and there
is no assurance another collapse
will not come in the future. There
is no fundamental change of policy.
The system of outside control of the
railroads continues.
In 1887 the first interstate COM
merce act took away from the rail
roads divers liberties of action
which made for greater efficiency
and a rate level which steadily fell.
Then came the Hepburn act, during
the Roosevelt Administration, to take
away from the railroads the power
Of rate making. Then during the
Wilson Administrative control over
expenditure was assumed by the
government by seizure of the
power to fix wages to be paid out
Of income.
There is no true private manage
rleht Of railways. If a railway
makes profits, 20 matter how, all
above 6 per cent maximum is
- e taken away. If it has losses
The public is to pay the bill. We
Rave the form but not the substance
Ct private management. There is
practically no extra profit for extra
efficiency. No prize is hung up to
lie enjoyed if earned. There is no
incentive to the initiative which
makes for more economical opera
ton.
The consequences are foreseeable.
1t is not worth while to delude our
selves. At present, a remainder over
from days when the railways were
allowed to keep profits if they could
get them, the railroads are largely
Offered by men who will doubtless
seek to do their best through habit
and an art instinct. But an art
instinct is not sufficient to stimulate
normal human nature to the highest
activity. The oldtimers will grad
ually drop out, and their successors
vii! ask themselves: "Why should
We labor greatly? The public will
take the gains from our labors, or
if we do poorly the public will meet
the deficit"
1t is impossible to expect the rail-
roads to be as cheaply run as in
the days of the railway millionaires.
They grabbed with both hands, but
each year they were not able to
clutch all that came through them.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
The Plight of the Novelists

In the August "Atlantic" William
j. Locke, creator of best seller, tells
of the plight Of the novelists.
Their business is to sell soul stuff
what they think and feel in the
guise of a fictitious narrative. Like
other men, the inwards Of novelsts
have been plowed deep by the war
have been profoundly influenced,
one way or another, by it's events.
But the novelists, when they would
market their wares, encounter the
prohibition, "No war" The men
who stand between the writer and
the public believe the public is tired
of and will no longer buy war books.
Fiction writers are asked to write as
if no war had been. This they can
not do without sacrificing sincerity.
Mr.. Locke sums up:
"The novelist has, therefore, to
choose one Of three courses:
"() To beg the question and write
costume -romance-1713, 1918, 1918
all equally remote.
"(2) To pretend there has been no
war, and do up show bits of soul in
whitey-brown paper and sell them,
and thereby earn his own self-con-
tempt and that Of his brother man.
"(3) To offer his inmost soul for
sale-as heretofore-and starve"
Is it as bad as this? Is the public
so firmly resolved not to purchase a
book with soldier in it or which is
il. any way colored by thought of the
great conflict? 1t may be doubted.
There is WEAKNESS with repaintings
OF one picture. But let originality
hold the pen and it will not lack
readers. 1t may be that the fault is
not with those who control printing
presses but with the inadequacy of
novelists themselves. There is no
Homer to strike the Tyre.
That publishers are persuaded the
war book is p0sse is, of course, true.
And it is also true, being naturally
DESTROYS of selling, that the informal
embargo is born of an honest convic-
ton that the public would forget the
war. But perhaps there is a special
reason why they so think. AS Mr.
Noyes recently noted, the part of the
human family that is most keenlv
conscious of its own intellectuality-
so much so as to dub itself intel
hgentsla-has grown increasingly
Bolshevist, if the word may be used
in this connection, for a generation.
Fantastic theory and half-baked
criticism of everything that is are
characteristic of the time. This
spirit shows itself in art even more
than in political theory. The young
men who come crowding from our
colleges have made cult of icono-
clasm. For centuries literature was
reproached for being a Tory; now ii
is a roaring radical The halH-
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Mr.. l1arding's Front Seat

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Perusing to-day's Tribune,
was quite interested in your editorial,
League and Wilson League" Read
ing on, there came back to my mind
story of old plantation days, which
heard in Richmond some forty years
ago.
The Virginia railroads had been
opened but a short while before, when
julius Cesar, highly esteemed by his
master, was sent on a commission to
Washington. At Fredericksburg the
train was boarded by another Rich
mond negro, named Pompeius. He was
on his way back from the national
capital, had stopped in Fredericksburg
to fulfill another commission and err
roneously taken the train to Washing
ton instead of to his destination, Rich
mond. The two negroes engaged in
conversation. in the course of which
julius Cesar rapturously set forth
what wonderful thing a railroad is.
Deed 1t am, and more" assented
Pompeius; at am miraculous. Here
am US two, you am gwine from Rich
mond to Washington, and All is gwine
from Washington to Richmond, and we
am sitting, bof of US, in this here
same car, only you am occupying =
front seat and An is right in this hero
back seat"
Does Harding occupy the front seat
with The Tribune or the back seat
with THE Sum?
CHARLES DE VIDE
Brooklyn, July 30, 1920.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Choose Your Own Age

More than one woman's pleasure
in registering as a voter has been
marred by the demand for her age.
The circumstance is one to attract
the professional humorist, but in
these days, when grandmothers dress
like debutantes, there are other rea-
sons than vanity which justify reti-
cence. The actual tale of years
is not the whole story. To be fifty
and to look like forty-if nature has
served one thus well, why should the
service be of no avail? Why should
a government compel revelation?
When one is twenty-one or more and
competent to vote the precise extent
Of the "more" is superf1uous de-
tail.
"a Mere Woman writing to a
Philadelphia paper, argues that age
is greater handicap to woman
than to q man in obtaining or retain
ing position. "My job is my job"
she says; my meal ticket is my
meal ticket, and fool indeed would
be to endanger either just to put
some ambitious Senator or Gov
ernor in the Presidential chair"
Here is not the merely sentimental
motive usually assumed to exist.
The tender eye of love may disre-
gard birth date, but the cold eye
of business will not.
Perhaps the handicap is exagger-
ated-that the semblance of youth
is little help to the business woman
and her ability is her best reliance.
Yet woman in her most modern
estate has not been quite able to
MAKE man forget that she is woman.
The little illusions of sex inevitably
smooth her way in business as in
the other affairs of life. Why should
she not be any age she chooses?
More than ever a woman is as young
as she looks.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Let High Bridge Stand
4 Protest Against the Destruction Of
a Work Of Beauty
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune
Sir: 1t is pleasant to read that the
New York Chapter, American Asoo-
citation of Engineers, has appealed to
the Board of Estimate to save High
Bridge from destruction, if possible.
Here's hoping other civic organizations
and citizens whose pride in their city
includes the desire that It be beauti-
full will second the engineers plea.
And may the engineers or some other
competent body evolve plan by which
it may be done.
High Bridge is ono Of the few
structures in the city possessing the
rare quality of form, growing out Of
that subtle sense of proportion which
architects possessed in the old days,
but which has been lost under the
stress Of our multifarious construc-
tional activities in the last halr
century.
If it should be destroyed or marred,
there is somewhere in the world a
cherishable souvenir of it in the form
of painting by Arthur B. Davies
an impression Of the bridge and the
park, with children playing-a work
the lovely tones and contemplative
magic of which are as wonderful az
the creative urgency of that artists
later pictures.
But the Davies canvas is somewhere
in gallery shut off from all but a
few privileged eyes. Let High Bridge
stand, that out of the millions who
will live within sight Of it as the
city rapidly builds up around it the
one artist and the one poet of the
future who will be among those mil
lions may, in his or her dream filled
youth, see in its graceful arches the
delicate span, the bridge Of vision,
the foothpath Of beauty.
SHAEMAS O'SHEEL.
New York, Aug. l, 1920.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-03
Barnes S Senator
Must the Empire State Accept So
Meagre a Representative

TO the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir; OF what avail has the evidence
OF Theodore Roosevelt been that Barnes
is trimmer" devoid of patriotic low
atty to the Republican party when self
interest is in the balance? How can
sensible voters of the party stultify con-
science by indorsing any nomination in
f1uenced by this renegade of Republican
party principles! Is the great party
that produced in public endeavor such
representation as Lincoln and Roosc-
welt to be Inundated in the United
States Senate again by accepting at
Barnes's dictation nominee for exalted
attributes who has been tried and found
hopelessly wanting? Is this, the Empire
State of the nation, SO void of states
manship possibilities as to affront again
the pride of its people with so neager
specimen of it's representation simply
because this person of blemished repute
SO wills it?
1t is fortunate the primary is still
recourse for individual repudiatio,., pro-
vided, however, that this same clement
of leadership domination is unable to
thwart individual will.
HENRY C. BUCKOUT.
Brooklyn, July 80, 1920