Plain English Part 112

The law was placed upon the......books.

The world will sometime erect a......to the man of the people.

Do not fear to be thought a "high-brow" if you use these words in your every day speech. The very people who may laugh are in their hearts admiring you, and are, in all probability, envious. The man who has accused another of being a "high-brow" has by that very act, admitted his own inferiority.

Demand the best for yourself in words, as in everything else.

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 30

Dear Comrade:

With this lesson we are finishing this course in Plain English. We have covered a great deal of ground and have studied the essentials of grammar. We have tried, as far as possible, to avoid the stupid conning of rules or learning by rote. We have attempted at least to make the reason and necessity for every rule apparent before the rule was stated.

We have also tried to weave into the lessons something of the romance of language, for language is a romance; in its growth is written the epic of the race. Our words portray the struggle of man from savage to sage.

So, feeble as our efforts in this regard may have been, we trust that you have enjoyed and profited by this course and have caught a new vision of life. Most of us are forced so inexorably into the bitter struggle for existence that we have little time or opportunity to catch much of the beauty of life. That is the curse of a society that dooms its citizens to weary, toil-burdened lives, robbed of the joy and beauty of living.

Yet, if we know how to read we can always have access to books and through them we can escape the sordidness and ugliness of the life in which we are compelled to live and spend at least a little time each day in the company of great souls who speak to us from the printed page. The quotations in these lessons have been taken from these great writers.

Will you not pursue the acquaintanceship and become real friends with these men and women? Above all things they will bring you into the atmosphere of liberty and of freedom. For throughout all the pain of the struggle of the past and of the present, there has been the fight of man for freedom. We have gained the mastery over nature. Wild animals, which were a constant menace to savage man, have been destroyed. We have been freed from fear and superst.i.tion by the discovery of the laws of nature.

With the invention of the machine, man has increased his ability to provide the essentials of life,--food, clothing and shelter--a thousandfold. The past has seen revolution after revolution in the struggle for mastery.

We now stand on the threshold of another great revolution when man shall master the machines which he has invented and shall cease serving them and make them serve him. His increased facilities for food-getting and shelter-getting shall be made to serve all mankind. We have a part to play in that great revolution.

Whatever you may have gained from the study of this course; what increased facility of understanding or of expression may have come to you; may it be not only for the service of yourself but also for the service of the revolution that shall bring the worker into his own.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

THE ETERNAL WHY

+522.+ There is no more important mark of punctuation than the Interrogation Point. Asking questions is the foundation and beginning of all wisdom. Progress is based upon the eternal _Why_. If men had always been satisfied with the knowledge of their age and had not continually asked questions which they set themselves to answer, we would still be living in caves or dwelling in trees.

The natural child, that is, the child whose will has not been broken, is an animated Interrogation Point. He is full of questions. He wants to know _why_ this and _why_ that. This is a most natural trait and one that should not be destroyed. It may sadly interfere sometimes with the things that we wish to do, to stop and answer the child's questions as to why cats have tails or who made the world and what did he stand on while he was doing it; but it is decidedly important that some one should answer these questions which the child asks, in a manner to satisfy its present craving for knowledge. The fact that this trait has been quenched in so many children by the impatient grown-ups explains their stupidity in later years. Encourage every child to ask questions.

Encourage it also to be persistent until it finds somewhere the answer to its questions.

Cultivate also this trait yourself. Do not accept a thing simply because some one says it is so. Insist upon knowing for yourself. This is the secret of progress, that we should think for ourselves, investigate for ourselves and not fear to face the facts of life or to express our own ideas. The wise man does not accept a thing because it is old nor does he reject it because it is new. He inquires, demands, reasons and satisfies himself as to the merit of the question. So the Interrogation Point in the written language of man has a tremendous meaning. It stands for the open and inquiring mind; for the courage that dares question all things and seek the truth.

THE INTERROGATION POINT

+523.+ An Interrogation Point should be placed after every direct question.

A direct question is one that can be answered. An indirect question is one that cannot be answered. If I say, _Why do you not study?_, I am asking a direct question to which you can give an answer; but if I say, _I wonder why you do not study_, I have asked an indirect question which does not require a direct answer.

Why do you not go? (_Direct_) He asked why you did not go. (_Indirect_)

+524.+ When an interrogative clause is repeated in the body of another sentence, use the interrogation point after the clause, and begin the clause with a capital letter. For example:

The question, _Shall we be involved in war?_, should be settled by the people.

THE EXCLAMATION POINT

+525.+ The exclamation point should be placed after words, phrases or sentences that express strong emotion. For example:

Oh! When shall peace reign again?

Alas! I am undone!

To the firing line! the battle rages!

+526.+ Ordinarily the exclamation point is placed immediately after the interjection or word used as an interjection, but frequently when the strong emotion continues throughout the expression, the exclamation point is placed at the close of the sentence instead of after the interjection, even though the interjection comes first in the sentence.

For example:

On, Comrades, on!

Charge, Chester, charge!

THE DASH

+527.+ The dash is a much abused punctuation mark. A great many writers who are not familiar with the rules of punctuation use a dash whenever they feel the need of some sort of a punctuation mark. Their rule seems to be, "whenever you pause make a dash." Punctuation marks indicate pauses but a dash should not be used upon every occasion. The dash should not be used as a subst.i.tute for the comma, semi-colon, colon, etc. In reality, the dash should be used only when these marks cannot be correctly used.

+528.+ The chief use of the dash is to indicate a sudden break in the thought or a sudden change in the construction of the sentence. For example:

In the next place--but I cannot discuss the matter further under the circ.u.mstances.

+529.+ The dash is frequently used to set a parenthetical expression off from the rest of the sentence when it has not as close connection with the sentence as would be indicated by commas. As for example:

The contention may be true--although I do not believe it--that this sort of training is necessary.

+530.+ The dash is also used in place of commas to denote a longer or more expressive pause. For example:

The man sank--then rose--then sank again.

+531.+ The dash is often used after an enumeration of several items as a summing up. For example:

Production, distribution, consumption--all are a part of economics.

+532.+ A dash is often used when a word or phrase is repeated for emphasis. For example:

Is there universal education--education for every child beneath the flag? It is not for the ma.s.ses of the children--not for the children of the ma.s.ses.

+533.+ If the parenthetical statements within dashes require punctuation marks, this mark should be placed before the second dash. For example: