Salt Lake Telegram | 1936-07-06 | Page 6 | Just Folks

Just Folks By Edgar A. A Guest THE LOVELY DECIBEL c Governor Governor Landon's name was greeted with 85 decibels units decibels units of ot sound Intensity Intensity Intensity-at at tho Republican Republican Republican lican convention News News Dis DIs- patch good to hear the cheering swell Into the lovely decibel The decibel of oC healthy lung And iron throat and leather tongue Time was the tho ringing rafters ratters told The happiness of young oung and old But nowadays good news to tell They ring the tho lovely decibel Time was they measured vocal powers In terms of ot seconds minutes hours They counted hats thrown high in air Each siren call and trumpet blare And glorys glory's most exalted sum Was Vas known as pandemonium But now when loud the tho chorus swells They count the lovely decibels When I was writing newsy bits Describing mankind's frenzied fits My paragraphs were neatly stocked With tumult reigned The Tho building rocked And that old faithful phrase of course M Men n shouted till their throats grew hoarse But now exactitude compels That truth bo be told in decibels Farewell old cry of oC ancient years Far Farewell well old trinity of cheers Now comes come upon this human scene Tho The delicate applause machine Which measures to tho the faintest cry The noise which lung and throat supply supply- And some somo devoted foll follower yells Lets give him eighty decibels Copyright 1936 Edgar A. A Guest English Undefiled Two dangers beset us today the tho first of ot which Is jargon words jargon words and metaphors which have no exact cut clear-cut meaning They may have been all right at the beginning but the virtue has gone out of them now They have become empty empt phrases Jargon is found in every profession profession profession pro pro- in correspondence of ot business men and lawyers it Is rampant in Blue Books and government government gov gov- reports and find very common common cornmon com corn mon In the arm army Some of oC us have got into the habit of oC using phrases especially the terms of oC psychoanalysis so 50 habitually that we are arc ceasing to be bc able to express ex ex- press any clear meaning The worst of these abstract phrases is that they are Ineffective ineffective tive and obscure for they are arc Incapable Incapable in incapable In- In capable of precise definition and their use by writers and speakers speaker is merely a cloak for confusion of ot thought and intellectual lazi lazi- ness By By Lord T gov gov- general of ot Canada in addressing addressing addressing ad ad- dressing Canadian clubs at Ot Ot- tawa