Archive for the ‘Winston Churchill’ Category

None of This Nonsense about Women and Children First

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

Noël Coward? Winston Churchill? W. Somerset Maugham? Joe Drum? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: After major news events people often start exchanging jokes related to the subject matter. The recent tragic cruise ship accident has caused two versions of a comical anecdote to enter circulation. The punch line has been attributed to the statesman Winston Churchill and to the playwright Noel Coward. Examples of this joke are visible now [on January 21, 2012]  when one searches for the phrase “women and children” on Twitter. Here is an example credited to Coward:

I only travel on Italian ships. In the event of sinking, there’s none of that ‘women and children first’ nonsense!

Could you explore this quotation?

Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of this joke found by QI appeared in a Missouri newspaper in 1917. A travel writer, Henry J. Allen, described leaving a Paris railroad station and attempting to obtain transport in a taxicab; however, the number of taxicabs available was inadequate. The writer was reminded of a joke that he attributed to a “New York traveler” [KCNY]:

When we reached the outside our trouble began. There were some thirty or forty women from the train and as we watched the scramble for the very small number of taxicabs and 1-horse vehicles we were reminded of the reason a New York traveler once gave for traveling on a French liner: He said, “there is no foolishness about women and children first.”

Early instances of this barb were aimed at French vessels and crew and not Italian vessels. In March 1932 the name Joe Drum was attached to the tale by the syndicated gossip columnist O. O. McIntyre. But the fame of Joe Drum has faded with time, and today he is largely unknown [OOJD]:

Drum was sailing one day on a French ship. “I choose to cross with the gallant chevaliers of France,” he said, “where there is no hanky-panky about women and children first.”

In 1932 the saying was also credited to a more prominent individual, Noël Coward. Over the decades the attributions and embellishments have changed. By 1946 a more elaborate variant that mentioned food and drink was credited to an American Rear-Admiral. By 1985 the quip was ascribed to W. Somerset Maugham, and by 1993 an ornate version was credited to Winston Churchill.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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America Is the Only Country That Went from Barbarism to Decadence Without Civilization In Between

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Ogden Nash? George Bernard Shaw? La Liberté? Winston Churchill? Oscar Wilde? Georges Clemenceau?

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a famous humorous saying about the United States that has been credited to four celebrated wits: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and Georges Clemenceau:

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without knowing civilization.

Could you reduce the uncertainty and determine who coined this acerbic comment?

Quote Investigator: A version of this statement appeared in several U.S. newspapers in July 1932. This is the earliest evidence located by QI, but none of the four gentlemen mentioned above were credited. The Washington Post of July 16, 1932 included the following English translation of a passage that appeared originally in the French newspaper La Liberté. The French paper was unhappy with statements made by the American President Herbert Hoover [WPLL]:

Does this government, which obeys gangsters, which capitulates helplessly before thieves and assassins of babies in the cradle, dare to assume such a height of moral authority that it thinks it can dictate to Europe and France?

Americans are the only race which passed directly from barbarism to decadence without knowing civilization.

The name of the French author was not specified in the Washington Post or in other publications that reprinted the words of La Liberté. The remark may have originated as an unsigned editorial comment from the pages of La Liberté.

In 1934 a modified version of the saying was assigned to the prominent literary figure John O’Hara in the magazine The Golden Book. Thanks to sharp researcher Victor Steinbok for pointing out this citation [GBJO]:

John O’Hara: sees us hurdling through

“America has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.”

For more than a decade the ascription usually given for versions of this phrase was to La Liberté or to an anonymous figure labeled: “a French journalist,” “a foreign wit,” “an overseas critic,” or “one of those witty Frenchmen.”

In 1945 Hans Bendix, a noted Danish illustrator and cartoonist, wrote an essay in the Saturday Review of Literature about his sojourn in the United States. Bendix presented a variant of the remark using the word “degeneration” instead of “decadence”. The phrase was actually pronounced by his cantankerous aunt who did not want him to go to the United States, and the saying was attributed to the French statesmen Georges Clemenceau [SRGC]:

… when I had decided to go to America, my aunt went to work on me. I would lose my shirt, she insisted, in a country where drink, gambling, adultery, and gangsterism flourished. Most of 5,000,000 Ku Kluxers would meet the “furriner” at the dock, with a noose. She reminded me of Clemenceau’s saying, “America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”

The above citation is well-known, and it has been used to rationalize the attachment of the quotation to Clemenceau, but this text was printed thirteen years after the appearance of the adage, and the evidence provided is rather weak. QI has not located any direct evidence for assigning the words to Clemenceau at this time.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf

Monday, November 7th, 2011

George Orwell? Richard Grenier? Rudyard Kipling? Winston Churchill? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The brilliant writer George Orwell authored two of the most powerful and acclaimed political books of the last century: 1984 and Animal Farm. The saying that interests me is usually attributed to him, and there are two popular versions:

We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf

I think these words are consistent with the sentiments Orwell expressed in essays, but I have read conflicting comments about whether these words are correctly ascribed to him. Would you trace the source of these statements?

Quote Investigator: A few years ago the noted science fiction author William Gibson also expressed an interest in identifying the origin of this saying. QI believes it can be traced back to a sentence in a column in the Washington Times newspaper written by the film critic and essayist Richard Grenier in 1993 [RGGO]:

As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

This citation was mentioned in a forum post at the website of Gibson by an individual using the handle Caplewood who suggested that “Grenier made it up” [WGCW].

It is important to note that Grenier did not use quotation marks around the statement of the view that he ascribed to Orwell. QI agrees with Caplewood and hypothesizes that Grenier was using his own words to present a summary of Orwell’s viewpoint. Later commentators placed the statement into quotation marks and introduced various modifications to the passage.

Previous researchers have located phrases in the works of Orwell and others that contain parts of the idea expressed in the aphorism under investigation. Here are selected citations in chronological order.

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Yes, I Am Drunk, But Tomorrow I Will Be Sober, And You Will Still Be a Fool

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Winston Churchill? W. C. Fields? Robinson? Dr. Tanner? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a famous anecdote featuring Winston Churchill and the British politician Bessie Braddock that I think is fictional. Supposedly Braddock encountered an intoxicated Churchill and said “Sir, you are drunk.” He replied:

And you, Bessie, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning, and you will still be ugly.

Websites disagree about Churchill’s exact words. But I think this whole story was concocted based on a scene in a W. C. Fields film that was released in the 1930s. The film is called “It’s a Gift” and in the script a character hostile to Fields says to him “You’re drunk.” His sharp rejoinder is:

Yeah, and you’re crazy, n’ I’ll be sober tomorrow n’ you’ll be crazy for the rest of your life.

Do you think that someone invented the Churchill tale after seeing this movie?

Quote Investigator: Your skepticism is understandable, but there is some evidence discussed later in this post in the form of testimony from Churchill’s bodyguard that there was an exchange with Braddock.

Nevertheless, this basic joke has a very long history, and the earliest version located by QI is more than one hundred and twenty-five years old. The English raconteur Augustus John Cuthbert Hare kept a diary and the entry dated July 16, 1882 recounts an incident involving a member of the House of Parliament identified only by the initials A.B. [AJCH]:

The great A.B. was tremendously jostled the other day in going down to the House. A.B. didn’t like it. “Do you know who I am?” he said; “I am a Member of Parliament and I am Mr. A.B.” – “I don’t know about that,” said one of the roughs, “but I know that you’re a damned fool.” – “You’re drunk,” said A.B.; “you don’t know what you’re saying.” – “Well, perhaps I am rather drunk to-night,” said the man, “but I shall be sober to-morrow morning; but you’re a damned fool tonight, and you’ll be a damned fool to-morrow morning.

This general anecdote was retold numerous times with different individuals in the roles during subsequent years. Eventually W. C. Fields and then Churchill inhabited the role of the quipster. Here are selected citations in chronological order.

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Golf: Hit a Very Small Ball into an Even Smaller Hole, with Weapons Singularly Ill-Designed for the Purpose

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Winston Churchill? Woodrow Wilson? George Curzon? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Friends know I am an avid golfer and recently a book of quotations about the sport was given to me as a present. This quote from Winston Churchill captures the exasperation I feel when attempting to chip my ball near to the pin [GBGQ]:

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.

When I tried to determine when Churchill uttered this assessment I discovered that some people think former President Woodrow Wilson was really responsible for the saying. Maybe you can resolve this question?

Quote Investigator: Variants of this saying have been attributed to both Churchill and Wilson for decades, but the earliest example located by QI occurred in 1892 in the famed London humor magazine Punch. The article “Confessions of a Duffer” by an unnamed contributor included a version of the quotation that used somewhat different phrasing [PLDG]:

Almost everybody now knows that Golf is not Hockey. Nobody runs after the ball except young ladies at W-m-n! The object is to put a very small ball into a very tiny and remotely distant hole, with engines singularly ill adapted for the purpose.

The term with deleted letters: “W-m-n” may have referred to Wimbledon, London. In May 1891 a membership group of 145 women opened their own nine-hole golf course on Wimbledon Common land [RWGC]. The term “engines” referred to the golf clubs used to propel the ball around the course as shown in the following:

There are many engines. First there is the Driver, a long club, wherewith the ball is supposed to be propelled from the tee, a little patch of sand.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir?

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

John Maynard Keynes? Paul Samuelson? Winston Churchill? Joan Robinson? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: John Maynard Keynes was an enormously influential economist, but some of his detractors complained that the opinions he expressed tended to change over the years. Once during a high-profile government hearing a critic accused him of being inconsistent, and Keynes answered with one of the following:

When events change, I change my mind. What do you do?

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?

When someone persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?

Because there are so many different versions of this rejoinder I was hoping you might determine if any of them is real. Is there any truth to this anecdote?

Quote Investigator: No direct evidence that Keynes made a comment of this type has been located by QI or other researchers. The earliest statement found by QI that fits this template was not spoken by Keynes but by another prominent individual in the same field, Paul Samuelson who was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in economics. He was well-known to students for creating a best-selling economics textbook.

On December 20, 1970 he was interviewed by a panel on the television program “Meet the Press.” The transcript of the show was published the next day in the “Daily Labor Report” from the Bureau of National Affairs, Washington. Austin Kiplinger of Kiplinger Publications asked Samuelson about inflation [PSDR]:

KIPLINGER: Returning to this matter of how much inflation we can absorb effectively, you may remember that Dr. Sumner Schlicter at Harvard shocked, I guess, the American Public after World War II when he said some inflation was not only inevitable but perhaps also desirable to promote growth. My question is do you agree with that general assessment and if so, how much should we have and how much is acceptable?

DR. SAMUELSON: I do agree with it and I suffer for expressing my agreement. Different editions of my textbook have been quoted. In the first edition I said a five percent rate is tolerable. Then I worked it down to three percent and then down to two percent and the AP carried a wire “Author Should Make Up His Mind.” Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?

Intriguingly, in 1978 Samuelson used a version of this expression again, and this time he credited the words to Keynes. His statement was reported in the Wall Street Journal in an article by Lindley H. Clark Jr. [PSWJ]:

Paul Samuelson, the Nobel laureate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recalled that John Maynard Keynes once was challenged for altering his position on some economic issue. “When my information changes,” he remembered that Keynes had said, “I change my mind. What do you do?”

It is possible that Samuelson was consciously or unconsciously echoing a remark of Keynes when he spoke in 1970, but there is no compelling support for this because he did not credit Keynes during the television interview.

Here are some additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Why Should Any Man Be Allowed to Buy a Printing Press and Disseminate Pernicious Opinions?

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Vladimir Lenin? Winston Churchill? George Riddell? H. L. Mencken? Fictional?

Dear Quote Investigator: I was thumbing through The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations to try and find a good saying about freedom of the press and I was stunned to see this hostile sentence [OPQ]:

As to freedom of the press, why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?

These words were attributed to Winston Churchill based on a 1984 biography by Piers Brendon [WPB]. But these same words were attributed to Vladimir Lenin in another collection of quotations I read recently and that is why I was astounded. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the book. Now I am starting to doubt my memory. Could you research this quote?

Quote Investigator: Thanks for a fascinating puzzle. Indeed, most of this sentence does appear as part of a longer passage that is attributed to Vladimir Lenin in a famous compilation published in 1942 called “A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken”. The name Nikolai Lenin is used instead of Vladimir Lenin in Mencken’s reference work [NQL]:

Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?

NIKOLAI LENIN: Speech in Moscow, 1920

QI has traced this expression back to a diary entry that was written in 1920 by George Riddell who was a powerful newspaperman and close friend of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Lloyd George. Riddell later became the 1st Baron Riddell. The text in Mencken’s reference is very similar to the text in Riddell’s diary, but it is not identical.

The words attributed to Churchill also appear in the passage in Riddell’s diary. But QI believes that Riddell was describing a speech by Lenin and not the words of Churchill. Hence, QI thinks that the ascription to Churchill is almost certainly incorrect.

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