Plain English Part 91

"Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--."

18. What _are_ the _machines saying_?

19. _They are saying_, "We are hungry."

20. "_We have eaten_ up the men and women. (There is no longer a market for men and women, they come too high)-- 21. _We have eaten_ up the men and women, and now _we are devouring_ the boys and girls.

22. How good _they taste_ as we suck the blood from their rounded cheeks and forms, and cast them aside sallow and thin and careworn, and then call for more.

23. Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r! how good _they taste_; but _they give_ us so few boys and girls to eat nowadays, although there are so many outside begging to come in--.

24. Only one _boy_ to twenty of us, and _we are_ nearly _famished_!

25. _We eat_ those they give us and _those_ outside _will starve_, and soon _we shall be left_ almost alone in the world with the stockholders.

26. Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r! What shall we do then for our food?" the _machines chatter_ on.

27. "When we are piling up millions of socks a day for the toilers and then there are no toilers left to buy them and wear them.

28. Then perhaps we shall have to turn upon the kind stockholders and feast on them (how fat and tender and toothsome they will be!) until at last we alone remain, clattering and chattering in a desolate land," _growled the machines_.

29. While the _boys went_ on anxiously, hurriedly rubbing and polishing, and the _girls_ downstairs _went_ on collapsing.

30. "Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r!" _growled_ the _machines_.

31. The _devil has_ somehow _got_ into the machines.

32. _They came_ like the good gnomes and fairies of old, to be our willing slaves and make our lives easy.

33. Now that, by their help, one man can do the work of a score, why _have we_ not plenty for all, with only enough work to keep us happy?

34. _Who could have foreseen_ all the ills of our factory workers and of those who are displaced and cast aside by factory work?

35. The good wood and iron _elves came_ to bless us all, but _some_ of us _have succeeded_ in bewitching them to our own ends and turning them against the rest of mankind.

36. _We must break_ the sinister charm and _win_ over the docile, tireless machines until they refuse to shut out a single human being from their benefits.

37. _We must cast_ the devil out of the machines.

--_Ernest Crosby_.

SPELLING

LESSON 24

Among the common suffixes in English are the suffixes _or_ and _er_.

These suffixes mean _one who_ or _that which_. For example, _builder_, one who builds; _actor_, one who acts; _heater_, that which heats. But we are confused many times to know whether to add the suffix _or_ or _er_ to form these derivative words. There is no exact rule which can be given, but the following rule usually applies with but few exceptions:

To the shorter and commoner words in the language add the suffix _er_.

For example, _writer_, _boxer_, _singer_, etc. To the longer and less common words, usually those derived from the Latin or the Greek, add the suffix _or_. For example, _legislator_, _conqueror_, etc.

There are a number of words in the English like _honor_, in which the last syllable used to be spelled _our_ instead of _or_. You will probably run across such words as these in your reading. This mode of spelling these words, however, is being rapidly dropped and the ending _or_ is being used instead of _our_. There are also a number of words in our language like _center_, which used to be spelled with _re_ instead of _er_. The _re_ ending is not used any more, although you may run across it occasionally in your reading. The proper ending for all such words as these is _er_. There are a few words, however, like _timbre_ (a musical term) and _acre_, which are still properly spelled with the _re_ ending.

The spelling lessons for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, contain words from which derivatives can be formed by adding _er_ or _or_. Look these words up in the dictionary and be sure that you have added the proper suffix. The list for Friday consists of words which you may find in your reading spelled with the _our_ ending. The list for Sat.u.r.day contains words which you may find spelled with the _re_ ending instead of the _er_.

+Monday+

Create Produce Profess Debate Govern

+Tuesday+

Edit Consume Consign Legislate Design

+Wednesday+

Solicit Pay Success Observe Invent

+Thursday+

Vote Debt Organize Sail Strike

+Friday+

Labor Neighbor Rumor Valor Candor

+Sat.u.r.day+

Theater Scepter Fiber Somber Meager

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 25

Dear Comrade:

In logic, we have two ways of reasoning, from the general to the particular and from the particular to the general. In other words, we may take a certain number of facts and reason to a conclusion; or we may go the other way about and start with our conclusion and reason back to the facts which produce the conclusion. Scientists use the former method. They gather together all the facts which they possibly can and from these facts they reach their conclusions.

This was what Karl Marx did for the social problems of his day. He a.n.a.lyzed these problems. He gathered together all of the facts which he could obtain concerning conditions of his day and from these facts he reached certain conclusions. He foretold the rise of capitalism and outlined present day conditions so perfectly that had he lived long ago among superst.i.tious people, they would probably have called him a prophet.

This mastery of a.n.a.lysis, of marshaling our facts and from them reaching conclusions, is a wonderful power to possess, and this is exactly what we are doing in our English work. We are a.n.a.lyzing our sentences, finding the elements of which they are composed, and then building the sentence; and since neither the thought nor the sentence can be really studied except in connection with each other, this a.n.a.lysis of sentences gives us an understanding of the thought. The effort to a.n.a.lyze a difficult sentence leads to a fuller appreciation of the meaning of the sentence. This, in turn, cultivates accuracy in our own thought and in its expression.

So do not slight the a.n.a.lysis of the sentence or this work in sentence building. You will find it will help you to a quicker understanding of that which you are reading and it will also give you a logical habit of mind. You will be able to think more accurately and express yourself more clearly. After a little practice in a.n.a.lysis you will find that in your reading you will be able to grasp the author's meaning quickly. You will see at a glance, without thinking about it consciously, the subject and the predicate and the modifiers in the sentence. Then you will not confuse the meaning. You will not have to go back and reread the pa.s.sage to find out just what the author was talking about; and when you come to write and speak yourself, you will have formed the habit of logical expression. In this way you will be able to put your thought in such a manner that your listener can make no mistake as to just what you mean.

Now, no habit comes without practice. You cannot do a thing unconsciously until you have done it consciously a great many times. So practice this a.n.a.lysis of sentences over and over. It really is an interesting game in itself, and the results which it will bring to you are tremendously worth while.

Nothing is too much trouble which will give us the power to think for ourselves and to put that thought into words.

Yours for Freedom,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

THE SUBJECT OF A SIMPLE SENTENCE

+416.+ We have found that the two parts of a simple sentence are the complete subject and the complete predicate. The noun is most often used as the subject of a sentence. It may have a number of modifiers, but when we strip away these modifiers we can usually find a noun which is the subject of the sentence. Occasionally the subject is a p.r.o.noun or a participle or adjective used as a noun but most frequently the subject is a noun. As for example:

A wild piercing _cry_ rang out.

Hopeless, helpless _children_ work in the cotton mills.

The golden _age_ of peace will come.