POLICY OF THE BOARD. 17 
three-fourths of the places having this termination the final "h" is 
not in local use. The case of the termination "boro" or "borough," 
as Attleboro, is very similar. The present tendency is strongly 
toward the substitution of the abbreviated form. The Board there- 
fore deems it desirable and advisable to induce uniformity in this 
matter in the manner indicated. 
In the case of the word "center" as part of a name, as Mansfield 
Center, Center Rutland, usage appears to be about equally divided 
between center and centre, and the Board has adopted the first of the 
above forms of the word. 
Hyphens in connecting parts of names appear to be useless, while 
they add to the complexity of the spelling. 
The practice of adding the letters "C. H.," meaning courthouse, 
to the name of a county seat is prevalent, especially in the Southern 
States. Frequently the place has two names, one being its charter 
name, the other the name of the county with "C. H." appended; thus 
the county seat of Raleigh County, W. Ya., is known as Beckley and 
as Raleigh C. H. 
The tendency toward simplification is in no way shown more decid- 
edly than in the combination of the several words forming a name. 
Thus "La Fayette" has become well nigh universally "Lafayette," 
"El Dorado" has become "Eldorado," etc. The Board approves this 
tendency and will further it as far as possible without forestalling 
usage too greatly. 
The use of diacritic characters in geographic names in the United 
States, such as the German umlaut, the Spanish tilde, etc., is rapidly 
disappearing. It would be impossible, even were it desirable, to oppose 
this change. 
The practice of adding the word "city" or "town," as Boise City, 
Drummondtown, as a part of the name is a useless -complication, 
growing in most cases out of an optimistic spirit on the part of the 
promoters of the place. It is often misleading and almost invariably 
unnecessary. 
There are in Alaska a good many names of Russian origin ending in 
OBb, which terminating syllable has been variously rendered of, off, 
ow, and ov. The Board uniformly uses of. Examples: Baranof, Chich- 
agof, Popof, Shelikof, etc. 
Outside of the United States, where the Department of State and 
United States Hydrographic Office are chiefly interested, the work of 
the Board is directed to the harmonization of American usage in geo- 
graphic nomenclature with the usage of the great map-making nations 
England, Germany, and France. The Department of State, by reason 
of its diplomatic and consular functions, is intimately concerned with 
the present style, change of names, transfers of territorial jurisdiction, 
cession and acquisition of territory by various governments abroad, 
H. Doc. 472 2* 
