Confining Columns to Necessary Facts We are to be taught a sharp lesson in the coming months for our folly in not piling up stocks of paper before the war and for our careless use of it since, writes Ivor Brown in the "Manchester Guardian," We shall have less matter to read, which may be a relief to some, and less chance to write, which is tiresome for those who have to live by writing. It is part of the irony of things that the war brings ever more news as it brings ever less newsprint, The harassed editor of today is one who has somehow to cram continually more and more into continually less and less.
What used to overrun its column must now be confined The discipline, herewith being taken, may prove educational, It means a sharpening of language an end to the long word and clumsy phrase. It is a strange coincidence that the word "style" is the Greek for a column, The patron sain; of pole-squatters, Simeon Stylites, might also called the patron saint of columnists, But his case had its difference, He had small space and much time at his disposal, "Many columnists have neither.
If the readers are cager to have as much of news and views for their money as before they too must make certain allowances, If it be a sacrifice to give up the large and plentiful headlines, the generous spacing, and the photography more decorative relevant which have become typical of modern journal ism, then they will have to deny themselves those pleasures, In some cases they will have to accept narrower columns and tighter print, searcely the diminutive type, close-packed in its columns, which our keen-eyed grandparents took for normal, but something lo: cosseting to the sight than the lavish modern lay-out.
Let us be rid of these mouthfuls and paper-wasters; let us be rid of "orientations of policy" and "consolidations of economic interest," Let it be deemed the act of a patriot as well as of an ingenious stylist, an act worthy a crown of wild olive, to write a column on diplomatic affairs in words never exceeding two lables. Another much-needed reform is the abolition (pardon the mouthful!) of the un. necessary terminal preposition, It should be made an offence in all schools and offices try out" when "try" is meant and suffices, n through" for "win," "think up" for "think," "check up on" for "check" or "count," and so forth. This horrid habit has become extremely common, and now is the time to crush it in the interests of brevity,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.