The Regulation of English Spelling 
NGLISH spelling is a human invention, with Fe aggravations. It can 
be improved. Its aggravations can be lessend. English spelling is also an 
institution. Institutions persist until we change them. They will never 
boceive better; they me t be made better. Regulation is the word of practical 
a in education, in social life. The regulation of English 
oy) KE pelling is before us. “Iti isan intellectual idea, and has, therefore, been slow in 
eo gaining acceptance. But it has been accepted by many thousand persons in all 
nglish-speaking countries. Teachers, professors in colleges and universities, 
lawyers, clergymen, and other professional men, men of science, men of letters, all educated per- 
o have a real knowledge of the nature and history of the English language, an and a real 
caste in its illimitable opportunities as a prime factor in the civilization of the world, approve 
the gradual regulation of English spelling. 
The Simplified Spelling Board invites your co-operation in this movement. The movement 
is ever increasing. There is no organized opposition. As information spreds, prejudis recedes. 
Hostility is giving way to expectancy; indifference is becoming interest; interest is warming into 
persuasion. 
The Simplified Spelling Board and its Advisory Council contain in their joint eoeaubersbi 
259 leading scholars, teachers, men of letters, and men of affairs. They represent all iam of 
educated opinion. Upon their judgment all ri HE for progressiv simplification depend. With 
their approval and guidance the movement will prevail. 
o will now assert that English spelling, of all human inventions, should be kept for ever & 
aide from prince: ? Who will now maintain that it can tnot bei impr roved t — will now hold 
hat changes in spelling “come” without human action t nly by “ume 
or by some aes mysterious power which no human cy oi can s eioke accelerate or an Who, 
that pretends to scholarship, will now declare that the regulation of English — will — 
English etymology? What teacher, what scholar, what man of science, odd w be 
the name of scholarship or science, to oppose in public the idea of simplified spelling ? If the - 
can not be intellectually opposed, how long is any one justified in opposing the practi ctis? 
e spelling of most languages is a record of facts. As the facts change thru the centuries, 
the record should change also. We all want to know what was done, what was said, in bygone 
times. And we want to know the changing languages, the living words, the very utterance, of those 
bygone times. It is only so that we know the life and thought of the ancient nations—the springs 
of our religion, the inspirations of our law, the foundations of our civilization. Shall our modern 
and future speech be denied a like record of itself and of its growth? 
The broken records of the receding ages can not serv the practical uses of the present rev 
the coming generations. Sufficient unto the generation is the spelling thereof. vi 
for use, for convenience. The place for ancient records is the library. The place for fossils is 
museum, 
The prejudis Pete any change in spelling is an emotion, not an idea. The arguments “id 
change are numerous, strong, conclusiv. Read them in the pamflets ot the Simplified ap 
Board. It is in these sodletina and not in the casual utterances of the daily press, that you 
get correct information and real knowledge. All free. Addres 
SIMPLIFIED SPELLING BOARD, 
1 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N: ¥- 
