The Pittsburgh Press (March 24, 1943)
Eighth Army thrown back by counterassault in fierce fighting
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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President’s plea to avert shutdown heeded in joint pact
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Murray and Green, before Truman Committee, seek causes of work stoppage
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By Florence Fisher Parry
Who shall estimate the power of an accent! Our President’s has become a criterion for speakers all over the world! What radio announcer, actor, politician, lecturer or preacher, has not himself felt the influence of that famous delivery, and himself become, however unconsciously, its imitator?
It has come to be accepted, the world over, as the perfect example of pure speech in America. It has, indeed, a purer accent than that of the British and certainly purer than that of the Britisher’s closest imitator, the Bostonian. Certain it is that the speech of most public men has improved by virtue of the excellent example provided by their leader in the White House.
But there, pray, let it end! Outside of professional speakers and actors, I do wish that we would enjoy a return to “native” speech! It is admirable and helpful for our President, who must needs speak to all the world, to possess an accent that is as nearly cosmopolitan as any ever held by an American. But oh, the folly of attempting to destroy, by false concepts and practices on the part of certain purists, one of the most delightful possessions man is heir to; and that is, his NATIVE speech, whatever that may be!
There has been effort made to standardize our speech here in America. And the swift changes wrought by modern transportation, radio and – now especially – this great World War, make it extremely likely that this standardization will indeed come about if steps are not taken to prevent it! Before we know it, the rich heritage of our native idiom will be lost, and Kentuckian and New Englander, Texas and East Shoreman, will be talking the same talk in the same accent and idiom!
Perish the thought!
Heaven forbid!
Already, up home, it is hard to find a true and undefiled specimen of our old speech as it was spoken even in the days of my own childhood! O for a “Maizie and Annie” to bring us back the unpolluted provincial speech of yesterday.
Now there is even a more absurd movement afoot to establish a world language! A kind of expanded Esperanto to embrace all of mankind! How – “weary, flat, stale and unprofitable” would seem to us all the usages of speech if it would come to that!
But, mercifully, it won’t – it can’t. No, nor that other corruption, a uniform accent. So long as features differ, and normal tastes and temperament and blood – so long will Texans speak like Texans, Down-Easterners New England, the melodious accent of the South issue from the lips of her sons and daughters.
Myself, I rejoice that this is so! For differences in speech give more color to countries and people than any other distinguishing mark; and I can think of no bleaker prospect than that of hearing a West Coast prospector employ the accents of a Lancaster County farmer, or either the impeccable accents of a Bostonian!
Home sweet home
What indeed has endeared and cemented one people with another? Why, the quaintness and freshness of their separate speech! It was not the abominated “Reconstruction” program following the Civil War that bound up the nation’s wounds; no! it was that our Yankee interlopers in the South found the accents of her fair daughters irresistible!
What made our post-war relations with France close and warm? It was that our doughboys could not resist the accent of the mademoiselles, just as those same mademoiselles found the faltering French of the Yanks their most endearing trait!
Nature tends to infinite variety in her selection of mates; and how she would be foiled if such a disaster as a common accent and speech should circumvent her ancient method of snaring lovers!
Take accents, idioms and dearly-cherished provincialisms away from our speech, and we will become a dreary folk indeed, without tang or color, without charm or spunk! Heaven forfend us, we will have none of THIS! Shades of Will Rogers, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Bobbie Burns, be we men or mice? Have we tongues in our mouths? Then let them roll out the syllables we were born to, in accents that attest our love of home sweet home!
Cody, Wyoming (UP) –
Japanese who leave the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near here to join the new U.S. all-Japanese Army unit will take with them traditional “good luck” charms, officials have disclosed.
Women evacuees are making for their husbands and sons “belts of a thousand stitches,” regarded by the Japanese for centuries as certain protection against harm.
The belts are made of white cloth, with 1,000 red stitches sewn into then, each by a different woman.
Survey shows 10% increase; drastic price control urged
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Many of enemy planes at Rabaul are destroyed
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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Catasauqua flier and Crafton pilot are among 65 to receive medals in New Guinea
By George Weller
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Non-interventionists see threat to any critic of war effort
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Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Paul “The Waiter” Ricca and Louis “Little New York” Campagna, two of the Chicago gangland figures indicted in New York last week on racketeering charges, surrendered today at the U.S. Marshal’s office.
With Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti, who committed suicide last week a few hours after the indictment was returned, Ricca and Campagna were the ruling powers of the crime syndicate which Al Capone headed.
The New York indictment accused seven Chicago underworld leaders of participating in a plot to mulct millions from the motion picture industry.
Problems in point usage which may confuse public cleared
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Business warned to act or get government program
By Jesse Jones, Secretary of Commerce (written for the United Press)
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By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
Washington –
In the light of Prime Minister Churchill’s advocacy of groupings or confederations of states to strengthen their post-war roles, the Pan-European Conference, which opens tomorrow in New York, assumes considerable importance.
Participating will be some of Europe’s most distinguished statesmen and diplomats – including Paul van Zeeland, former Premier of Belgium; Milan Hodža, former Premier of Czechoslovakia; former Foreign Ministers of Italy, Spain, Norway and Finland; representatives of Britain, Denmark, Romania, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and Greece.
The conference’s principal organizer is Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, formerly of Vienna, now of New York University. Thomas Mann, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and William C. Bullitt, former Ambassador to Russia and France, will also take part.
Thus, for the next three days, beginning tomorrow, some of the Old World’s best brains will get to work on just the sort of thing the British Prime Minister apparently had in mind. They will discuss the feasibility of a post-war federation or, as a maximum, a United States of Europe.
Such a union was the great dream of the late Aristide Briand, a several-times Premier of France. Linking that great man of peace with the present is Count Kalergi, one of his early associates in the movement. But what is less well known is the fact that Winston Churchill has long favored a United States of Europe, although he believes that Britain’s ties with the British Commonwealth of Nations would completely bar her from active membership.
Like Mr. Churchill, Count Kalergi may not think it essential to have either Britain or Russia in the proposed federation. He does believe, however, that it must have their staunch support. In fact, he says it must also have the support of the United States.
The attitude of the United States is not in doubt. Like Britain, this country would welcome any voluntary federation which would lessen the danger of conflict in Europe. Russia’s attitude, however, is much more doubtful.
Just before the war, Finland and Sweden were discussing closer ties between the Scandinavian countries. Moscow very quickly let it be known that it did not relish the idea. Since the war, President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia and President Władysław Sikorski of Poland have discussed an Eastern European federation. This, too, was hastily abandoned after Moscow dropped a hint to Mr. Beneš.