“He believes that the chief obstacle to its speedy adoption is to be found in its contradictory and difficult spelling.”Īt the time, written German, which had been simplified in 1901, seemed poised to become the “world language of the future”-a development that neither Carnegie nor Roosevelt, both intensely competitive men, could possibly have welcomed.ġ906 cartoon about Roosevelt’s simplified spelling campaign sponsored by Carnegie from the Collier’s Weekly. Carnegie has long been convinced that English might be made the world language of the future, and thus one of the influences leading to universal peace,” the New York Times reported. Launched the previous March and financed by the steel baron Andrew Carnegie, the board wanted to strip the American language of its antiquated British baggage and create a clean and modern version for the 20th century.Ĭarnegie, who’d immigrated to the United States as a teenager with little formal education, had high hopes for the project. In August 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt issued an order from his summer residence in Oyster Bay, New York, that would soon be the talk of Washington-and the world beyond.Īddressing himself to the government printer, Roosevelt decreed that all documents issued by the White House should now follow the spellings advocated by an organization known as the Simplified Spelling Board.
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