Evening star., 1924-07-03
PURITY OF ENGLISH
IS AIM OF EDITORS
G. A. Lyon of The Star Urges
Teachers to Aid in
War on Slang.

Editors of the American press con-
stantly are endeavoring to preserve
the purity of the language, Gideon A.
Lyon, associate editor of Tne Evening
Star, told the National Council of
English today, at a meeting at the
Church of the Reformation.
Asking the aid of all teachers of
English in the constant fight against
slang and bad English in general,
Mr.. Lyon said:
The urgent need of careful and
thorough training of young Amer
leans in English, by the schools, is
especially felt by those who are daily
engaged in the publication of the
chief medium of expression, the
newspaper Latest statistics show
that every morning 100000 copies
of newspapers are circulated in this
country, every afternoon 100000
copies and every Sunday 21,00O,0O0
copies, or in the course OF each week
01,000,000 copies. This enormous
product of the printing press is the
major, and in the case of many mill
lions of the people, the sole reading
matter of Americans.
Effect of Newspapers.
ITO the extent that the newspaper
is we'll written, the language taste of
the people is affected for good. To
the extent that it is shabbily and
slovenly written, it affects taste for
ill.
1T is the constant endeavor of ed
itors of the American press to pre-
serve the purity of the language.
They are handicapped by two factors,
the tendency toward slang which is
demanded and unfortunately catered
to in many instances, and the made
quate training of the younger gen.
Grafton of newspaper writer's in the
essentials of style and vocabulary.
In, the hurry that is unnappily the
condition in which newspapers are
written. much depends upon the
habltual usage of the writers. Edit
ing, so-called, consists chiefly in cur
tailment, avoidance of libel and ad-
Justment, not the painstaking correc-
tion of style or language that was
once possible in more favorable cir
cumstances. Hence the importance of
securing as contributors to the daily
press young men and women who are
thoroughly trained, in school, in the
essentials of good writing.
viii not the teachers of English
IN the schools of this country con-
slider themselves as enlisted in this
campaign for the preservation of the
language? They can serve effectively
by themselves fighting against slang
and faulty syntax, against poverty of
vocabulary, against, in general, bad
English. The newspapers will call
them blessed for their contribution of
careful, conscientious preservers of
the language to the ranks of the
writer's for the daily press"
clarence Stratton, director of Eng
lish in the Cleveland high schools,
spoke on Drama, and the Teacher of
English" and Florence A. Marsh of
Detroit spoke on English in the
Auditorium
Defends School Plays.
Prof. Stratton said that depravity
does not follow the appearance Of
boys and girls together on the stage
He said, in part:
THE, old Puritan prejudice of the
Intelligent and intellectual public
for great drama. Classic and modern
plays, long and one-act plays are read
in the schools. Schools produce plays
In spite of the attacks upon the level
of plays chosen by the schools, there
} is marked rise in all parts of the
country. Even moving pictures have
not displaced drama as a living form.
Teachers had to be trained to un-
derstand real drama. then they had
y
the better plays; most difficult, the
audience had to be educated, and last,
the school boards had to be cajoled
into providing adequate auditoriums
and stages, and architects had to be
shown how to design these
The gratifying results are due to
the quiet perseverance of teachers of
English: They have inaugurated play
lowed. They have satisfied desires of
starved communities. They have
made the plays of Aristophanes. Mo-
lier. Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Sheri-
dan, Barrie, GaIsworthy, Shaw and a
host of others absorbing realities"
Tells of Speaking.
Telling of the good which comes
from speaking in an auditorium, Miss
Marsh said
What is the function of the Eng
llSh class in the auditorium? Ger
tainly not to rehearse a play in a
tiny classroom and then bring the
group into large room with untried
acoustics, where the average child's
voice cannot get it over without re-
hearsal The Stage should be in con-
stant use by the child with panto-
mines and short, direct plays, often
of his own devising, to encourage ac-
tion and resonant use of the voice
in the auditorium, from its stimulus
little plays and poems should con-
stantly be carried by the pupils to the
English teacher for correction and
suggestions. Never have 1 seen such
| surprising results in the way Of or
ganization; of ingenuity in handling
of the story; Of the writing of good
dialogue; of the use of careful re-
search in the library; of the actual
| ability to punctuate correctly and to
spell passably, as 1 have in the stories
and plays springing from the desire
| to do things of this kind. The liter
airy flavor, with often a surprising
dash of humor, is to be found in the
mine of rich Imagination which is
dormant in many children and which
will often be untouched unless we as
sist them to dig deep enough to find
| it. The spontaneous outpouring of a
young soul struggling for expression
and choosing it's own means to en-
compass it, is precious as a feather
from the wing of Pegasus or a fleck
of star dust. Humor and Imagination,
the two things that make life endur-
able, are within the grasp Of every
man. provided English and the ideal