The New York herald., 1921-09-08
For Name Independence.
Let Americans Annex the Language
They Speak and Improve!

To THE New YORK HERALD: In line
with national interests or racial urge
the name OF what is now the worlds
greatest city was changed from New
Amsterdam to New York; the. name OF
the largest island from New Holland to
Australia: the name OF the capital OF
the largest Continental empire from ST.
Petersburg to Petrograd; the name OF
Gaul's largest colonial possessions from,
New France to Canada.
These changes Of name were made
not primarily because they were urged
or demanded by philologistA etymoIo-
gists or orthopists, but by compare
lively ungrammatical nationaiists who
at critical conjunctures felt themselves
impelled to make alterations FIRST and
explain afterward. or to explain not al
all or TO leave the explanations to the
professors.
To-day there arc as many reasons
why American editors. authors, actors
and publicdsts should declare name IN
dependence as there were reasons in
1916 for declaring political indepen-
dence. In favor, then. of no reservation
Americanism and OF nation unilingual-
tied. 1t Is proposed to secure popular
literary and official use Of the word
American as the name Of our national
language.
In 1s4o the Americans who spoke our
language began to outnumber all who
spoke 1t or spoke near American else
where. From statistical equality we
steadily ascended a scale Of preponder-
ance until now at least II per cent. of
all who speak our language are geo.
graphically American, and Of that II
per cent at least 30 per cent are ma
tiorally American. Tho American per-
centage OF the whole has steadily risen.
Decidedly. the greater part OF the
speaking. printing, writing. tclephoning.
telegl1phing and voice reproducing In
our language Is done in the United
States. OF the new words. "a dozen a
day" constantly being added to our Ian
guaSc, the majority are drst vocaliscd.
printed and lexicographicaliy defined by
Americans The most practical and
widely circulated dictionaries OF our
language are American edited and Amor
ican printed books.
During generations most OF the inven-
tions and new enterprises whose terni-
nologies ennoble our language. enrich its
vocabulary and make acquaintance with
it ever moro and moro necessary on the
part OF the ambitious, even where other
languages are national, have been either
OF American origin or owe their great
est application and development to
American Initiative or expansion.
The one language idea here sug.
ecsted will be supported by the efforts
OF those who believe. and rightly. that
moro than one language Is superfIuity
for a nation: that to learn to use one
language well Ia all that should be asked
OF most people and is more than most OF
them ever accomplish. Any effort TO
Americanize immigrants Is discounted
which does not provide for incuicating
the nominativc use OF the American Ian
guagc. Ia lingna Americana, die Ameri-
kanische sprachc. In iangue Americaine,
&c.
Our language should and shall be iden-
tined by the word we use when desig-
mating our President and Constitution,
our army and navy. our songs and VIC
tories, our coins and consulatcs.
THOMAS w. MOORE
NEW YORK. September Z.