education. All have not had such advantages. The great majority in this
grand and glorious country of ours have to hustle for a living from an
early age. Though education is free, and compulsory also, very many never
get further than the "Three R's." These are the men with whom we have to
deal most in the arena of life, the men with the horny palms and the iron
muscles, the men who build our houses, construct our railroads, drive our
street cars and trains, till our fields, harvest our crops--in a word,
the men who form the foundation of all society, the men on whom the world
depends to make its wheels go round. The language of the colleges and
universities is not for them and they can get along very well without it;
they have no need for it at all in their respective callings. The plain,
simple words of everyday life, to which the common people have been used
around their own firesides from childhood, are the words we must use in
our dealings with them.

Such words are understood by them and understood by the learned as well;
why then not use them universally and all the time? Why make a one-sided
affair of language by using words which only one class of the people, the
so-called learned class, can understand? Would it not be better to use,
on all occasions, language which the both classes can understand? If we
take the trouble to investigate we shall find that the men who exerted
the greatest sway over the masses and the multitude as orators, lawyers,
preachers and in other public capacities, were men who used very simple
language. Daniel Webster was among the greatest orators this country has
produced. He touched the hearts of senates and assemblages, of men and
women with the burning eloquence of his words. He never used a long word
when he could convey the same, or nearly the same, meaning with a short
one. When he made a speech he always told those who put it in form for
the press to strike out every long word. Study his speeches, go over all
he ever said or wrote, and you will find that his language was always