REPORT OF BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 
17 
followed in these cases as well as in others, i. e., that the home names 
should be the ones universally used; but in most of these cases it is 
obviously impracticable to introduce this reform, at least at present. 
The people of the United States can not be induced to change from 
Germany to Deutschland, or even from Italy to Italia, or The Hague to 
’s Gravenhage. It is a reform, however, to which we may look for¬ 
ward and work toward and which may be attained in the future. 
It is understood by the Board that our charts of the coasts of foreign 
countries using Homan characters, made for the use of our Navy and 
merchant marine, generally require the use of the local forms of these 
names, while on the other hand popular usage in this country, espe¬ 
cially in our atlases and text-books, requires the anglicized form. 
The Board practically leaves this matter on the same footing as here¬ 
tofore, approving the use of local spelling of foreign names upon our 
charts and the anglicized forms upon maps designed for use in this 
country. It hopes, however, that the way may be open in the near 
future to the adoption throughout, of the local and the rejection of the 
anglicized forms. In such specific cases as have been brought to its 
attention it has decided uniformly in favor of the local method. 
Most of the nations of Europe, either through national boards or 
geographic societies, are engaged in the regulation of the orthography 
of geographic names. Their attention has been particularly directed 
toward producing uniformity in the transliteration of aboriginal names 
written in characters other than Roman. These nations have prac¬ 
tically agreed upon a system of transliteration, which, with one or two 
exceptions, has been adopted by this Board, thus coming into practical 
agreement in this matter with the rest of the civilized world. 
SCOPE OF ITS FUNCTIONS. 
From the wording of the Executive order creating the Board it 
has uniformly maintained that its function is limited to the consider¬ 
ation of names as to which there is diverse usage. Under the Execu¬ 
tive order of January 23, 1906, there was added to the duties of the 
Board, the duty of determining, changing, and fixing place names 
within the United States and insular possessions. It does not give 
names to features, though frequently called upon to do so. It does 
not, though frequently appealed to, deal with the question of pro¬ 
nunciation. It does not determine the generic character of the feature 
whose name is in dispute. It does not determine whether a stream is 
a creek or river; whether a body of water is a lake or pond; whether 
an elevated tract is a hill or mountain. 
The Board does not attempt wholesale reformation of corrupted 
names nor seek to restore original forms or pure forms, nor does it 
attach much importance to priority. It would be idle to attempt to 
H. Doc. 47, 59-1-2 
