Word: two-word
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Dates: during 1919-1919
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There is a phrase which is subtly returning to a too frequent use among students in the University, it is the two-word phrase "getting by". The current vocabulary lost this unfortunate expression during the win-the-war days. Then, anyone who employed it would have been looked upon with well-founded suspicion that he was shirking his duty. The best only was expected, and the best was given unhesitatingly by all. But as President Lowell warned the Freshmen earlier in the year, "the great moral effort which this war has required will surely be followed by a period...
...Getting by" is the advance poster of this lassitude. The expression "contains as much moral poison as a two-word phrase can hold", and it aims to dull the conscience into accepting the kind of listless existence it signifies. The man who says he is "getting by" is merely drifting with the current into the sea of oblivion. When the fighting spirit of races as well as of individuals runs low rapid degeneration inevitably follows. And when high resolve and constant initiative relax their powers, then the loser is morally poor indeed; for he has dropped out of the race...