Evening star., 1934-07-03
Acquits the President
OF Inelegant English
To The Editor Of The Star.

To the Editor Of The Star:
In Fridays Star l was shocked to
find an editorial headed. Two Presi-
dental Slips" charging the President
with having made two blunders in
English during his notable speech at
New Haven. Let us investigate the
charges. for If Mr.. Roosevelt is per-
mitted to get away with it this time
there is no telling where he will stop.
He may even begin using IF and
when" phrases, and then We will know
that a great mind is beginning to
crack under the strain.
The writer Of the editorial fixes the
first presidential blunder in the very
first sentence Of the Chief Executives
speech. This is the sentence: Il
don't believe that any higher academic
honor can possibly come to any Har
ward graduate than to be made an
alumnuS OF Yale
What is wrong with that? The
writer says that 1T is a meaningless
expression" and that what Mr.. RooSe-
velt intended to say was that he did
believe that no higher academic honor
could come to him." The fact is that
the Presidents sentence is flawlessly
correct; it is 100 per cent good Eng
ltsh and good rhetoric. 1t is abso-
lutely beyond criticism. True. the
form suggested by the editorial writer
is also correct, but it would not be
good public-speaking English.
The second alleged blunder occurs
in this sentence of the Presidents
speech: Sometimes appointments are
made and the people are called in to
serve their country, and weeks go by
before anybody discovers which party
they happen to belong to-
What is wrong with that? The edi-
torial softly cenSures the President
for putting a proposition at the end
of sentence, and adds. "Of course
the President should have said the
party to which they belong" Here.
again, Mr.. Roosevelt's English was
perfect, and his sentence was better
than the revised sentence suggested
by the editorial writer.
In that standard reference book.
"The Kings English" DR.. H. w. Fow-
Ter of the oxford dictionary staff, re-
ports that he made an exhaustive
study of the superstition" about
propositions at the end of sentences.
because a New York book reviewer
roundly condemned his book on the
ground that the first paragraph in the
preface ended with a proposition. DR.
Fowler's findings are summed up in
his Dictionary of Modern English
Usage" as follows:
Those who lay down the universal
principle that final propositions are
inelegant are unconsciouSly trying to
deprive the English language of
valuable idiomatic resource which has
been used freely by all our greatest
writer's. The legitimacy of the
prepositional ending in literary Eng
iSh must be uncompromiSingl main
tanned" After citing a score of
specimens of its use by great writer's
throughout six centuries, DR.. Fowler
adds: If the final proposition sounds
comfortable. keep it; if it does not
sound comfortable, still keep it If
1t has compensating vigor. or when
among awkward possibilities it is the
least awkward"
DR.. Frank H. Vizetelly, in How to
Use English" says that "a preposi-
ton may be used in any one of three
places; first. in its prepositionsl place:
second, in a medal place, ana, third,
at the end Of a sentence" He says
that Addison, acknowledged to be the
classic Of his time. did not hesitate
to put the proposition at the end of
a sentence when it suited him. He
cites quotations from some of the
best writers in support of his as
sertion that propositions sometimes
belong at the end of sentence.
DR.. James c. Fernald, in "Connec-
tives of English Speech: DR.. Paul
Hugon, in English Expression" and
other distinguished authorities give
unqualified Endorsement to the final
proposition. Mrs. Josephine Turch
Baker. in the current number of
Correct English Magazine, sanctions It,
FRANCIS DE SALES RYAN.