Missouri

No Missouri Compromise Champion Of 'Missouri Denounces 'Missouree' As A Pomposity Bill Vaughn In The Kansas City Star When a man sets up a certain number of principles by which to live, anything that happens to him for varying from strict adherence thereto serves him right. Among my strict rules is never to get into an argument with a person mirmr wn0 not on doesn't know IlliriXflT what he is talking about vP Wlft but has no way of knowing Ul UUUllL that he doesn't know. A AfJfiJrvM . man n this condition will, UU1I1IUI1 inevitably, draw to his side of the question the unrea-' soning majority of mankind. Several months ago I allowed myself to depart from this sensible conduct in attempting to do a favor to a wandering carpetbagger who also happened to be an old friend. His name is Martin Quigley and he is editor of Midwest Motorist, the organ of the Auto Club of Missouri. He is from Minnesota or some such place and I thought he would appreciate knowing how to pronounce the name of the state in which he works and to which I first introduced him 40 years ago. He called the grand old state "Missouree," which is plain wrong, and I told him so. I did not admonish him, because I think it is rather amusing to live in a state which has difficulty pronouncing itself. Still, right is right, and friendship is friendship, so I quietly explained that the state whose Auto Club magazine he purported to edit, is Mizzoura. Rule No. 2: Never play with the other man's cards. So I violated that one as well when he suggested a debate in his magazine, with a poll to be conducted among his readers and their ballots to be counted by his staff, on the proper pronunciation of Missouri. I wrote a calm and well-reasoned argument, while Quigley argued strictly ad hominem, accusing me of living in a better neighborhood as a child than he did. I don't quite see the relevance, except that my boyhood was spent in Missouri and his wasn't. He also sought to cover up his lack of bona fides as a Missourian by claiming that his Great Aunt Emma or some such had been blowed up at the battle of Pilot Knob. Naturally the result of the poll was 60 per cent for the hog-calling Missouree and 40 per cent for the euphonious and proper Mizzoura. The Midwest Motorist printed many letters on both sides of the question, I'll give them that. I also received a fair number of communications from men of stature and perception; also a few from pompous elocution students who disagreed with me. Missouri was intended by God and the early settlers to be pronounced Mizzoura. Then along came the elocution teachers who thought Missouree sounded more elegant. The proof of the classroom taint on Missouree is that people write they were taught it in school. Now in real Missouri schools they didn't teach how to pronounce the state any more than they taught sex. They figured it was something you either knew or you didn't and probably never would get quite right. I go back to Eugene Field, who wrote in 1889, "He lives in Mizzoura, where the people are so set ... in ante-bellum notions that they vote for Jackson yet." (That's not Scoop Jackson.) I take my stand with former Gov. Guy B. Park when he said in 1933: "I've lived in Missouri all my life and I never heard any true Missourian pronounce the name in any other way but 'Mizzourah." The "rah," I'll admit is a little strong. Actually that final 'i" is more like the "a" Meanwhile, From The Statutes Of The State Of Arkansas 5-102. Pronunciation of state name. Whereas, confusion of practice has arisen in the pronunciation of the name of our State; and it is deemed important that the true pronunciation should be determined for use in oral official proceedings. And, whereas, the matter has been thoroughly investigated by the State Historical Society, and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock, which have agreed upon the correct pronunciation as derived from history and the early usage of the American immigrants. Be it therefore resolved by both houses of the in sofa. Although people who say, "Missouree" probably say "sofee." Much of the mischief originated with the Rev. Walter Williams, who edited a newspaper in thaf hotbed of culture, Columbia, and came out for "ee." To make it worse he later founded a School', of Journalism which spread the heresy, especially ' since the prestige of the school brought in many outsiders who had no very clear idea where they"-were. ''-'V The Midwest Motorist's poll indicates regional a. variation in the way Missouri is said, with the : eastern half stronger on "ee" and the western " going for "a" or "uh." I do not wish to get too personal, but I grew up ' in the great City of St. Louis and its environs (one of which Quigley, the same man who accuses me , of elitism, calls a ghetto), was city editor of a paper in the great City of Springfield in the'"t! southwest part of the state and, furthermore, my' father was born in the northwest part of the state."1" And in none of these places did any of my kin1'' vary from "Mizzoura." J I have pictures of old, white-bearded men. ',' sitting under the trees on the family farm itv Bridgeton, Mo., and I would not envy any " Minnesotan who walked among them bleating about "Missouri-EE." j Well, as I said in my original essay, thajii beautiful part about those of us who know how t pronounce Missouri is the well-nigh saintly pa- tience and tolerance we show toward those who don't. I am further buoyed by the thought that, in matters of this kind, whatever the majority thinks is probably wrong. Since radio and TV people are pretty close to unanimous on the screeched "ee," I figure that they will drive Mizzoura out, eventually, there being a Gresham's law that bad pronunciation drives out good. It is an honor to fall in an honorable, though lost, cause. There is also this random thought: What ruined the Literary Digest's notorious 1936 poll which.,, showed Landon as a shoo-in was that it was taken ; among telephone subscribers. This one was taken i among automobile owners, a notably affluent; group. In any event, when the Republicans come to Kansas City, I hope that there will be enough real .A Missourians on television to counteract the an-m nouncers. It should give the viewers a little i . something extra to look for. All I ask them to remember is that we Missourians who disagree with each other on how to say the name of our,' state aren't really mad at the other fellow, and t often pray for him. i,i,.xk'. In Arkansas General Assembly, that the only true pronunciation of the name of the State, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French from the native Indians, and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound; and that it should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with '. the final "s" silent, the "a" in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first aji4 last syllables being the pronunciation formerly-universally, and now still most commonly used; and that the pronunciation with the accent on second syllable with the sound of "a" as in man', and the sounding of the terminal "s," is an ' innovation to be discouraged. ' , , ,,! -Concurrent Resolution No. 4, Adopted 1881,',,