The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-17
Aa or,hoRraphtc Change.


 , To the Editor of the Journal & Courier:
 There is a movement on foot, which
 if it succeeds, will through it's mode of operation do more for the orthography
 of the English language than has been accomplished in the last 300 years. It
 has been discovered that "q'' and K, D | two worthless letters, can be even bet ter served for their scant occurrance of 5 and times per column by 'cw'" and ''cs'' and their places be given over to an
 "sh' and eth" letter, whose use would save from 300 to 400 type impressions per column or a whole page to every 10 now published, So pronounced is this gain that the press is giving it consider | able attention. The new sh letter resembles very closely and virtually is the dollar mark | $-a union of ST, and will serve where 1 now "sh, si, sci, ti,ce" and many other forms are used. as in shine, mission, | conscience motion, ocean," etc. The
 eth" letter is a union of q h and makes
 very pretty one, and will practically displace that diagraph, as in this, that, those, the, them." The following communication of Prof. Calvin Thomas of Columbia university, New York. H. lustrates the use and appearance of I for the sh sounds. The message con- tains 360 words. "cw'' serves. "qu'' | twice; "cs'' serves x twice and "S serves the sh sound IS times, ratio to | 20 words: II hardly need to a$ure you that am personally in sympathy with | any movement. agitason or joint effort ! which looks toward the improvement of
 our Englis spelling. can not, however, at the present moment write much more than friendly greeting and a hearty
 amen" to your efforts. s s | Tt is my opinion, as you may know, that the future of the cause rests large- | ly with tho teachers of children and with those who prepare such teachers I for their work. It Is necessary that the | eyes of children be faniliarized with a | certain number of improved spellings. | and that their minds be familiarized with the thought that spelling can be improved. and that they themselves ! have right to improve it. Teach them
 at an early age and in language suited | to their comprehension, about the nature | of the dicsonary and its authority I Ecsplain to them that the big book is a record of usage, and that usage Is an-
 other name for fason; that in the mat ter of spelling, just as in the matter of | the clothes we wear, the fa$on continu- ally changes, only much more slowly 1 Tell them that the only final and ideal l rule is to spell as we pronounce. Teach
 them that in deciding how they sall | spell, as in deciding what clothes they $all wear, or to what ecstent they Sal conform" i. e., do as other people do | in other matters of so$al custom, the | first rule is: Be a follower of good
 usage; but that the second and no less 1 important rule is: Be maker of good
 usage. ..A-
 "Do not as teachers stand too much ir | the fear that, by following the spirit of
 these eounsels, you will train up gene ] ra$on of photographic anarchists. A
 little anarchy, when it means simply g
 revolt of intelligence and common sense
 against the tyranny of bad fasons, is
 sometimes a very good thing. Do not imagine and do not suppose that inn agine, that any immediate and striking
 results will follow from the kind of ef-
 fort that I am here. recounting, The
 object in view is to train up a genera.
 Son that will be more intelligent
 more open-minded, than the present
 genera$on with regard to this matter oi
 authority in spelling. And if people de-
 ride you and call you cranks, as they
 probably will, bear it with ecwanimitJ while reminding them that your ulti. mate object is to render our writer
 Englis more easy of acwizi$on for some
 forty or fifty million school children
 and to remove the principal obstacle ir lthe way of it's worldwide use as the lin qua franca of the na$ons."
 I R. W. MASON. New Haven, Oct. 15, 1903.
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