From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 28, 1913:

• “Simplified spelling is gaining followers at the University. This morning the count stood at twenty-eight for and twenty against the change. The campaign among the faculty members is being carried on by Prof. D. C. Croissant, head of the extension department. If a majority of K. U. professors vote for simplified spelling and the faculty members of the other colleges in the state do also, the simplified system probably will be adopted in all university publications. This may happen in a year and it may happen in five years…. ‘Language is a social convention, anyway,’ explained Prof. Croissant this morning. ‘What difference does it make whether we spell would “wud” or not. It has nothing to do with our salvation.’ In many instances the simplified form of the word is more accurate historically than the common accepted form. For instance take the word ‘debt.’ The simplified form is ‘det.’ The word comes from the old English ‘dette.’ The old English form of ‘through’ was ‘thruh’ so is not the simplified form ‘thru’ historically accurate?… ‘The trouble is that the English got the printing press from the Dutch and they sent a lot of Dutchmen over to run it. They made ‘thruh’ ‘through.’ There is not scientific objection to phonetic spelling that I can see. ‘Thru’ is now almost an accepted word; many people never spell it any other way.’ Fairmount and Friends University of Wichita have adopted the new form.”
• “Brick walls and tin roofs probably saved the business district in the 800 block on Massachusetts street from a more or less disastrous fire shortly after 8 o’clock this morning when a fire of unknown origin broke out in a barn belonging to Wm. Weidemann and located in the rear of the J. Kielman upholstering shop at 834 Vermont. Although the fire department responded promptly to the alarm, two breakages in the hose caused a delay of several minutes before the water could have any effect on the blaze and it was only the fact that the barn was of brick and covered with an asbestos lined tin roof that kept the brisk south wind from spreading the fire along the old buildings and boxes lining the alley. The fire was extinguished after thirty minute work and before it spread outside the barn where it started. Damage to the barn was slight and consisted chiefly of scorched woodwork on the inside.”
• “If the budget of the University will permit, the Board of Administration intends to establish a department of child welfare. This was the announcement made here this morning by Edward T. Hackney, president of the board. In contemplation of establishing a department of this kind the board already has appointed William A. McKeever, of the philosophy department of the Kansas State Agricultural College, to head the work. The department will come under the extension division of the University and will be started by January if the board finds that the budget will permit such action.”