Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-30
MORMONS' HEAD
TALKS IN LONDON
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH
IN WORLDS METROPOLIS
Spelling Reform stllI sneered at over
There-Tlmes Rejects. the Move.
Calls BraneIer Matthews
to Time
ny ALBERT HEDGES
r,nhln fn n,hn Herald.

Special Gable to The Herald.
LONDON, Sept. 29.-President Joseph
II. Smith, the veteran head Mormon
and chief of the Latter-Day Saints.
of salt Lake city, Utah, is visiting this
country
President Smith. who is accompa-
MED by one wife and two of his sons.
is q nephew of prophet" Joseph
Smith, the translator OF the Book OF
Mormon and one of the founders OF the
faith. He is a dignified-looking ola
man, with long gray beard, spcctacles
and very prominent nose.
He expresses himself as being well
pleased with the progress made by
Mormon missions In Europe.
Englishmen continue to discuss
with the greatest interest President
Rooseyelt's position In the matter of
spelling REFORM Says the London
Times in an editorial leader:
"We appear to be threatened with a
revolution In the matter of spelling at
the hands Of those sturdy iconoclasts
MIR. Roosevelt. whom perhaps we must
henceforth accustom ourselves to recog-
nize under some such form as 'Rusvelt,
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, whose Christian
name must surely hereafter be spelt
Andru, and Professor Brander Mat
thews, who will apparently have to
part with superfiuous Z in his sur
name. The last named, who Is a we'll
known professor at Columbia Univer-
sity, is also the head of a simplified
spelling board, which has issued a
preliminary list of 300 simplifed spell
ings The board enjoys the financial
SUPPORT of Mr.. Carnegie, who, having
founded innumerable free libraries.
now seeks to do all he can to render
their contents obscure by making their
spelling uniformly obsolete. Yet the
weight of usage might still have re-
sisted for some time longer the re-
forms of Professor Matthews and the
gold of Mr.. Carnegie but for the action
of the third and most important per-
sonage in this revolutionary trium-
virate, the president of the United
States"
Times Rejects 1t
The London Times also expressed
regret that the president had thrown
the weight of his powerful personality
in favor af this movement without
consulting any one on this side of the
water Replying to this plant. Brand
er Matthews, in a communication
written in New York, said:
"You have expressed regret that
no one on your side of the Atlantic
has been consulted in regard to our
proposals. This reproach will not lie
against our future recommendations.
Desiring to express their sympathy
with our aims, DR.. Murray and Mr..
Henry Bradley, the editors of the Ok
ford dictionary; Professor Skeat, the
editor of the chronological Dictionary,
and DR.. Wright, the editor of the
English Dialect Dictionary, have ac-
cepted election to the board, and we
shall be able hereafter to consult with
those distinguished British scholars.
-. .aNNN Nn
board numbered among its original
members the editors of the three most
important American dictionaries. 1t
may be doubted whether any board
could be selected which should be ami
mated by more reverent regard for
the language or which was possessed
of a. more vigorous loyalty to the
principles which have governed the
growth of English"
Carnegie Replies
Mr.. Carnegie himself replies to the
London Times as follows
"Our aim is not to destroy the Ian
guage of Shakespeare and Milton, but
to continue and, If possible, to hasten
it's further development, that it may
become a more and more efficient in
strument. 1t has admittedly become
such since the great masters time. he
being himself, as / understand, the
greatest coiner of new words, new
meanings and new spellings who ever
enriched language There can be but
little doubt that after another four
centuries English will be even more
efficient than 1t is today, not, how
ever, through the action of those who
resist, but of those who welcome duly
considered changes from time to time,
knowing that human language must
grow or wither.'
Madame Patti has arranged with
Mr.. Percy Harrison of Birmingham
to bid farewell to the London musical
public at the concert which he is or
ganizing at the Albert hall, on Sat
urday afternoon, December 1. OF her
admireres in the provinces the Queen
of Song will not. however, take leave
until the autumn of next year, when
she has promised Mr.. Harrison that
she will appear in several of the more
important cities. Statements having
been made to the effect that the high
est remuneration she had ever re-
ceived for her services was $4,000 per
night, Col. Mapleson at once replied:
Permit me, however, to state that
when | was associated with my es-
teemed father we paid Madame Patti
in America the record sum of $4,000 per |
performance.
Take His Offer
At the meeting of the Liverpool city |
council the proceedings of the libra
ries. etc, committee included a recon-
mendation to accept the very gener-
GUS offer. made by Mr.. Carnegie, to
give $4,000 for a branch library for
Liverpool, the corporation finding the
site, and that the best thanks of the
council be accorded to Mr.. Carnegie.
Mr.. Morrissey, Socialist, said he
quite believed In Libraries for large
Industrial centers. but Liverpool citi-
zens were quite capable of paying for
their own. They were losing a good
deal Of their self-respect when they
went about cadging for libraries from
An American millionaire, who had got
his money he best knew how. The
source from which the money came
was tainted source.
The lord mayor called the speaker
TO order.
Mr.. Morrissey claimed the right TO
oppose the motion. The council
would have been better advised II
/ had taken the trouble to learn
how Carnegie's money had been OBJ
Iained through absolute sweating and
very like legalized murder
A scene OF confusion followed. and
a further hearing was refused to the
speaker. The resolution was adopted.