Theodore Roosevelt’s motivation, as well as that of another supporter, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, was multifaceted. Both men were poorly educated as youngsters yet longed as adults to become educational pacesetters. They looked at spelling reform as efficient and cost-cutting, meaning that newspaper, magazine and book sizes could be reduced, as could class time devoted to spelling. The men hoped that English and French spellings of common words that added more letters than was necessary would give way to an American imprint. After Carnegie in 1906 put his money into what came to be known as the Simplified Spelling Board, Roosevelt issued an executive order on Aug. 27 of that year directing that all publications of the executive department adhere to the board’s new spellings for 300 words delineated in his order. Many of the spellings were already in use, including “arbor,” “ardor” and “clamor,” (instead of the British arbour/ardour/clamour) or “judgment” and “acknowledgment” (without the silent “e”). What set off a firestorm of criticism was TR’s capitulation to phonetics: “blessed” became “blest,” “kissed” would be “kist,” “passed” would become “past”—no matter that this last spelling mirrored the word for time gone by. The double letter “r” at the ends of words were gone, so a cat’s “purr” was softened to “pur.” The combined letters “oe” as in “subpoena” became an e; “though” was reduced to “tho,” and “through” became “thru.” […] Newspapers across the country made fun of Roosevelt.