at Stan- 

 ford 



1906] Simplified Spelling Board 



premature death or breakdown. An assured income 

 has enabled many men to continue scholarly activity 

 in other lines of service long after retirement. It has 

 also allowed universities to bring in new blood without 

 the necessity of consigning to dependence or penury 

 worthy men in failing health. 



Stanford University being an original member in Age limit 

 the Carnegie Foundation, the /acuity early passed a 

 resolution terminating at the age of sixty-five all 

 appointments of professors eligible for the Carnegie 

 Pension, but leaving the trustees free to renew any at 

 their discretion on the president's initiative. In 

 adopting the general proposition, however, the board 

 omitted the clause providing for possible continuance, 

 feeling doubtless that discrimination would be likely 

 to prove invidious. 



In 1906 Mr. Carnegie established also "the Sim- improve- 

 plified Spelling Board" made up of a group of "J.^^ 

 writers — including myself — who should study the onhog- 

 matter of English orthography with a view to ''"^^^ 

 proposing changes to remove the most glaring eccen- 

 tricities. Our language owes much of flexibility and 

 strength to its complex origin, but for that very 

 reason it has grown up without rule, and vagaries in 

 spelling and pronunciation make it especially difficult 

 for foreigners to acquire. The board now (1920) 

 includes most of our leading philologists, with 

 Professor Charles H. Grandgent of Harvard as 

 president. We do not expect sweeping changes to be 

 immediately accepted, but feel sure that real better- 

 ments will find their way into the dictionaries and 

 thence into common usage. By such means the words 

 "honor," "favor," "demeanor," and the like, through 



C 191 3 



