Gilpin Observer

"None is" or "None Are."?

All the friends of liberty of speech owe gratitude to Prof. Lounsbury of Yale for his defense in Harper's Magazine of the use of "none" as the subject of a plural verb. What idiot precisionist it was that started the movement to schoolmaster that use of "none" out of existence we do not know, but his effort has had a deplorable degree of success. An awful example ought to be made of some of the grammarians who try to make language conform to rules instead of making rules conform to language. It will take years to untwist the tongues of worthy people who have compelled themselves to say "none is" when their natural impulse was to say "none are."--Harper's Weekly.