Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1913-04-18
being a poof speller since the
spelling reform board made its last
report. Lancaster Record.

ney EnQ lne ldCtS 10 De the
everse to the statement. Sim
,lified spelling" is not a hap
lazard guess work affair but is
ounded On scientific principles
,y eminent scolars from the rauks
,t teachers, educators, professors,
college and university presidents
seografers, scientists, editors and
others of high and distinguish
stations. These persons, includ-
ing an ex-president of our country
composed what il called the
Simpl'fied Spelling Board. with
headquarters at 1 Madison Ave,
New York. from which all necess-
airy information: advice AMI liter
ature NAV be secuted. by anyone
interested, free of cost. Drop
card to the Board. We have one
member of the Advisory Council
of the Board, at Berea, this
state in the person of William
Goodell Frost, president of Berea
College.
The Simplifed Spelling Board
was organized January 1906. to
prmote, by systematic and con-
tinued effort, the gradual simpli-
cation ard regulation of English
spelling. 1t published its first list
consisting of three hundred words
in 1906. This was not a list of
merely simplied forms, but Sc
lection of simpler forms already in
good use-namely, in three hundred
out of more than three thousand
words at that time com monty
spelld in two or more ways.
The second list, publisht in 1908
contained a considerable number
of simplified spellings that might
be called innovations. But the
simplihed forms it contained wer
strictly in accord with the existing
rules and analogies of English
spelling and were for the most
part reservations of simpli6cation
formerly in high literary use.
The third list was publisht in
March, 1913 which called fourt h
the paragrst at the heading of
this article. The greater number
of these remarks or made by
persons who fail or refuse to in
form themselves upon this very
important subject.
The defects OF current English,
spelling tall under the heads, viz:
(I) Superfuity of letters involving
waste of time, energy, space and
money. Examples: Altho( ueh);
ax(e); cata ,og(ue); tho(u) (gh);etc
[2) Inconsistencies as to spelling
aud pronunciation that retard the
educational progress of children
and aliens, tend 10 bring into
contempt the language itself and
the nations that use it. For ex-
ample, puff is pronounst puf; but
rough is pronounct ruff; yet plough
is pillow, cough is cot, through is
thru, and dough is do; to cap the
climax, do is pronounced doc, and
does is either duz or doze. No
wonder the alien is mystified and
the child temporarily stultifed,
"there is engendered a disbelief
in lerning and a total look of
confidence in inference. Were it
possible, indeed, for a rational
adult to begin the study of his
mother tung he would speedily
recognize the grim foundation for
the hali-humorus !remark of an
eminent person that he was mot
at all sure that the arcaic rules of
spelling laid down by tradition
and sterotypd by the dictionaries
had not flld half the lunatic
asy lums OF the country.
By the adoption and use of SIM
pli6ed spelling the school years
of students could be shortened by
from eighteen months to two
years.
In a system" of spelling. if
we had one, each step would lead
to the next. no one would overturn
another, all would lead to a Gefinit
result. But in our spelling books
the child has to struggle as if
the logs for a corduroy road, in
stead of being laid in order, lad
been dumpt pointing every which
way; his path is full of immense
difficulty, and instead of being
introduced to a conception that
Il q z