Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 10 January 1938, Page 4

Timely Topics

The Board of Examiners in New York City, dismayed by deteriorating articulation among public school pupils, is about to try ERSATZ OR voice recording machENGLISH ? ines in its effort to eliminate what has come to be called “ersatz English.” Whoever says “boid,” meaning “bird,” or “bud,” meaning “but,” talks “ersatz,” and probably says “abzurd” meaning “absurd,” “cidy” meaning “city,” and “runnink” meaning “running.” Observable in the public schools (and no doubt encouraged by much of the speech currently afloat in the “balloons” that make conversation visible in the comic strips) such perversions are a point of adverse criticism against the educational system and a serious problem for those who i direct it. i The insidiousness of “ersatz” is ; measured by the fact that the voice > recording machins will not be used ! to correct pupils but to eliminate or | inform teachers who are setting the \ pupils a bad example.—' “Christian i Science Monitor.”

General Daluege, chief of the German traffic police, has outlined new regulations designed to lower the number o f TRAFFIC OFFENDERS road acciIN GERMANY dents, deaths from which amounted to 3,437 in the first half of last year. Traffic offenders must in future attend classes of instruction on traffic rules. The classes will be held on Sunday mornings, in order that they m’ay not conflict with working hours. Such classes have already been held experimentally in different towns. Other points in the regulations are:— ; Cyclists and drivers of motor 1 vehicles however sm'all must undergo an examination in traffic rules. New bicycles sold are to have yellow reflectors fittd to the pedals. The rule of “Keep To The Right” is extended to; “The slower the vehicle the farther to the right. “Pedestrians are also urged, but not or-

dered, to keep to the right. Children may no longer play in the traffic-way. A low speed is enjoined at crossings and street corners. If this step does not prove effective the institution of “stop roads,” at which .vehicles will have to stop before turning or crossing, will be considered. —“The Times.” American parents are up in arms against “bloodcurdling nightmares” on children’s radio hours, judging by a deluge of corPARENTS’ CRIME respondence reTHRILLERS’ ceived by GeoPROTEST. Henry Payne, ( a member of the Federal Radio Commission, commending him for his attack on such programmes. “They are turning the radio waves into crime waves,” one writer declctTGc! Another depicted the nightly battle with three children and reported that if the latter heard the programmes they had nightmares and yelled in their sleep. There was no doubt where the chil- • dren stood on the matter. All testimony pointed to the tremendous appeal to youngsters of the gangster radio yarns sponsored by commercial advertisers. Many parents reported boycotting products of such advertisers or discontinuing the radio “Christian Science Monitor”