The United States Ambassador presided at the annual dinner of
the Newspaper Press Fund at the Whitehall Rooms on Saturday last, and delivered a genial speech. After paying a handsome tribute to the ability, solidity, and character of the English Press, Mr. Whitelaw Reid appealed to his hearer to be occasionally a little more deliberate and judiciar in their admiration of things American. The degradation of our common language would be less threatening if only we in England were a little less cordial in our admiration of American slang. " We were all the while talking of co-operation in generous efforts by men of goodwill on either side to promote purposes which all English-speaking people should have at heart. Why might we not form an international alliance for the preservation of the English language ? " Mr. Whitelaw Reid's suggestion, coming not merely from an American, but from one long and honourably distinguished as a journalist and editor, commands respectful attention. Yet it is advice which we venture to think can only be acted upon with considerable reserves. We must never forget that a language which does not grow ceases to live. Dryden said the final word on the language question when he declared : " I trade beth with the living and the dead for the enrichment of our tongue."
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