THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2064, 6 December 1919, Page 1

THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

AMERICAN PROFESSOR'S PLEA. LANGUAGE DEGENERATING IN AMERICA, Faith, but not facts, warrants hope for restoration of a proper use of the English language in America, declared Mr George B. Churchill, a member of the Massachussets Senate and professor of English literature at Amherst College, to a representative of the Christian Science Monitor recently. Senator Churchill had emphatically said that “the use of the English language is most decidedly degenerating; the writing, and especially the talk of to-day, is far below the standard of 20 years ago.” And when asked, “Is the outlook absolutely one of pessimism; is there not a single glimmer of optimism?” he replied, “Not if I base what I say upon the facts as I have everywhere found them. No, and emphatically no! It is only when I ignore the -facts, and speak simply from my faith, that I can see the least particle of hope. “My faith whispers that perhaps when Jiving again becomes normal, people will once more give due valuation lo higher things —language, literature, art, and so on. We have been compelled to lace severe political and economic struggles. There has been a material strife for existence. The nobler and purer things have been neglected.”

SLANG MORE PREVALENT. In describing the present downward tendency, Senator-Professor Churchill said: ‘'Sian”' has heroine more and more prevalent, the larger pari of which is used with the intention to avoid careful and right thought —mental laziness. To the ordinary man, slang is also a kind of pleasure. He seems to lake little interest in giving exact expression. When he first uses a slang phrase, it is like play to him, for it is apt to he picturesque, and he likes the picturesque. He refers to the ‘wing of the baseball thrower. But soon, in current use, the metaphor in a slang phrase is forgotten. The phrase, however, has fastened iselt. upon him; it is constantly upon Ids tongue and used in a multitude of unappropriale places in his speech, where more accurate ami finer words should be employed. “If you will listen to the talk of men, bothjn private and public, you will find if to be profuse in poor grammar, slang, and profanity. It lias increased rapidly during the war. People in both civic and military life, under pressure and tensity, seemed to think it excusable, even necessary, to project what they felt was 1 lie strongest ■ language. So that now we are forced to admit that oaths and low expressions of every description which heretofore never would have been countenanced, have clinched a widespread popularity revolting to behold. REVERENCE FOR LANGUAGE. “Frenchmen have a conscious respect, even reverence, for their language, with a desire to maintain its standards. The ordinary Frenchman writes good language. In the United States, we seem to have mure respect for of her things. Poor spelling becomes more and more common, and we do not seem to take it to heart very earnestly. Carelessness is altogether too noticeable in newspapers, correspondence, and public address, as well as in conversation. “Even the better educated usually are not chagrined . when they themselves make a mistake. If a dollar is lost, however, that is vital. Our standards have fallen. Few see the use of minding the difference be-tween,-‘lie’ and ‘lay,’ The ordinary boy finds less of profit in English than in anything else. The right use of a piece of steel brings money, but how can language make a cent for a fellow?

“Admittedly, the hardest thing in colleges is to get instructors to work for general ability in the use of English, in writing and speaking. The science of securing results in the pedagogy of English is most nil of all the subjects. Teachers confess themselves at the end of the rope. Most of them feel that they have tried every method and failed. “I wish to say, however, that I believe that we have overestimated our educational attainments; and that in reality it-is not so much that we are degenerating as that we are simply discovering and going back to the place where we belong. “Our remedy is to be found in education, especially in the education of the taste for higher things. I cannot think that the American people are going to continue downward in these regards, for if they should, the whole realm of education faces disaster.”

At the present moment a British factory is constructing for British use an electrical generator of 40,000 horse-power—a record figure for a single unit. The generator, driven by a steam turbine, is to be installed in a power station near London. This generator is capable of supplying sufficient current to light sumultaneously 3,000,000 eight-candle-power lamps.

In two important battles fought by British soldiers they did not lose a single man. One was in 1868, when Napier stormed Magdala, in Abyssinia. In that fight thousands of the enemy were killed. The other instance was at Futtehpore, when Havelock, marching to Lucknow, defeated the rebels heavily, but lost not a man.

Mr E. W, Daniels, of Auckland, possesses an Indian Runner duck which has now laid 182 eggs, without a break in as many days, which is, as far as can be found out, a world’s record for continuous laying, the previous record being 174. The bird is still going strong, and is simply a marvel in egg production.