Show Spelling Reforms IT PT appears t that at spelling reform movements are not L popular in ill this country It will Viti bo ho remembered that T Theodore eodore Hoose President was an nit earnest a advocate advocate ad ad- of or phonetic spelling and used his powerful in influence influence in- in fluence to inaugurate such a reform even going so far faras faras a as to order the government so documents printed in an adopted abbreviated form fonn as ns a n forerunner of the phonetic spelling he be hoped to establish at a later Inter date These abbreviations were were for the most part confined t to the terminal endings of ough JJ which Roosevelt Roose abominated but the experiment proved so unpopular that was it soon abandoned Even a President of the thc thru r United States couldn't put it We c read now that after giving approval al and patronage patron patron- age ge for several se years to the simplified spelling movement movement movement move move- ment the Modern Language Association of America meeting in Columbus Col Ohio has hns withdrawn its sanction from the tho innovation as proposed by its advocates The S reasons ns given gi are arc lack Jack of public interest in the new spelling its failure to make progress and its offensiveness offensive- offensive ness to some members of or the association While these reasons are arc not regarded as very cry weighty they n count account for fr the failure of the reformers If a poll pohl were taken it is believed the decision of the Modern 1 Language Langua e association would bo be upheld b by a majority of f the thc people E English spelling is admittedly the worst vorst in the world full of the wildest inconsistencies with perhaps more exceptions to almost every rule than there are arc rc instances of it and indefensible on etymological grounds as as well as common sense yet it has the merit of established usage is familiar to millions mil lions of readers and with all its faults is still beloved belO It would Mould take an earthquake or some other violent irregular paroxysm sm of the nebulae of or nature to metamorphose metamorphose meta meta- our etymology and even then it would have to be spelled l right |