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 write was negligible, and that foreners coming here wer, by some misterious "melting-pot" process of assimilation and naturalization, rapidly Americanized.

Events, even more than statistics, hav opend our eyes to the very real dangers that threten our institutions thru illiteracy in English on the part of nativ-born and foren-born alike. A great patriotic "Americanization" movement is now under way, with "Education in English" as its slogan, and with objects with which the Simplified Spelling Board is hartily in simpathy.

Illiteracy Due to Difficult Spelling

The Board believes, however, that the root of the trouble lies les in a disinclination to learn to read and to write English than in the difficulty of doing so—a difficulty inherent in our present unreasonable and unsistematic spelling. The advantages to be gaind by a knowledge of the language of the country in which one livs must be obvious to all, even the most ignorant; but when such knowledge is so hard to acquire as to baffle the efforts of many, the consequences must be such as ar now apparent.

The only way to remove the difficulty is to improve our spelling, so that it wil be easier to learn. This, more than anything else, wil lighten the labors of those who seek to carry on a campain of Americanization by education. It is not the least of the benefits to be derived from a simplified orthografy.

English as a "World Language"

Foreners, when brought into personal association with those who speak English, easily learn to speak English themselvs. Its grammar is simple. It has