USE OF COLLOQUIALISMS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17750, 30 April 1923, Page 3

USE OF COLLOQUIALISMS.

AN INCIDENT IN AMERICAN PARLIAMENT. In a recent discussion in Congress on the reckless driving of automobiles Mr Stafford, of Wisconsin, remarked that the practice would soon 'be stopped if sufficient Judges, had the guts to punish. This colloquialism so actuely shocked Mr Smith, of Idaho, that he moved "that the remarks of the gentleman from Wisconsin, wherein he used the word 'guta,' be expunged from the Congressional Record." In taking notice of this motion the Speaker of the House added the comment that tfiese remarks were "disgraceful," and "should not have been uttered on this floor." The offending representative did not, However, lack a vigorous defender, writes a correspondent in the "Manchester Guardian." Mr Bianton, of Texas —a State which is notoriously unfriendly 'to limitations on freedom of utterance —thought the gentleman from Idaho had acted rather Hastily. If he would examine the Congressional Record he would find that very expression used in at least a dozen places. The Texan representative accordingly protested the proposed excision. "A member," be maintained, "does not have to get up here in the floor and imagine that he is out under timid, shrinking Idaho skies every time he opens his mouth. He-is on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, where he is supposed to speak his mind if he has to use a good old-fashioned expression once in a while. I want to say that it is a pood expression that my friend from Wisconsin used, and I wish that more of us on this floor had more of just what he mentioned." There was no further debate, and when the vote was taken, the motion to expunge was rejected.