The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1932-12-15
What Others Think
Split Infinitives and Things

Split lnfntiveS and Things
The editor took good deal of amusement from
a tale told upon him recently. 1t related to
that while reading issue of this paper high school
student whose speciality has been English, remarked
to his parents: "There certainly is of very poor
English in the press. Here is split infintve'
Newspaper writing is so instructive to those who
follow this profession that those who operate
much larger papers seldom stop to consider the de-
mand upon them in linguistic way. And probably
the average reader who picks up small paper as
this pauses to think of the amount of copy
that must be written each week to fill the columns.
In the first place, newspaper material is of DIFF
ferent composition than any other style of writing
The properly written STORY must pack its who,
what, when where and why" into the 'lead" para
graph usually exceeding four to six lines. Them
in order of Importance, salient facts of the story
related They must be told as tersely possible to
space but still with sufficient exacttude to
permit complete understanding The less important
facts of the story written last that if it pc
necessary shorten the item for lack of space
the final paragraphs may be removed and the most
essential facts of the matter in question be retained
Then, too, the writer, and particularly those
whose work is upon small papers, must be mutlateral
in every respect. On Monday ing he must be
prepared with enough ideas to fill editorial page,
and upon his facility of thought and treatment of the
ideas he has depends the extent to which that
page is read by his circulation. From that he must
dart with equal the baseball games, the newest
baby the municipal financing situation, fire, rob-
berry and bridge party church social If he fills the
hungry Of the typesettng machine, he must dash
these off with instantaneous thought, remembering
whether the person of whom he writes Mr. Smith, for
instance, is John, Charles George G. H. and wheth
he spells it Smith, Smythe some other way. He
must have million facts about his community filed in
his brain for immediate use, for if he forced
refer to directory list every time he used
IN order to be certain Of the initials spelling he
could never keep up with his production. He must
know the fobles and fancies of every person in
and woe betide the country scribe who fails to
Der the names of every child in the family.
Under these circumstances newspaper man can
smile trife grimly, perhaps, when wise guy
picks out split innitive other obvious gram
NAUTICAL error from the thousands of words that he
must write lin steady stream each week, and each
day of each week. And the chances are nine out IF
ten that the critical reader regardless his abb
lily in high school English would be a physical and
mental wreck at the end of the first day if he had
pound out the amount of reading matter that any
newspaper writer accepts as a matter of course, in
stead of taking hour to prepare thesis disser
taton upon some abstract subject upon which he has
had ample time to inform h sef
The marvel of the modern newspaper is not that
should be made occasionally but that so much
material is required to publish in a newspaper
should be rushed through under forced draft with
few errors-Clemont (Fla.) Press.
Will They Print It?
N. L. Gender has received letter from the Wis
consn state tax commission which throws light on the
tactics of the opponents of the income tax in that
state. 1t heraded abroad that the Chevrolet and
Nash automobile factories were about to leave the
state to escape the terrible burden of taxation These
factories closed just prior to the primary election and
this helped to defeat La Toilette and Blaine giving
Joe Chapple and Walter Kohler, conservatives, the
nomination. In the general election Chapple and
Kohler showed under by blizzard of democratic
and progressive votes and the tactics the auomo-
bile companies exposed.
The Wisconsin tax commission writes that these
companies during 1881 made gross profit of Is per
cent their investments, and that Their threat of
moving out of the state was pure bluff. Now that
election is the cat is of the bag the Chevro-
let and Nash people will remain in Wisconsin and con-
tinue to pay their income taxes.-St James Plain
dealer.
The United States government owns the Gutten-
burg Bible for which it paid the handsome sum of
million and half dollars. lot of little things like
that make defcit.-Springfeld Advance-Press