modify the spelling in the successiv popular editions of standard authors to conform with current practis. The spelling of Shakespeare, even that of the translators of the King James version of the Holy Bible, does not appear in volumes printed today, but has been greatly, tho gradually, changed thru the centuries. Any one can verify this by comparison of modern with earlier editions.
Under the most favorable circumstances the simplification of English spelling is not likely to advance more rapidly than publishers can keep up with it. The average age of a printed book is about ten years. Works that ar in stedy demand ar in many cases reprinted oftener than that. Even in the event of the ultimate adoption of a completely fonetic spelling, scolars wil easily learn the older spellings, as they do now; while the ordinary reader wil always find everything that is worth preserving in English literature reprinted in the spelling of his time, as is the case today.
Wil Not Ad to Present "Confusion"
To those who object that this process of progressiv change wil cause confusion, and that, with so many words speld in more than one way, it wil be impossible to maintain a standard—to tel whether a word is speld correctly or not—the Board ansers that such confusion has always caracterized English spelling. There has never been a time in its history when many words wer not speld in different ways. The latest editions of the leading dictionaries print hundreds of words of which alternativ spellings ar given on equal authority of good usage; and the dictionary editors do not, by any means, agree in their preferences for particular forms. Hundreds of such words ar printed
