| Show SLIGHTLY WRONG H HEBE ME I 1 is 3 a gramm grammatical PO point int which has been discussed and variously acted upon in every part of the country the new york in a recent article on the head of the post office department made use of the expression our postmasters general the new york world ridiculed this and to emphasize its position cited such construction as majors general etc claiming that the final s which fixes the plural number should be at the end of a word not in the middle of it strange to say the world usually so correct and accurate is astray on this proposition A compound is neither one nor two wards hence the plural in such cases attaches to the noun proper not to the qualification of it and the end of the term does not figure in postmaster general the noun is the first division of the compounded wr ward ardor dor or postmaster the latter part or Gene general ml being merely descriptive of or qualifying the noun and in its singular position qualifying either the singular or plural noun whichever may precede it the proper style is therefore postmasters general 11 as the tribune had it deputies marshal or majors generall general would be wrong tor for the same reason that the qualitative instead of the substantive was pluralized this does not change the fact that the world is a great paper however |
