Plain English Part 36

Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers?

Political freedom can exist only where there is industrial freedom.

Political democracy can exist only where there is industrial democracy.

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.

If there is anything that cannot bear free thought, let it crack.

No doctrine, however established, should be protected from discussion.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives the preaching of a new gospel.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.

No picture of life can have any variety which does not admit the odious facts.

I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

Exercise 8

Note the use of the helping verbs in the following quotation. Could you use _might_ or _must_ or _ought_ anywhere and strengthen the emphasis?

"I have looked at this claim by the light of history and my own confidence, and it seems to me, so looked at, to be a most just claim, and that resistance to it means nothing short of a denial of the whole of civilization.

This then is the claim:

It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious.

Turn that claim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I cannot find that it is an exorbitant claim; yet if society would or could admit it, the face of the earth would be changed; discontent and strife and dishonesty would be ended. To feel that we were doing work useful to others and pleasant to ourselves, and that such work and its due reward could not fail us! What serious harm could happen to us then? And the price to be paid for so making the world happy, must be revolution."--_William Morris_.

SPELLING

LESSON 10

Simple words are sometimes spoken of as root words. _Root_ means that from which something grows. We know our language is a living, growing thing and these root words are the roots where the growth begins. One way in which this growth is accomplished and new words added to our language is by placing syllables before or after the root word--the simple word--as, for example: _unmanly_.

In this we have a syllable placed before and a syllable placed after the root word _man_. The syllable placed before the root word is called the prefix from the Latin _pre_ meaning _before_ and the Latin word to place. Therefore, prefix means literally _to place before_.

+A prefix consists of one or more syllables placed before a word to qualify its meaning.+

The syllable placed after the root word, or simple word, is called the suffix, from the Latin _sub_ meaning after and the Latin word to place.

_Subfix_ the word should be literally, but for the sake of the sound--the euphony, the good sound--we say _suffix_.

+A suffix consists of one or more syllables placed after a word to qualify its meaning.+

+The words made by adding prefixes and suffixes are called derivative words.+

You remember we used a suffix in forming participles. The present participle is formed by adding the suffix _ing_ to the simple form of the verb. The past participle is formed by adding the suffix _ed_ to the simple form of the verb.

The words in the spelling lesson for this week are derivative words formed by adding a prefix or suffix, or both, to the simple word. Draw a line through the prefix and the suffix and leave the simple or root word.

+Monday+

Wonderful Prosperous Disloyalty Uncovered Government

+Tuesday+

Memorize Unreality Co-operation Dependent Truly

+Wednesday+

Beautify Countless Uncomfortable Dishonesty Producer

+Thursday+

Existence Untruthfulness Discontentment Victory Removable

+Friday+

Impurity Unwillingness Indebted Overwearisome Enjoyable

+Sat.u.r.day+

Obligation Hopeless Endanger Precaution Denial

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 11

Dear Comrade:

As we begin the study of the story of the alphabet and the evolution of written speech, we discover that primitive man imagined the art of writing to have had divine origin, to have been handed down from the powers above.

It is natural for us to personify and envelop in mystery the things that we do not understand. So these primitive people have attributed the discovery of the art of writing to the G.o.ds and have looked upon the parchment containing the written word which they cannot understand, as possessing magical power; but as we come to learn the origin and causes of things, they are divested of their mystery and become no longer G.o.ds and enslavers of men. We understand the laws that govern their action and they become our servants. Take lightning for example. Primitive people personified the lightning or called it the thunder bolts of Jove or attributed it to an act of divine providence. We have learned the laws that govern the action of electricity and so this mighty giant is no longer a G.o.d to whom we bow in submission, and who slays us at his whim. He has become our most faithful servant who travels along the wires at our behest and obeys our every bidding. So in the early stages, the art of writing belonged only to the favored few and was made the means of enslavement of the common people instead of the means of liberation.

Knowledge has always been power and the ruling cla.s.ses of the world, desiring power over the people, have striven to keep knowledge within their own circle; so the art of writing was known only to the few. The few books in circulation were laboriously written by hand and circulated, largely among the clergy, who used it as priests have ever used their power--from medicine man to Pope,--for the enslavement of the people and the protection of the privileges of a few. This is aptly ill.u.s.trated in the law which was known as "the benefit of clergy" which was not entirely repealed until the year 1827. Under this statute, exemption from trial for criminal offenses was given to the clergy and also to any man who could read. If a person were sentenced to death for some criminal offense, the bishop of that community might claim him as a clerk and if, when given a Latin book, he could read a verse or two, the court would declare "he reads like a clerk" and the offender was only burned in the hand and then set free.

The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century which made possible the diffusion of knowledge among the people, was the beginning of the emanc.i.p.ation of the workers of the world. But while we realize, perhaps, what this art of writing means to us and by the knowledge of its growth and development no longer ascribe it to divine origin or consider it a blessing designed by a supreme being for a favored few, still most of us know very little of the interesting evolution which made possible the alphabet which is the basis of our written and spoken language of to-day. When we realize how through all these long centuries man has been struggling, striving, evolving, developing, reaching out toward fuller, freer and richer life, it gives us courage in our struggle and makes us see ourselves, not as individuals alone, but as links in a mighty chain clasping hands with that primitive man of the past, from whom we have inherited the power we now possess, and reaching forth also to clasp the hands of those who shall come and handing on to them the things for which we have struggled and added to the inheritance of the past.

Next week we will have the story of man's first beginning in the art of writing.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

THE VERB "BE"