The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-20
A. P. AT DINNER
MARK TWAIN PRINCIPAL SPEAKER
AT BANQUET.
Members of Great News Gathering Or
ranixatiOn mt Festive Board,
Hear Authors appeal Tor
Carnegie Simpliaed
Spelling.


meeting of the members of the Asso?
ciated Press was held in this city to-
day. Important matters In connec-
ton with the service were disposed Oh
Tonight the members, who include
publishers. editors and other represent
tatives of papers taking the Asso.
ciated Press service met with several
guests at dinner at the Waldorf
Astoria.
Melville f. Stone, general manager
of the Associated Press presided and
with him at the guests table were
Samuel L. Clemens, who discussed re-
form spelling;" General HoracN Porter.
former Ambassador to France, who
responded to the toast "our guests"
Henry A. Shute. the author, who talk
ed of Critics" and Professor George
r. Vincent, of the University of Chica-
go. who spoke on Purely Academic"
M. Clemens spoke in characteristic
vein. He spoke in part as follows:
Mar Twains Speaks.
'sI am here to make an appeal to the
nation in behalf of the simplified
spelling. l have come here because
they cannot all be reached except
through you. There are only two
forces that can carry light to all the
corners of the globe. ONLY two: the sun
in the heavens and the Associated
Press down here. / may seem to be
1t so; I am meaning only to be just
and fair all around. You speak with
a million voices; no one can reach so
many races, so many hearts and in
tellects as you, except Rudyard Kip
ling, and he cannot do 1t without your
help. The Associated Press will accept
and use our simp1ified forms and thus
spread them to the ends of the earth.
covering the whole spacious planet
with them as with a garden of flowers.
our difficulties are at an end.
Every day of the 365 the only pages
of the worlds countless newspapers
that are read by all human beings and
angels and devils that can read, are
those pages that are built of Associat-
ed Press dispatches. And. so I beg you,
/ beseech you-OhI I implore you-to
spell them in our simplified forms. Do
this daily. constantly, persistently for
three months-only three months-it is
all I ask. The infalliable result VIC
tory, victory all down the line.
For by that time all eyes here and
above and below will have become
adjusted to the change and in love
with 1t and the present clumsy and
aged forms will be grotesque to the
eye and revolving to the soul And
we shall be rid of phythysis and
phthysic and pneumonia and pneu-
matte and diphtheria, ana peteradac-
no man addicted to the simple Chris
tian life can try to spell and not lose
some of the bloom of his piety in the
demoralizing attempt. Do not doubt
It, We are chameleons and our part
ialities and predjudices change places
with an easy and blessed facility"
I'VE do not regret our old yellow
fangs and snags and tushes after we
have worn nice fresh uniform store
teeth awhile.
do I seem to be seeking the good
OF the world? That is the Idea 1t is
my public attitude-privately am
merely seeking my own profit. We all
do it, but 1t is sound, and 1t is virtuous.
for no public interest is anything other
or nobler than amassed action If pri-
vate interests. In 1888, when the
simplihed spelling movement first tried
to make noise. was Indifferent TO it,
more, ! even irreverently scoffed at 1t.
What 1 needed was an object lesson,
and I got it,"
Here the speaker related an anoc-
Gcte Of having once been required to
write ten pages of copy for a maga-
Inc where words of not less than from
ten 10 twenty letters were employees
at seven cents word, thereby suffering
great pecuniary loss, and continued:
From that day to this I have heep
devoted and Woodworking member
or the heaven-born Institution, the In
ternational Association for the Pre-.
vention of Cruelty to Authors. and now
l am laboring with Carnegie's sim
plihed committee and with my heart
In the work.
"Simpiifed spelling can convex anv
fact you need to convey, and it can
pour out emotions like a sewer. I beg
you, beseech you, to adopt our SPELL
Ing and print all your dispatches in it."