Evening star., 1901-07-11
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
EFFORT TO BRING ABOUT AN INTER-
NATIONAL UNDERSTANDING.
the Creation of a Russian
Scholar, May Be Adopted rs
an All-World Tongue.
From the San Francisco Post.

-
There was recently held in Paris a great
reunion OF learned men. whose purpose was
to form an international congress of acad-
emies. The idea is that there should be a
body composed of representatives of every
great academy. institute, university and
scientific society of the whole civilized
world. all working together in the general
interests of every branch OF knowledge
The congress of academies will be a general
registry Office of learning and discovery, or,
one might put it, an international clearing
house of science
Its most important function will be to
keep tab on the progress made in every
highway and byway of research and thought
all over the world. 1t will sum up the ac-
tual position of knowledge in every subject
organize research on new lines and enable
isolated workers to avoid wasting time and
labor on lines already fully explored The
scientific worker in London or Berlin will
De aoie to profit at once by the authorita-
tiVeiy recognized net results of worker in
the United States, or vice versa. 1t is not
too much to say that the whole movement
OF science and learning during the coming
century should be immeasurably accel-
Grated by this new institution.
Advocated by franklin.
The idea realized in Paris is not a new
one Benjamin Franklin advocated it in
far1s to Voltaire. And long before him the
great German philosopher and scientist
Lelbnitz had suggested some such interna-
tlonal alliance of learned men. 1t has taken
@oV years to realize what seems to be so
simple and obviously useful a suggestion
Leibnitz might well have been satisfied to
see now warmly his countrymen of this
year OF grace have espoused his idea and
now brilliantly Germany was represented in
ha ae eolisress. But what Franklin would
n ry-r ;<>
ous. FOR. whatever the reason NAV be
oiIy oie american was delegated to this
assembly-Prof. Goodale-and by a singh
iar ia piece OF pad luck, he fell i'll in Switzer-
able to attend N "0S oii
.h mo the proceedings Of the congress
there is no need to enter at length As a
niaai oi TACT. all that was not highly tech
iSal was purely preliminary. But there
was one interesting question opened The
congress OF academies determined TO tackie
me 1u uIlIlcuit matter of a universal language.
Inc need of such language is being feIt
more and more every day. AS traIs hes
comes more and more extended takin, in
every country in the world, the Language
4 Iaroa becomes a formidable difficulty.
OF year. nave to write and receiy. letters
IN every dialect spoken wherever American
goods are used. Instead of having to EN-
~ ptos many translators, waste a quantity
OF priceless time, and in the end do business
unsatlslactorily, 1t would be Infinitely het-
ter TO nave one recognized business lam
guage, adopted in every country and learn
eu as mater OF course by every one VINO
81 ant .o ei.IeI as clerk or principal, TO
Experiments With VoIapuk.
Several experiments have Of course, been
made IN this direction. Perhaps the most
prominent was Volapuk But Volapuk is
now as dead as the traditional doornail. The
reason. is easily stated. 1t lacked au-
thoritative sanction; and ). was iIl-con-
structed In this respect, that being purely
fantastic, having no relation to airy exist
ing tongue. it laid heavy burden on the
memory. Relatively few people cared 70
learn difficult language when they were
not sure that the day after they mad ac-
qulred 1t new and better system might
not appear and be more generally adopted
pathological committee of the congress
or academies will study the question in
all its bearings and expects in the course
OF few years to work out or adopt from
outside some artificial language which will
meet the conditions of universal success
such language will have to be absolutely
simple in construction, with no elaborate
rules, easy OF pronunciation on phonetic
laws by every race likely to use it, easily
learned by being composed far as pos
Sible of root words common to the greatest
possible number of languages.
These conditions not so hard to meet
as it might seem. Pronunciation and gram
matieal rules are simply a matter of uni
versal agreement AS for aiding the mem
ory by the use Of roots common to many
languages, they can be found in the Latin
words which abound in nearly every
tongue. English is full of them; French
Spanish and Italian are almost exclusively
made up of them. German has a good
many.
Already a language has been formed
on this principle. 1t is called Esperanto
and Is the creation of a Russian scholar
and Count Tolstoi declares that after only
three hours study he learned to read it as
fuently as his own tongue. Any one with
a smattering of Latin would certainly mas
ter it in a week. 1t may be that Esperanto
will be adopted by the united academies
If it be, the congress will use all it's inter-
national influence to get it officially ac-
cepted by every country; perhaps even to
have 1t made compulsory subject in pub
lie schools all over the world. In that case
every educated man in the next generation
would be able to communicate with all the
educated people he had to do with in any
land.
OF course, the universal tongue would
not kill existing languages: that is as inn
possible as 1t would be regrettable; it would
simply be more or less perfect vehicle for
the conveying of the ordinary affairs of
life and of trade between representatives Of