SPEECHES, INTERVIEWS, AND REPORTS
=Type of story.= Speeches, lectures, addresses, and sermons may be
considered in the same class with interviews and reports, because all
are alike in being some form of utterance. Hence news stories of them
consist largely of reproductions of the words and ideas of some person.
A speech and a report differ only in the fact that one is spoken and
the other is written. An interview, likewise, may be regarded as an
informal address delivered to an audience of one. When an interview is
given in question and answer form, it resembles cross-examination in a
court story more than it does a speech.
As reproductions of utterances, news stories of speeches and reports
must be largely informative. Except for an occasional opportunity to
describe the speaker or the audience, they offer practically no field
for human interest development. In interviews, on the other hand, it
is possible to bring out the human interest element in portraying the
character and personality of the person interviewed (cf. “Interview,”
p. 135). Otherwise interviews, like speeches and reports, are largely
informative (cf. “Interview with Official,” p. 133).
=Purpose.= To reproduce as accurately as possible the ideas
expressed by a speaker, by a person interviewed, or by the author of
a report is obviously the only object in writing a news story dealing
with such material. Four common faults that endanger the accuracy of
news stories of this type are carelessness in taking down what is
said, the playing up of statements that taken from their context are
misleading, unintentional distortion due to giving disproportionate
space or emphasis to some points, and misrepresentation because
of political partisanship or other bias. All quotation, direct or
indirect, should be accurate not only in substance and form but also
in spirit. A statement taken verbatim from a speech, interview, or
report, may be played up in the lead in such a way that it does not
give the actual thought or purpose of the original. By confining his
news story to only one or two phases of the subject discussed, a writer
often gives an erroneous impression of the whole speech. Distortion and
suppression of speeches, interviews, or reports because of political or
other bias is indefensible.
=Treatment.= Since news stories of this class must consist
largely of direct and indirect quotation from an utterance, the
problem of presenting news of this kind is usually that of condensing,
summarizing, and combining different parts of the available material
into a unified, coherent whole. This requires effort and skill.
In writing up interviews and speeches the reporter has a chance to
portray clearly and attractively the speaker and the circumstances,
thus stimulating the reader’s interest in the utterance (cf.
“Interview,” p. 136). As the purpose of an interview is to present
the ideas of the person interviewed, the reporter’s questions, which
are a necessary means of obtaining an expression of these ideas,
are suppressed in many stories. In other stories, the questions are
embodied in the answers or are repeated by the person interviewed.
There is a growing tendency, particularly in signed stories of
interviews, to give the reporter’s questions.
* * * * *
SPEECH
_Kansas City Star_
Switzerland is a haven of peace in a weary waste of
war. Why? Charles H. Grasty answered that question
Wednesday in his address before the City Club. It
is because Switzerland, a valorous David, inspires
respect from the Goliaths that surround the little
republic. And Switzerland has said that it would
defend its neutrality with all its strength.
Switzerland is the best equipped for fighting--size
considered--of all the nations. Every man from
20 to 48 is a trained soldier. Those who are
unable physically to qualify are formed into trade
and professional groups and are available for
supplementing the work of the army.
The system is compulsory, but it is also a
voluntary system, since it was installed by the
direct vote. The people of Switzerland decided that
they were free citizens of a free republic, and
that it was their duty to keep it a free country.
Every man is more than willing to do his bit, and
the service is held in such high respect that
bankrupts and criminals are denied the privilege
of taking part in the national defense. Instead,
they are required to pay a special tax in lieu of
service.
It is surprising how little time each man is
required to contribute to the army. He enlists at
20, and that year he spends from sixty to ninety
days in training, according to the branch of the
service to which he is attached.
From then on he spends two weeks a year, for a
period of years, in brushing up the military
knowledge he gained and in acquiring new training.
That is all. There is no rigid system that compels
him to give up from two to five of his most
fruitful years to service with the colors. It’s a
free man’s system, conducted by free men.
The system begins in the public schools, where
every boy is compelled to take athletic training.
Several hours a week are spent teaching the
youngsters military subjects, so that when the
boy reaches his twentieth year he is a piece of
fine timber. His body is strong, and he has some
knowledge of what discipline means. Every boy gets
the preliminary training, even in the private
schools.
At 20 he enlists in the “elite” or first line. For
two or three months he receives intensive training.
They make real work of it while it lasts, but they
are over with it quickly.
The rudiments of military life are drilled into
the new recruits without any waste of time or money.
Soldiers and corporals, after the first year, go
back every year for two weeks’ training until they
are 27 years old, and then they are through, except
for a final training trip when they enter the
second line division, which begins at the age of
33. Noncommissioned officers and subalterns go back
every year during their first line service, and
once every four years in the second line service,
which lasts until the age of 41. From 41 to 48
years is the age division for the third line.
Officers are not appointed through civil
authorities but are selected for merit and by
examination after they have completed the special
courses offered by the government for those who
desire commissions. The officers give more time to
their studies than the privates, and they assemble
quite often for war games and tactical discussions.
That is all there is to the system. There is no
standing army, no military class, no terrible
burdens of taxation. There is a general staff,
a few officers to look after the details of
recruiting and a number of instructors--less
than two thousand men in all who are connected
permanently with the army.
Yet in 1912 a fighting force of 490,430 men was
available out of a total population of 4 million.
The expense of the whole system that year was
$8,229,941, or $16.77 a man.
In the United States in 1913 94 million dollars was
spent on the army--ten times and more above what
Switzerland spent--and all it paid for was a scant
ninety thousand fighting men. An army less than
one-fifth as large as Switzerland’s cost more than
ten times as much.
As an economic proposition it would appear that
compulsory service was a better bargain in defense
than the American system as it exists today.
The strong point of the Swiss system is that it
renders every man available for defense without
imposing a burdensome tax on the country. The Swiss
citizen becomes an actual, tangible part of his
country. He takes pride in the citizen army, and
in many cases the government fosters semi-official
societies that aim to give additional training to
those who care for it.
The beautiful thing about the Swiss plan is that it
works. Surrounded by thundering cannon, Switzerland
is at peace.
* * * * *
NOTE--_Following the lead given below was
a verbatim report of the speech._
SPEECH
_New York Times_
Strict neutrality, extreme caution in the
publication of unconfirmed news, and “America
first” were the keynotes of a speech by President
Wilson that aroused great enthusiasm among
newspaper editors and publishers from all parts of
the country at the luncheon of The Associated Press
at the Waldorf-Astoria yesterday.
Each telling point the President made in his
speech, every word of which he seemed to weigh
before uttering, was applauded by the audience of
more than 300 at the tables and by a gallery of
about 100 men and women.
The importance attached to his clear statement of
the neutrality policy of his Administration was
reflected in a request made by Melville E. Stone,
Secretary and General Manager of The Associated
Press, just before the Chief Magistrate was
introduced, that all newspaper reports of the
President’s speech be based on the verbatim copy
to be taken by a stenographer and supplied to all
of the newspapers and news-gathering associations
represented.
Frank B. Noyes of The Washington Star, President
of The Associated Press, praised President
Wilson’s masterful maintaining of true neutrality,
and said that the President had borne his great
responsibility nobly. The applause that the
laudatory remarks received would have done justice
to a Democratic Nominating Convention. All arose
and drank a toast to the President, and arose again
when the orchestra struck up “The Star-Spangled
Banner,” and again when the President stood up to
speak.
In introducing President Wilson, the guest of
honor, Mr. Noyes made brief reference to the scope
of The Associated Press, saying he believed that,
in scope and importance, it was “the greatest
co-operative non-profit making organization in
the world.” Its function, he said, was to furnish
its members a service of world news untainted and
without bias of any sort.
“To insure this,” he said, “we have formed an
organization that is owned and controlled by its
members, and by them alone; one that is our servant
and not our master. So we are here today, Democrats
and Republicans; Protestants, Catholics, and
Jews; Conservatives and Radicals, Wets and Drys;
differing on every subject on which men differ, but
all at one in demanding that, so far as is humanly
possible, no trace of partisanship and no hint of
propaganda shall be found in our news reports.
“Because of its traditions and its code, and
perhaps also because of the never ceasing
watchfulness of 900 members, it has come to pass
that few people on earth are capable of giving the
management of The Associated Press any points on
maintaining a strict, though benevolent, neutrality
on all questions on which we can be neutral and
still be what we are--loyal Americans. We know,
too--none better--that the genuine neutral, the
honest neutral, is always the target of every
partisan, and we find some solace in the fact that
this is now being demonstrated to the world at
large.
“Today, however, we willingly lower our crest
to one who has demonstrated in these agonizing
times his mastership of the principles of
true neutrality, and who, fully realizing the
dreadful consequences of any departure from these
principles, has nobly borne his terrible burden of
responsibility in guarding the peace, the welfare,
and the dignity of our common country.
“Our distinguished guest, who so honors us today,
may surely know that in the perplexities and trials
of these days, so black for humanity, he has our
thorough, loyal, and affectionate support.
“God grant him success in his high aims for the
peaceful progress of the people of the United
States.”
After the toast and cheers and hand-clapping, the
Grand Ballroom became silent as the President began
speaking.
* * * * *
SPEECH
_Madison [Wis.] Democrat_
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31.--The place of united
pan-America in the situation which will confront
the world at the end of the European war was
pictured to the Pan-American Scientific Congress
today by Director General John Barrett of the
Pan-American union.
The delegates were electrified by his prediction
of an evolution of the Monroe doctrine into a
pan-American doctrine for a mutual defense against
aggression from overseas.
He defined such a doctrine as meaning “that the
Latin-American republics, in the event that the
United States were attacked by a foreign foe,
would, with all their physical and moral force,
stand for the protection and sovereignty of the
United States just as quickly as the United States
under corresponding circumstances would stand for
their integrity and sovereignty.”
Wherever the pan-American delegates gathered the
director general’s declaration was discussed with
the greatest interest and it was regarded generally
as one of the outstanding events of the congress,
pointing the way to a new pan-American unity.
“Both victor and vanquished in the European
war will be hostile to America at the close of
hostilities,” said he. “The former will say it won
in spite of the attitude of the United States and
the other American republics, and the latter will
say it lost because of the attitude of the United
States and its sister republics.
“In the mind of everybody interested in
pan-Americanism is the question, ‘What is going
to happen to pan-America when this war is over?’
Immediately there is the reply: ‘The American
republics must stand together for the eventualities
that may possibly develop.’
“While everyone would deplore any agitation or
suggestion that a European nation or a group of
European nations following this struggle should
undertake any territorial aggrandizement in the
western hemisphere, or in any way take action
that would contravene the Monroe doctrine, it
must be borne in mind, and cannot be for a moment
overlooked, that whatever way this war results
there may be little or no love for the United
States and the other nations which form pan-America.
“No matter, therefore, how just and fair the
nations of America have been in their efforts
to preserve their neutrality and in no way
interfere on either side of this conflict, the war
passions and the war power of the peoples and the
governments of the victorious group of nations may
force a policy toward pan-Americanism, toward the
Monroe doctrine, and toward their relationship with
individual countries of the western hemisphere
which will demand absolute solidarity of action
on the part of the American republics to preserve
their very integrity.”
* * * * *
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT
_Kansas City Star_
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 8.--Half playfully,
half earnestly, President Wilson told three
thousand people at Richmond, Ind., this afternoon
that this nation is heeding what is “none of your
business”--Europe’s affairs. In place of this,
he counseled serious deliberation on America’s
business, its future and its part in the betterment
of mankind. The nation, he said, must maintain its
equilibrium; it must face, too, the problem of the
future now that the administration has endeavored
to break the shackles on American business.
The President said:--
“You know I have been confined for a couple of
years at hard labor and am out on parole for a day
or two, but I want to say this, my fellow citizens,
that it is very genuine pleasure to me to get
abroad again and stir among the people I so dearly
love.
“Because the one thing we have to think about down
in Washington is the best thing to do for you and
the thing that you want us to do for you, and that
is a mighty hard thing to find out, particularly
when you are not thinking about your own affairs
and are constantly thinking about what is none of
your business, namely, what is going on on the
other side of the water. I say that in playfulness,
but I mean it half in earnest.
“It does not do, my friends, to divert our
attention from the affairs of this great country.
“The duty which this country has to perform to the
rest of the world largely depends upon the way in
which it performs its duty to itself.
“I have always thought with regard to individuals
that if a man was true to himself, he would then
be true to other persons; and I believe that that
applies to a great country like ours, that a
nation that is habitually true to its own exalted
principles of action will know how to serve the
rest of mankind when the opportunity offers. That
is a very deep philosophy of life which it is very
thoroughly worth while living up to.
“We have been trying at Washington to remove some
of the shackles that have been put upon American
business; but after you have removed the shackles
you must determine what you are going to do with
your liberty. And there are many tasks to perform
for mankind. There are many things to be bettered
in this world which we must set ourselves to make
better. So what I want to say to you now is merely
this:
“Let us seek sober, common counsel about our own
affairs, and then when the time comes, when we can
act upon a larger field, there will be no mistake
as to what America will do for the peace of the
world, having found her own peace and having
established justice in her own mind.”
* * * * *
ADDRESS
_Chicago Tribune_
For many years Glencoe boasted a wonderful spring
of pure water gushing from a bluff and running in
crystalline beauty down to the lake. The spring was
constant even in the dryest seasons. It always ran
a generous, spirited stream, clear and cold. Then
along came the village manager, a new official in
the new order of things--H. H. Sherer, appointed to
put the affairs of the suburb on a business basis.
In a curious moment Mr. Sherer shut off the water
in the mains. Then he went back to the “spring” and
awaited results. In forty minutes the perpetual
spring ceased to flow.
Glencoe had been paying 7 cents a thousand gallons
to pump the water that ran off into the lake night
and day the year around.
The story of the spring was a part of Mr. Sherer’s
address last night before the Wilmette Civic
association. He explained the work of village
management as a business enterprise and told of
important savings gained.
* * * * *
LECTURE
_New York Herald_
“I don’t believe in the public cooking of milk, or
in the public cooking of anything else to be used
in the home,” said Dr. Thomas Darlington, formerly
Commissioner of Health in this city, during an
illustrated lecture last night at the headquarters
of the Agora, a civic association which is a branch
of the John F. Curry Association, at No. 413 West
Fifty-seventh street.
Unsanitary conditions under which milk was
detected being brought into this city during his
administration of the Health Department were
described and shown in detail by Dr. Darlington,
as well as the conditions under which the milk is
pasteurized in up-State and local dairies.
“Pasteurization may be good, but personally I
do not believe in it,” he said. “The object of
pasteurization is the destruction of bacteria which
it may contain by a process of heating the milk
to from 140 to 160 degrees. It is not a process
of boiling, but merely of bringing the milk to a
percentage of heat at which the bacteria will be
destroyed.
“In my opinion the home and not a public place is
for the cooking of food products which are to be
used in the home. It can and should be done just as
well there as in any other place.”
An absolutely perfect milk supply is impossible in
this city, according to Dr. Darlington, at a retail
price of less than twenty cents a quart. To add to
this the cost of pasteurization, he said, would
raise the price still higher.
He pointed out that the excessive cost of
production under conditions that would result in
absolutely pure milk would make the retail price
almost prohibitive.
* * * * *
LECTURE
_St. Louis Globe-Democrat_
WASHINGTON, February 6.--Telling of times when
dog meat--and the meat of starved-to-death dogs
at that--tasted better than any porterhouse steak
he had ever eaten; picturing a region where the
average velocity of the wind is fifty miles, where
a bunting flag goes to shreds in a few minutes,
a flag of stoutest canvas is threshed to pieces
in an hour, and a flag of tin is battered out of
shape in the first gale, so that sheet iron is
the material that must be used; describing sea
elephants that weigh sometimes as much as four tons
each and measure 25 feet in length, Sir Douglas
Mawson has presented before the National Geographic
Society one of the most remarkable stories of polar
exploration that has ever come from those regions.
In his account of his researches along the great
Antarctic continent discovered by Rear Admiral
Charles Wilkes--the same Admiral Wilkes who figured
in the historic Trent affair, in which he, during
the American civil war, held up the British packet
Trent, and removed from her, Mason and Slidell--Sir
Douglas paid tribute to the explorer and his work.
Mawson and his party undertook the work under
the patronage of the Australian Government. The
steamer Aurora, formerly plying in American waters,
was the ship that carried them away. A midway base
with a wireless relay station through which the
party could keep in touch with civilization, was
established at Macquarie Island, which was on the
old sailing ship route between Australia and Cape
Horn and whose beaches are lined with the wrecks of
many a ship. The main base was established at Cape
Dennison, on the Antarctic continent, and a second
base several hundred miles further east.
Pictures were brought back by Sir Douglas showing
the nesting places of a number of birds of passage
who go to the Polar continent to nest and whose
eggs have never been seen before. The birds and
sea elephants were absolute strangers to fear, and
would inspect the camera man with as much seeming
interest as the camera man inspected them.
The character of the winds that blow on the edge
of the Antarctic Continent was graphically shown
by the fact that the men had to lean out upon it,
at an angle of perhaps forty-five degrees, to walk
in the ordinary wind, while no camera could record
anything but a blank when the blizzard was at its
height.
The hut which was the headquarters of the party
had one window, which was in the roof. The breath
of the men and the steam of the kitchen caused
this to become frosted over to the thickness of 5
inches. Men going out to take the records of the
climatological instruments had to break the ice
that froze before their faces, from one side of
their hoods to the other, and pictures showing how
their faces were covered with great patches of
frost bite, told an eloquent story of suffering.
But the scene was not all somber. The cellar was a
natural refrigerator, and consisted simply of the
space under the floor of the hut. When the cook
wanted a piece of meat he would send a dog down to
get a penguin or a leg of mutton, and would take
it away from him as he came out. One day the dog
got away with a leg of mutton, which was rescued
only after a chase of two hours, and then it was
so damaged that the party voted to give it to
the dogs, after all. Reading matter was in great
demand. One of the party read the Encyclopedia
Britannica through to the O’s.
Upon one occasion Sir Douglas set out with Mr.
Mertz and Lieut. Ninnis on a coast charting
expedition. After going about 200 miles Ninnis
and his sledge were lost in a great crevasse.
Hours of calling brought no response, and the
smashed-to-pieces sledge at the bottom told a
painful story of his fate. Thereafter Mawson and
Mertz turned around and started back to camp. They
ate all the dogs, one by one, as they died by
starvation.
Finally there was only one dog left--Old Ginger.
“Old Ginger was a noble animal,” said Sir Douglas,
“and he was game to the last. But when he died of
that sheer hunger of the Antarctic wilderness of
ice and snow, Mertz and I had to eat his carcass.
We ate the bony parts first, breaking every bone
so as to get out the marrow. Raw dog meat may not
sound attractive at a distance, or when one is this
far removed from the ultimate hunger in which the
stomach seems to attack its very self, but there it
tasted as good as anything you ever ate.
“Finally Mertz began to sicken and to weaken,
and in a few days,--January 17 it was,--he died.
I almost turned cannibal, so starved out was my
condition, but with it all I buried him, and then
started back on the 100-mile journey that lay
between me and safety. Sore of body and sick of
mind, it was more by crawling than by walking
that I was able to get back to camp only to see
the Aurora disappearing over the horizon. It left
provisions for me, however, and six men to search
for me. Nothing but Providence saved me from the
fate of Mertz and Ninnis.”
Sir Douglas showed pictures of beds of coal that
tell of a time when tropic summer once reigned
in this great home of the blizzards, and others
revealing great ice cliffs with the stratified
snows of a hundred winters upon them, each stratum
standing out as clearly as though it were of
sedimentary rock.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH OFFICIAL
_Indianapolis News_
WASHINGTON, October 28.--That the United States,
in a business and financial sense, can now view
the war in Europe without serious apprehensions
is the opinion of George E. Roberts, director of
the mint, one of the keenest economists in the
government service. Mr. Roberts talked about the
situation today and made it plain that despite many
disadvantages he sees no danger to this country.
“The situation with respect to cotton,” said
Mr. Roberts, “is the chief drawback. With the
market for cotton limited and prices low, the
south suffers seriously and the effect is felt
on the entire country. The effects of the cotton
situation, on the other hand, are to a considerable
extent counteracted by the fact that in the north
good prices are commanded by wheat, corn, live
stock and other products of the northern farms.
“This country may expect to be fairly prosperous
during the period of the war in Europe. Capital
will be dear and this will tend to prevent the
starting of new enterprises. We can not have really
good times unless money can readily be obtained for
new enterprises.
“I do not expect to see money available for the
building of railroad improvements and extension
and new lines. I do not expect to see new business
enterprises to any considerable extent started
while the war lasts. I expect to see business in
many lines already established run along about as
usual. In certain directions it will be improved.
“The European countries, which are now at war,
will go on putting out one issue of securities
after another. It is a question how much of
that they can float without compelling holders
of American securities abroad to dispose of our
securities. On the whole, I should expect most of
the ready capital in this country, which under the
conditions would be hunting for investments in new
enterprises, to be absorbed for some time to come
in taking up American securities parted with by
foreign holders.”
Mr. Roberts doubts whether the stock exchanges
will soon reopen. He says one strong influence
against it is the banks which have made loans on
the basis of securities. They do not want, on
the one hand, to call in their loans, and, on
the other hand, they do not want to incur any
danger of seeing stocks and securities they hold
as collateral quoted at low figures. He thinks it
will be a considerable time before the exchanges
are reopened. He pointed out that it would be
impossible long to dam up traffic in securities.
“Already they have in New York the ‘gutter
market,’” said Mr. Roberts. “I am informed that
the volume of business done in this way is
considerable, and it will grow. You can not stop
for any length of time the business of exchange. If
the exchanges are closed the buyer and seller will
find some other method of coming together.”
Due in part to the fact that the new federal
reserve system will release a large volume of
reserve money, and in part to the fact that the
bankers and the country generally have recovered
from the first shock of the war and now confront
it without fear, Mr. Roberts thinks the banks will
have plenty of money to lend. He looks for little
disposition to lend money on new enterprises; but,
on the other hand, he believes there will be plenty
of money to advance to meet the needs of ordinary
business and to extend the loans of the average
borrower.
As for the settlement of American indebtedness
to Europe, concerning which there has been much
discussion of the shipment of American gold abroad,
Mr. Roberts thinks this problem will be adjusted.
He pointed out that it would be partly adjusted
by the growing volume of sales to Europe. It will
be partly adjusted by the individuals who owe the
debt, and who obtain extension. In one way and
another the volume of the debt will be whittled
down so that, according to Mr. Roberts, this
problem is not at all insurmountable. As for the
cotton situation, he hopes to see this worked out
by the pool.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH EDUCATOR
_Indianapolis News_
Exemplification. Two short breaths and a stutter
and then as follows: e-x, ex; e-m, em, exem;
p-l-i, pli, exempli; f-i, fi, exemplifi; c-a,
ca, exemplifica; t-i-o-n, shun, exemplification;
there’s your exemplification.
“Correct, Johnnie,” and the schoolmaster, with a
spelling-book in one hand and a lamp in the other,
sends Johnnie to the head of the line and walks on
through the dimly lighted country school building,
pronouncing “jaw breakers,” teaching the youth to
tread the flowery paths of knowledge, and in all
ways carrying out the plans of a good old-fashioned
country spelling match.
Many men and women now well advanced in years
learned to be good spellers largely by means of
spelling matches supplemented by special spelling
exercises on Friday afternoons. But Fassett A.
Cotton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
has some new ideas in regard to the best methods
of teaching spelling, and this subject received
considerable attention in the course of study which
Mr. Cotton is now preparing, and which is to be
used in the schools of the State during the coming
year.
“Spelling,” says Mr. Cotton, “can not be taught
incidentally. It must have the systematic attention
of the teacher as a separate subject and his
constant care in all written work. While oral
spelling is a helpful aid in fixing forms, it is
generally conceded that written spelling must
receive the larger stress. The eye rather than the
ear must be trained. Indeed, correct spelling must
be made an eye and muscle habit. Constant drill in
writing correct forms of a word serves to build it
into one’s very physical make-up.
“There are certain laws, a knowledge of which is
valuable in teaching spelling. The work should
be inductive; that is, words spelled according
to these laws should be presented in groups and
the children led to construct the laws. There is
a certain economy in learning the laws, because
through them a group of words may be learned as
easily as a single word. The fact that there are
exceptions to the laws by no means destroys the
claim for economy. There are two sides, then,
to the spelling process, the mechanical and the
rational, and the teacher must keep them both in
mind. They go together. Both are essential. The
return to the use of a spelling book indicates a
belief in the need of more systematic work in oral
and written spelling.”
In regard to the subject matter of spelling, Mr.
Cotton believes that here, as in other subjects,
the dominant community interest should be taken
into consideration. Each community, Mr. Cotton
points out, has its own vocabulary. The assignment
in spelling, he says, should be worked out as
carefully as the assignment in any other subject,
and, as in every other subject, the home life
should dictate the point of departure.
The assignment may from day to day, Mr. Cotton
suggests, consist of lists of ten or twenty words
covering the entire range of life in the community.
The teacher may ask the class to hand in a list
of ten words that are names of kitchen utensils.
If there are five or six in the class, it may be
that twenty or more different words will be named.
Such a device furnishes the fairest test of the
child’s ability to spell these words, because
he suggests them to himself and is not aided by
having them pronounced. The teacher should correct
the lists and hand them back, and then the twenty
different words should be used as a spelling lesson
and made the basis of a permanent list. Similar
lists may cover other home departments, industrial
departments, or farm life, and there may be lists
covering the vocabulary of the social, the civil or
governmental, the religious and the school life of
the community.
The assignment may take another form, Mr. Cotton
suggests, and accomplish the same purpose. The
teacher may have it in mind to teach inductively
the meaning of the word synonym. He gives
the following list of words: farmer, grower,
cultivator, agriculturist and husbandman. He then
has the pupils pronounce each word, tell the
meaning, use one of the words in a sentence and
substitute as many words as possible for it. Other
groups of farm words may be used in the same way.
While Mr. Cotton concedes that the teacher must
select, in the main, his own devices for teaching
any subject, he offers the following suggestions
for teaching spelling:
“The words to be taught should be the words needed
in the school vocabulary and in life.
“The work should be based as much as possible upon
the laws governing spelling, and should be done
inductively.
“Constant drill is essential, and absolute accuracy
in all written work must be insisted upon.
“It is a good practice to keep a list of words most
commonly misspelled and point out and emphasize in
some attractive way the difficulties in spelling
these words.
“Word building and word analysis are excellent
devices.
“The use of words in sentences different from those
in which they are found in the text-book is good
practice for the vocabulary of the pupil.
“It is especially important that pupils should
learn to use in sentences of their own construction
the many simple words which are alike in their
pronunciation, but which differ both in their
spelling and in their use. The teacher will find it
advantageous to make the list of homonyms in the
spelling book the basis for language exercises as
well as for spelling lessons.
“The new speller should be in the hands of each
and every pupil. The work is outlined by grades in
the book. No pupil should be promoted till he has
mastered all the words in the grade in which he is
working.”
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH WOMAN PHILANTHROPIST
_Kansas City Star_
A little woman, her shoulders laden with the burden
of a great effort to rid the world of poverty, came
to Kansas City this morning. She is Mrs. Joseph
Fels, widow of the Philadelphia philanthropist
and manufacturer. With Daniel Kiefer, chairman
of the Fels fund, and Mrs. Kiefer, Mrs. Fels is
touring the principal cities of the United States
in the interests of the idea to which Joseph Fels
devoted his life, the taxation of land values. The
philanthropist died last February.
Mrs. Fels’s eyes kindled when the war was mentioned
to her at the Savoy Hotel this morning. She was
dressed simply in black, but the soberness of
her attire was eclipsed by the animation of her
features when she was given the opportunity to
plunge into the subject to which she is now giving
her life.
“The war,” she cried softly. “It wouldn’t have come
about if Europe had been listening. ‘More land,’
the nations say; ‘more land,’ with a wealth of it
within their own borders owned by great landlords.
Yet they must fight to extend their boundary lines.
“Is it possible to think that the good Lord would
make a world in which there were more people than
could be provided for? It is that idea that keeps
us fighting on to make people realize. Freedom
for each individual to earn his own living; we
ask only for that. Tax the land; take the taxes
off produced necessities; force landlords to quit
holding empty land for the profit that comes from
other people coming to live around it. Do you know
that Philadelphia has 40,000 empty lots--not on
the outskirts but in the city? London has 50,000
of them. ‘Congestion,’--we speak of that, but what
congestion would there be if every man could till
the soil, and if selfishness and greed were not
allowed to appropriate the earnings of others?”
The diminutive figure of Mrs. Fels seemed to grow
as her voice let escape in its tones something of
the passionate conviction which she feels in the
rightfulness of the land value taxation propaganda.
“The world has had enough of charity, a poor
patchwork of a poor system of civilization. We
are trying to prevent the need of charity, trying
to spread justice and freedom, to free the worker
from the landlord’s domination and give him
opportunity. For us opportunity is freedom.”
Before the death of Mr. Fels, the philanthropist
spent a good deal of time in England. Mrs. Fels
still resides there half of the year.
“England has a king,” she said, “but fundamentally
the English government is more democratic than
the United States. We call ourselves a democracy,
but in reality we are a plutocracy. The idea of
a democracy is a fine thing to hold up before
the eyes of the people, but in the present
circumstances it is only to blind them to real
conditions.”
Mrs. Fels is of German descent, but her sympathies
and her blame for the war are with all of the
fighting nations.
“I am sorry for all of them,” she said, “but I
know that all are implicated. Perhaps some good
will come out of it. If the people of the warring
nations are made so poor that the nations will
have to take extreme measures to exist, the great
estates of Europe will be thrown open to intensive
farming and to all the other methods of adding to
productiveness.”
Daniel Kiefer, chairman of the Fels Fund, told some
facts that Mrs. Fels appeared too modest to relate.
When Joseph Fels was living he proposed to match
dollar for dollar any fund that was raised in the
United States to forward the single tax propaganda.
He did the same thing in fifteen other countries.
In this country in the last five years the Fels
Fund has given more than ¼ million to less than
half that amount raised by others.
Mr. Kiefer explained that Mrs. Fels was giving
herself to carrying on the movement in which her
husband had shown so great an interest.
“Giving myself and all I have and am,” added Mrs.
Fels. This afternoon Mrs. Fels spoke at Central
High School and at Swope Center. She will speak at
the City Club at 8 o’clock tonight. A reception for
Mrs. Fels by the Council of Clubs will be held from
3 to 5 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Mrs. Fels will
speak again at a public meeting at the City Club at
8 o’clock tomorrow night.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH OPERA SINGER
_Chicago Daily News_
Mme. Tamakai Miura hid behind a baggage truck and
pressed her fingers into her miniature ears. It was
her first visit to Chicago.
“Ooo!” exclaimed Mme. Miura. “Ooo!”
The Twentieth Century limited was backing out of
the LaSalle Street Station.
“She is the first Japanese grand opera singer in
the world, the first to sing in America and one
of the best sopranos in the company!” shouted the
press agent above the roar. He led the way to
Mme. Miura. She stood half frightened and half
amused, seeming like a figure that had escaped
from a Japanese print and got lost in a Meissonier
landscape. For Mme. Miura was still dressed in her
native costume. She might have just wandered off
the stage from a scene in “Madame Butterfly” in
which she is going to sing for the Boston Opera
Company.
She wore a purple robe, with a dull red and gold
girdle. It enveloped her in folds and a dull pink
scarf covered her patent leather colored hair.
American shoes, an American handbag and American
furs testified to her acquired cosmopolitanism.
“I like come here and sing,” said Mme. Miura,
removing her fingers from her ears. “I been in
London and all over the world. I am only singer
in Japan. In Japan women don’ sing so much or do
anything. They have no suffrage an’ only listen
to the nightingale and the wind blow through the
cherry tree. But art will liberate the ladies of
Japan.”
Mme. Miura glanced coquettishly at a Japanese man
who stood near her.
“What you think?” she inquired of him.
“He is my husband,” she explained.
Becoming more accustomed to the baggage truck and
the Twentieth Century, Madame Miura continued:
“When I come to America I all the time ’fraid
people don’t like me because I hear about Japanese
not being much liked, but when I come to New York
everybody like me and is most nice to me. And I am
sure everybody in Chicago like me. It is so full
of noise, is it not? All America is full of noise.
“I like most American scenery which the railroad
show me. It is better than English or German
scenery, because in English scenery all the trees
look like doll trees and in Germany all the trees
look like they have been straightened with mower of
the lawn. In American scenery everything is big and
wild and maybe full of animals, is it not?
“And there is so much. I pass miles and miles in my
ride, more than whole Japan.”
Madame Miura’s English required the greatest
concentration on her part. She paused and thought
and then resumed.
“Opera is new art in Japan. We have only very few
singers. Because women have no great chance, but
now maybe they have. I study in London and Berlin.
I have sing before king and queen in Albert Hall.
I sing Irish song, Scotch song, Italian and French
song and English song. Isn’t that nice?”
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following three telegraph
stories show three different forms for a group
of several interviews on the same subject, which
in this case was a decision of the Interstate
Commerce Commission granting the railroads the
right to charge higher freight rates. As originally
published, these stories followed stories from
Washington, D.C. giving the details of the
decision._
GROUP OF INTERVIEWS
(1)
_Milwaukee Free Press_
CHICAGO, Dec. 18.--Wholesale merchants and shippers
of Chicago were elated today at the decision of the
interstate commerce commission. Here is what some
of them say:
JOHN G. SHEDD, president Marshall Field & Co.:
“Everyone should rejoice over the action of the
interstate commerce commission. I regard this
decision as marking the turning point in the
business situation, and expect to see hereafter a
marked advance on the road of prosperity by all
lines of American industry.”
JULIUS ROSENWALD, president of Sears-Roebuck &
Co.: “Representing one of the largest shippers, I
am glad to say that we rejoice in the decision. I
believe it will have a far-reaching effect. It will
help the whole United States and stimulate business
all over the land.”
JOHN V. FARWELL, president of the John V. Farwell
Co.: “I am glad the application of the railroads
for an increase in freight rates has been granted,
as I believe the decision will be an essential
factor in stimulating and encouraging all branches
of business in all parts of the United States.”
(2)
_Chicago Tribune_
New York, Dec. 18.--Howard Elliott, president of
the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad
company, and chairman of the board of directors,
commenting on the decision of the interstate
commerce commission, said:
“Careful calculations indicate that the increase in
the gross freight earnings of the New Haven road,
because of the decision of the commerce commission,
will be less than $250,000 per year, and probably
not much in excess of $200,000 a year on the
present volume of business. So far this fiscal
year, the freight earnings of the company have
decreased $1,399,000.
“We are gratified to have the commission recognize
the necessity of increasing freight rates and we
are glad to have even this modest increase.”
A. H. Smith, president of the New York Central
lines, made the following statement:
“As nearly as I can learn from preliminary reports,
the commerce commission has granted an increase on
perhaps a little more than one-half of the tonnage,
but to the extent that the increase has been
granted it will help the railroad situation. It
should also promote general public confidence for
the future.
“The commission has recognized not only the needs
of the railroads but the effect upon the railroads
of the present peculiar conditions. The increase
granted will not solve the transportation problems
of the day, but we are thankful for the help given
and will endeavor to make the best possible use of
it.”
(3)
_Chicago Tribune_
Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 18.--“The granting of the
5 per cent freight increase will have absolutely
no effect upon the passenger increases,” declared
George W. Boyd, general passenger traffic manager
of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. “We want
to establish the two departments of our road on
an independent basis, and to do this we need the
passenger increase as much as the freight increase.”
“I am glad for any decision that would bring
prosperity to the people of Pennsylvania,” was the
only comment of Gov.-elect Martin G. Brumbaugh.
The commission will aid in smoothing the way
to prosperity, in the opinion of Alba Johnson,
president of the Baldwin Locomotive works.
* * * * *
OFFICIAL REPORT
_Boston Transcript_
Twenty-five States are represented in a crusade
which the lawmakers and school authorities of
the country are waging against the high school
fraternity, according to a report which has
just been issued by the United States Bureau of
Education. Of these, thirteen States have passed
legislative enactments hostile to the secret
orders, while the school boards of important cities
in the other twelve States have adopted like
measures within their own jurisdiction.
All States having laws on the subject provide a
penalty of suspension or expulsion from school for
all those who join these orders. The most drastic
laws were passed by Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska,
whose legislatures made it a misdemeanor for anyone
even to solicit members to these organizations.
Michigan and Ohio made it a misdemeanor for a
school officer to fail or refuse to carry out the
anti-high school fraternity law. Other States
which prohibit these orders are California,
Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, and Vermont.
Massachusetts empowers the Boston School Committee
to deal with the secret-society problem in its own
way, while Washington gives the same latitude to
the school boards of its larger cities.
The more important cities whose school boards have
passed regulations restricting or forbidding high
school fraternities, are Denver, Meriden, Chicago,
Covington, New Orleans, Lowell, Waltham, Worcester,
Kansas City, Mo., St. Joseph, Butte, Oklahoma
City, Reading, Salt Lake City, Madison, Milwaukee,
Racine and Superior. The commonest penalties are
suspension, expulsion, or debarment from athletic
or other teams of the school.
The United States Bureau of Education’s report
also cites some of the more important court
decisions, every one of which upholds the school
authorities in dealing rigorously with the high
school fraternity, on the ground that the measures
so taken are authorized as a part of the school
board’s discretionary powers. Most courts cited,
however, will not allow the offending pupils to be
barred from classroom exercises, although they can
be barred from participating in all athletic or
other contests.
* * * * *
REPORT OF SCIENTIST
_New York Evening Post_
LONDON, August 1.--Boiling over a slow
fire is the happiest death a lobster can meet;
so it has been determined at the Jersey Marine
Biological Station. The experiments were carried
out by Joseph Sinel, a well-known biologist, for
the Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, whose members associated the prevalent
method of killing lobsters with mediæval torture.
Lobsters, says Mr. Sinel, are extremely difficult
to kill. Piercing the brain does not seem to cause
the lobster more than temporary annoyance, since
his brain is a mere nerve ganglion the size of a
hemp-seed. He has to be killed all over. To throw
him into boiling water fails to do the work either
mercifully or quickly, since he struggles violently
to escape for about two minutes.
The pleasantest way to end a lobster’s troubles,
Mr. Sinel finds, is the old-fashioned way of
placing him in cold water and bringing him to a
boil. As the water warms, he becomes merely lazy
and rolls over as for a sleep. By the time the
water reaches the comparatively mild temperature of
70 degrees, Fahrenheit, he becomes comatose. At 80
degrees, he is dead. To use a human illustration,
the biologist says it is like a person succumbing
to a heat wave, with loss of consciousness and a
painless end.
* * * * *
REPORT OF FEDERAL OFFICIAL
_San Francisco Chronicle_
WASHINGTON, January 15.--Asiatic immigration, the
“Hindoo propaganda,” and particularly immigration
to Continental United States from Hawaii and the
Philippines, are discussed at length in the annual
report of Anthony Caminetti, Commissioner-General
of Immigration, made public here today.
“I believe it is quite generally conceded that
immigration from the Far East is detrimental to the
welfare of the United States,” says the report,
“not because it has heretofore been so extensive
in numbers, but because of its peculiar effect
upon the economic conditions and the possibilities
of an almost unlimited increase in volume if left
unregulated and unchecked. Our Oriental immigration
problem, arising more than a quarter of a century
ago, has never been satisfactorily solved; the
exclusion laws need many amendments, not in purpose
but in prescribed method.
“The Hindoo propaganda, as yet in its infancy, is
calculated to give much trouble unless promptly
met with measures based upon, and modeled to take
advantage of our past experience in trying to
arrange practicable and thorough, but at the same
time unobjectionable, plans for the protection of
the country against an influx of aliens who can not
be readily and healthfully assimilated by our body
politic.”
Of immigration by way of the insular possessions
the Commissioner says: “It will be observed that
15,512 aliens came to continental from insular
United States during the last seven years--10,948
from Hawaii, 3,950 from Porto Rico and 614 from the
Philippines--and that of these, 10,740 landed at
San Francisco, 3,910 at New York and 631 at Seattle.
“Aliens coming from Porto Rico have been handled
with a fair degree of success, but those coming
from Hawaii and the Philippines have given the
service a great deal of trouble, the former with
regard to the admission of aliens to the territory
and their subsequent migration to the continent,
and the latter with respect to the coming of
aliens to the mainland from the Philippines only,
the immigration service having nothing to do
with respect to the admission of aliens to these
possessions.
“It has been regarded as desirable to encourage
the settlement in Hawaii of European aliens, and
correspondingly to discourage the settlement there
of aliens from the Orient, the idea being that the
former does, and the latter does not, tend toward
the ‘Americanization’ of the territory, which
already has a large Asiatic population. Failure to
retain the immigrants secured through the exercise
by the Federal Government of a very liberal
policy, is believed to be due to the fact that the
conditions of work and labor are unsatisfactory and
the standard of wages too low.”
Of the flow of immigration the Commissioner says:
“Immigration, judged from the results of the year,
has apparently reached the million mark, and unless
some affirmative action is taken by the Federal
Government to restrict it, or steps are taken by
European and other nations to reduce the steady
stream of persons leaving the various countries
of the Old World, we need hardly expect that
the number annually entering the United States
hereafter will fall far below 1,000,000.”
Immigration to the United States for the fiscal
year aggregated 1,218,480, only 66,869 less than
for the year 1907, which showed the greatest tide
of immigration in history. As 633,805 aliens left
the United States during the year, the net increase
of population through immigration was 769,276.
Of the alien applicants for admission to the United
States during the year, 33,041 were excluded on
various statutory grounds, the debarments being 66
per cent greater than for the previous year.
The suggestion is made tentatively that some
diversion of the immigrant fund be made to protect
the immigrants after their landing in this country,
in an effort “to relieve industrial centers by
securing employment for the surplus labor found
therein, whether native or foreign, either on farms
or in other rural occupations or in settling people
on lands.” Such relief would be, the report says,
of benefit to all the people.