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Theodore Roosevelt's Letter to the Government Printing Office

A minor mystery attends this document. Public Printer Charles Stillings says in the Government Printing Office directive of September 4, 1906, that the spelling changes are being made pursuant to "Executive order." Histories that mention Roosevelt's spelling initiative usually say that the president issued an executive order for this purpose on August 27, 1906. However, "executive order" is a term of art. Executive orders are the ordinary means that presidents use to carry out the duties of their office. They are numbered sequentially. Since the middle of the 20th century they have been systematically codified. However, no such executive order appears in the list of presidential documents issued by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 or in any other year. The letter below may be a simple letter of transmittal.

The text here is widely available in The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume V: The Big Stick 1905-1907; edited by Elting E. Morison, John M Blum, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., and Sylvia Rice; Havard University Press, 1952; pages 389-390. Note that this collection of letters does not include the list of reformed spellings. The list of spellings may be found, along with the text of the president's letter, in the Government Printing Office document of September 4 mentioned above. That document is available on mircofiche at major federal documents repositories. The series is US Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909: no. GP102-27.1, GP102-27.2). The material includes copies of the Circulars of the Simplified Spelling Board mentioned in the president's letter.

Oyster Bay, August 27, 1906

To Charles Arthur Stillings

My dear Mr. Stillings: I enclose herewith copies of certain circulars of the Simplified Spelling Board,

which can be obtained free from the Board at No. 1 Madison Avenue, New York City. Please hereafter direct that

in all Government publications of the executive departments the three hundred words enumerated in Circular No. 5

shall be spelled as therein set forth. If anyone asks the reason for the action, refer him to Circulars 3, 4 and

6 as issued by the Spelling Board. Most of the critcism of the proposed step is evidently made in entire

ignorance of what the step is, no less than in entire ignorance of the very moderate and common-sense views as

to the purposes to be cahieved, which views as so excellently set forth in the circulars to which I have referred.

There is not the slightest intention to do anything revolutionary or initiate any far-reaching policy. The

purpose simply is for the Government, instead of lagging behind popular sentiment, to advance abreast of it

and at the same time abreast of the views of the ablest and most practical educators of our time as well as the

most profound scholars–men of the stamp of Professor Lounsbury. If the slighest changes in the spelling of the

three hundred words proposed wholly or partially meet popular approval, then the changes will become permanent

without any reference to what officials or individual private citizens may feel; if they do not ultimately meet

with popular approval they will be dropt, and that is all there is about it. They represent nothing in the world

but a very slight extension of the unconscious movement which has made agricultural implement makers write "plow"

instead of "plough"; which has made most Americans write "honor" without the somewhat absurd, superfluous "u";

and which is even now making people write "program" without the "me"–just as all people who speak English now

write "bat," "set," "dim," "sum," and "fish" instead of the Elizabethan "batte," "sette," "dimme," "summe," and

"fysshe"; which makes us write "public," "almanac," "era," "fantasy," and "wagon," instead of the "publick,"

"almanack," "aera," "phantasy," and "waggon" of our great-grandfathers. It is not an attack of the language of

Shakespeare and Milton, because it is in some instances a going back to the forms they used, and in others merely

the extension of changes which, as regards other words, have taken place since their time. It is not an attempt

to do anything far-reaching or sudden or violent; or indeed anything very great at all. It is merely an attempt

to cast what sleight weight can properly be cast on the side of the popular forces which are endeavoring to

make our spelling a little less foolish and fantastic.

Sincerely yours

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