Page:Handbook of simplified spelling.djvu/72

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32
ANSERS TO OBJECTIONS

sonal preference in spelling again becomes generally recognized, the inevitable tendency wil be to follow the more logical and sensible practis.

The Real Confusion
The real confusion in English spelling arizes les from spelling words in different ways than from using the same letter, or combination of letters, to represent different sounds, and from representing the same sound by different letters and combinations of letters. All this confusion can be minimized if teachers and writers of English wil use the simpler forms. Each simplification adopted into usage reduces the total number of incongruities, and helps to make our spelling more uniform and regular than it was before.

"Artificial" Changes
Many, however, who recognize the imperfections of English spelling believ that its reform wil come about thru what they term "the natural process" of change. They object to the proposals of the Simplified Spelling Board as an il-judgd attempt to force this "natural" process by "artificial" means. Believing the movement foredoomd to failure on this account, they refuse to support it, even while admitting that its object is praiseworthy.

Basis of All Human Progress
Those who take this stand base their opposition on two false premises. The first is that it is not perfectly legitimate for man to employ artificial means to aid and to stimulate natural processes for his own advantage. A natural pas may afford the most convenient way to cros a mountain, but it wil be vastly improved