The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-26
ANOTHER STRIKE FOR REFORM.

Il IA1V4A6xs 044sASA6 GV1s Ss0S S~~s Periodically we are confronted with
 the infoi nation that our incongrrous and in many respects sbsu-d system tof spelling Is to be reformed. but noth- ling practical ever comes of 1t. It Is an easy matter to point out the ale
 most infinite Improvements which could be made In our system of orthography, | and to show the mary advantages
 which would result from such changss, and not the least Is the saving of time
 and money too. two advantages which ought to appeal directly to the Ameri-
 can people. For example, in a recent
 address delivered by a Professor at
 Cambridge. he cites these figures: The cost of printing superfiuous and misleading letters Is very great. It has been found that if the New Testamen, were set up in phonetic types every l0( letters and epaces of the present editions would be reduced to So. This means that
 every s6 Bible would be reduced to 5. as far as cost of printing and paper is con, cerned. 1t has been computed that Il the reformed spelling were used in the duce the bill for printing and binding go. 600 every year. With reformed spelling all books would be reduced one-sixth in price. Every newspaper would save one column in six. and print just as a1n,,n mucn 2 for one-sfxth additional materially. one sixth of all the writing by hand would pc saved; one-sixth of all manuscripts oi books. the records Of courts. eesos; os sc' nj merchants and correspondents or all sorts would be saved.
 Professor March also shows that our sy stem of spelling adds many millions of dollars annually to our educational
 expenses in the way of extra teach
 CTS, and contends that the main cause
 of iiliteracy in the land Is on account of the dificulty experienced by chil-
 dren in mastering our orthography.
 This Professor March may be an en-
 thusiast on the subject. but that there
 is much truth in what he gays is be-
 yond doubt. Any parent or teacher
 will testify that English orthography.
 which ought to be the simplest and
 easiest. iS really the most difiicuft
 branch to teach. It comes when the child's mind is in the first stage of de- velopment, and when it is not fitted to
 grapple with and conquer difficult prob
 lems. or to understand the many va riations in our orthography. It Is a period in the chiid's history when noth- ing confusing or perplexing should con- front it.
 That the system is confusing and difficult Is an incontrovertible fact. In the ofice of the lawyer, the banker, the merchant and the newspaper man,
 even in the high schools and colleges. will be found educated men who will fail to spell many words in common use-at least they will not spell them in the same way There are men com
 potent to carry on business. occupa-
 ton or profession. who will "fall
 down" if required to spell correctly all
 the English words in one column of any
 newspaper. It is easy to understand
 how the uniformed and illogical mind
 of a child will stumble and halt over
 the task.
 As to the material saving. Professor
 March is doubtless correct. If all the
 writers and competitors could dispense
 with the totally unnecessary letters now
 used in spelling. the saving would pos
 sibly be fully as much as indicated in
 the Sbove extract. Every useless let ter which Is written by hand or type
 written, or set up in type by hand or
 machine, or used in any other way. Is just so much time and labor wasted. and in this material age time and la bor are money, and the question of saving appeals directly to Americans. As we stated at the outset. nothing
 may come of this latest strike fer re- form. As far back as we can remem- Der there have been efforts to estab- fish and maintain a strictly phonetic
 system of spelling. but 50 far nothing
 has been accomplished. So :.iany learned men insist that all our words fderived from other languages shall re-
 tain the original orthography that we see little hope of @ change. When edu- cators and language-makers arrivc at a fixed determination to discard all old habits and usages and build up lam Ruage on strict common sense princi- ples, we may have a system of sensi-
 ble spelling. and not before.