, 1879-03-02
THINKS REFORM IS NECESSARY,

| CHICAGO, Feb. 2s.-In common with man,
others hay been much interested in the spe
ing reform letters which hay ben published il
THE TRiBuS Of late, AMI desire to ha7 lit
to say in the matter. Your compositors vii dt
me q favor if thcy vii ts1ollow copy,'' and no,
eDdeavor to make my letter any more or les
.fonetic than it appers in the manuscript, 70,
reasons which vii hereafter be seen.
Tie advocates of spelling reform hav mad two
great difficulties to contcud with heretofore,
l.. They attempted too much. The people at
| 1arg caunot be indust to adopt such radical
and sweeping change as would be necessitated
BY the Introduction Of q purely tonetic system
thcv must be brought to the proper poIat by
degrees. Our progrcss must be slow-perhaps
| painfully so. 2, The rcforners hav not been
| abl to agre among themselves as to what is the
best system that can be oeyisd; ZACH one has
| had his own hobby to ride, und insisted that his
was the only direct road to the desired goal.
Thanks to the good Judgment Of the men,
Reform Associations, the first difficulty seems
| In fair way to be surmountcd The bodv first
named. comprising some OF the best scholars
| OF the country, has recommended, " rs begin
| ming u changes in the orthooraphy OF eleven
| words, which, for their frequency of use and
their simplicity, might easily be adopted without
| Producing any confusion in the mind OF the
! dullest or the brightest reader. Pray let me
! copy these 6DeNlnIS ncres
Tho. thru, gard, cataloe. ar eiv 1iy bay, def
| init, intinit, wisht.
| In these eleven words sixteen superauous let
ters ar dropt, and only one adopted as sub
| stitute- 4 few wceks' use would hahituate all
readers to the sight of them, and any newspaper
| can now--backt up by high authoritr-employ
them without suspicion Of pedantry or eccen-
| tricity.
The Sucling-Reform Association has paved
the way to combat the second difficulty By recon-
mending, .'for immediate use.'' the following
| rules, simple and csy Of application, and which
have endevorl to follow in this commpnica-
t;on, without employing any particular outre
spelling. 1t vii do no harm to reprint them
tromYour issue Of the 18th inst:
!. Omit from the digraf ca hen pronounsta as e.
ehort, ns in hed+hctth, etc . Omit silent after
short vowel as in hav. civ. ETC.. s. Write + for
ph in such words as afabet. funtom, etc. i. When
ETC 9 ts last rs
it has the sound oft, as in Iasht in,pscst, etc,
Tnlsing the above rules as guide, l TOOK q
half-colum OF TRIDuN editorial, last Sunday,
and markt out 172 superd1ous letters. Count
ing. the acreage nu1nbr of letters to
line, I found that by the same system
half column could hav been savd
on the editorial page alone--and that In the
largest {leadcd) type used in the paper. In the
same ratio, the use OF the abov rules would bay
saved more than m entire page Of last Sundays
issue! When you ar "boiling down" your
news and sscondensing: your reporters notes
SO as to crowd the greatest amount Of matter
INTO Your colnms, tnlnk OF tu1s, anu ask your
self II YOU cannot save money, tlme4 and pa
ticncc by the adoption OF the new system.
regret to SC G. D. B, agre SO redily to Will
lam II. D.'s nroposttion to discus the merits nf
fwn. different systems ri fonet{cs r. IL tha
roc- m rI;ch ihe ena,fnu rcfor,nare 1or ,a1it
hor+oIra n,.a ~ sh; Era oan n,aa' -, sp!ts
ue4esoIotet ~" ~ ta'o tni4e ea1 p4ouuee ~
gooa results, II can onl7 serT the purpose ot
dividing the trends OF tru reform and distract
the attention OF the public from the great ques-
tion,-the Importance and imperatig necessity
OF a reform in orthografy Let us adopt The |
suggestions of The Associations hcretofnre
naInad anI +hne rtro the rafnr1, t1,a ionnatn
- ..1'I., - T5 - "ao - ~ 80 - 14's iu'petu9
- Aot INV tet'eI1, - "tu't,@inu a. VI suai
nho OUT 1attncF pEoEles Breatiy 1ac1l1atet anu
accelerated.
The opponents OF spelling reform must con-
staut1y meet the fact that the tendencies of on,
launuaoc ar toward greater SIMPLICITY. Our |
ortboeTafy is eraduully shifting. ind Tie sim
nler forns frhere IVA ~ nnnre ~ ~ ofraroE @ a..
n;a g. "fei, ~ no Th ~ oHe.euJ ~
ar Jet IN the prime OF HE cam without reference
to books, Instance numerous cases OF changes
made in the spelling of words within our own
time ANY one who has the curiosity to visit
the Franklin Society Library, on Monroe street,
and compare the orthografy of the statutes of
Henry VII, as printed bY Ca1ton, vii hay his |
eyes opecd to the wonderful changes which 4U0 |
years hay wrot in this direction.
Permit me to close this letter with some ran ]
o9'n quotationx from panpnle1 issued in 1857
1