1889.1 *'^^ 



without warning, upon classes of the same grade in Walthara, we always 

 lound our percentage of errors very much smaller than in other towns, 

 sometimes I think only one-third as large. We also questioned each 

 pupil in our high-school as to the amount of time which he or she had de- 

 voted in his or her whole school life to fonotypy and fonografy. Com 

 paring these times with tiie percentage of errors in spelling, by the same 

 scholars, we *ound that those who had read the most funotype made the 

 fewest mistakes." 



One point more. Out of 1973 failures in the English Civil Service ex- 

 aminations, 18G6 failed in spelling. The Right Honorable Robert Lowe, 

 formerly Minister of Education in England, challenged the House of 

 Commons that not half a dozen members cotild spell, off-hand, the word 

 "unparalleled." The Earl of Malmesbury, having examined the State 

 papers in the foreign office, says that no Prime Minister from Lord Bute 

 to Lord Palmerston cotild pass an examination in spelling. 



The foregoing exhibits seem to leave little room for doubt as to the 

 desirability of reform. There is, however, one other factor in the discus- 

 sion of such a theme. Let us call it the personal factor. How do such 

 statements affect the opinion or judgment of men as individuals? Who 

 cares or who has ever cared for, or believed in, the desirability, to say 

 nothing of the possibility, of an amended orthografy? 



A few years ago 130 British school boards presented a memorial to the 

 Education Department praying for a Royal Commission in the matter ; 

 the British Social Science Association past resolutions favoring reform ; 

 the Philological Society of England and the American Philological Asso- 

 ciation, the Spelling Reform Associations, general and local, have been 

 active in the cause. In 1875, Teachers' Associations of Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey took favorable action. In July, 1877, the State Teachers' 

 Association of New York appointed a committee to ask the Legislature of 

 that State to create a commission to inquire into the reform, and report 

 how far it may be desirable to adopt amended spelling in the public docu- 

 ments and direct its use in the public schools. The Ohio State Teachers' 

 Association also took action in favor of the reform. In 1878, a memorial was 

 prepared to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. 

 This was signed by the president and ex-presidents of the Philological 

 Association, and by filologists and professors in about fifty of our lead- 

 ing universities and colleges. The Department of Public Instruction of the 

 city of Chicago took up the matter, and its Board of Education unanimously 

 adopted a resolution : " That the secretary of this board correspond with 

 the principal school boards and educational associations of the country, 

 Aviih a view to cooperation in the reform of English spelling." Other 

 State teachers' associations and local societies have been similarly em fa tic 

 in their expressions. Indeed, any list headed by such names as Mtiller, 

 Sayce, Skeat, Earle, Murray, Morris, Sweet, Whitney, March, Child, 

 Trumbull, Haldeman, Lounsbury ; and by statesmen, scientists, poets, 

 educators, such as Gladstone, Sumner, Mill, Lytton, Tennyson, Trevelyan, 



