The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-08-27
LIST OF Words
TO BE CHANGED

U Bis 6lllAl 5Eu
sX ORDER or PRECEDENT AND
HISTORY OF MOVEMENT FoR
SPELLING REEoRM
The working stan OF the Stmpltheds
Spelling Board In IS ofices ia the.
MetFopoHtaI Life Building Twenty
third street aud Madison Avenue. re-
joiced at the ailups Ion by President.
IRooseEelt OF is propaganda
I AZ DO believe said DF Charles P..
"a. Scott, the secretaryof the board.s
t.that II President Roosevelt declared:
that itFwould be wise to annet tine
planet Mars to the United States the
papers would Immediately proceed to
print column after column abous it.
Prof Brander Matthews. the Chair.
man Of 1.-THE board; was not in the city
and conse luent1y NO Immediate action
ncIid be taken IN recognition Of tue
signal help given TO the spelling re-.
formers
The present sllnpFfed Spelling
Board was formed January 1. 1900, and
was evolved from series Of bodies
formed in past years 10 study and eS-
pound the simplifcatton theories The
American Pathological Association,
started in 1874. heard Its President de:
clare in meeting at Hartford tlat
the spelling of the Language was mon
strous. In 1876 an International com
gress for tae amendment of English
o1Lhography was held in Philadelphia.
IT was attended by spelling retrrmers
frum all the English speaking notions.
A STANDARD phonetic alphabet was in
arIurated that year. In 1878 eleven
wul Dis we're chosen for a begicning
and set of rules formed recommend
Ir4s the elimination Of letters n"S nee
essary for the proper sounding of the
nntds.
Began With Dozen Worss.
In 1888 tho National Educat; mai As
soctatton resolved to adopt sucn spoil
ings as United States Commissl :nef
Of Education Harris should recon-
mend. He, with two other educators,
decided on a little experiment. The
words altho, catalog. decalog, DEM
agog, pedagog, prolog. program. tho,
thoro, thorofaTe, thru, and thruout
were recommended.
The various pathological and educa.
tional societies have been at it ever
since, and finally the reform crystal
lied in the simplified Spelling Board.
which started out with Brander Mat
thews as chairman last January, and
which in two months had the ear and
the support of Andrew Carnegie, who
gave $4,000 a year fof five years with
which to start practical work of get
ting converts.
Being Interested in the founding Of
libraries. and also in universay peace.
and believing that the English. lam
guage would be the universal language
and one Of the means of bringing about
peace on earth, Mr. Carnegie saw in
the slmpllacation OF English spelling
an aid to the quick learning OF the
language by those OF other tongues,
and he made the announcement of his
conversion and of his gift last March.
With this money to pay expenses,
the board established It's Offices and
employed clerical force. Since the
stan got to work 1t haS obtained the
pledges Of $500 persons to use the
boards list of 800 simplifed words in
their correspondence. Many of these
are men in various public Departments
OF Nation and state. There are also
500 to GOO persons who have agreed
to use certain of the words, but who
object to others.
While the ONCE rtaff was at work
the hoard has not been Idle Prof.
Matthews has given to the work CT
getting converts murh. of his atten-
ton.
Members of Spelling Board.
With him on the board are E. Ben
jamin Andrews, Chancellor Of the Uni
versity of Nebraska; o. c. Blackmer.
publisher. Of Chicago. David j. Brew
er, United States Supreme Court Jus.
tfce; Nicholas Murray Butler PresI-
dent of Columbia University; Andrew
Carnegie, Samuel L. Clemens, Melvil
L. Dewey, formerly director of the
New York State Library; /. X Funk.
editor and publisher of the Standard
Dictionary; Lyman j. Gage. Richard
Watson Glider, editor Of The Century;
William 7. Harris, Commissioner of
Education: George Hclnpl of the Uni
verslty of Michigan, Thomas Went
worth Hlgglnson, Henry Holt. publish