Page:Handbook of simplified spelling.djvu/20

12 None of them gaind any considerable following. Teachers and the public wer inclined to regard the conflicting schemes of these rival reformers with indifference, or with suspicion as commercial rather than as purely sientific and educational enterprizes. Nevertheless, this propaganda for fonetic reform, activly carrid on for more than 30 years by determind, if mutually disagreeing, enthusiasts, had a beneficial effect. It undoutedly stimulated filologic experts to unite in directing public attention to the irrationality of English spelling, and to make moderate and reasonable proposals for its gradual simplification.

American Filologists Take Action

The American Philological Association, in 1875, appointed a committee consisting of Professor Francis A. March, of Lafayette College; Professor J. Hammond Trumbull and Professor W. D. Whitney, of Yale; Professor S. S. Haldeman, of the University of Pennsylvania; and Professor F. J. Child, of Harvard, to consider the whole subject of the reform of English spelling. The Association made many recommendations based on the successiv reports of the Committee.

An International Convention for the Amendment of English Orthografy was held in Philadelphia, August 14-17, 1876, "to settle upon some satisfactory plan of labor for the prosecution of the work so happily begun by the American Philological Association and various other educational associations in this country and England". The attendance was widely representativ of British and American scolarship.

The members of the convention organized as a Spelling Reform Association; annual and quarterly meetings wer held, the membership was largely in -