BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-03-01

empire that bound its heterogeneous races
together. 1t is the same in the United
States, for Rome never contained o more
varied population than our own country.
So also, while Eng and and the Cni'ed
States are commercial rivals and have
different forms OF government, they have a
m aintaining peace than anything else. The
great danger in any large country to- day,
like England, the United States or Russia,
lies in the presence of people living in their
domains aoho persist in speaking foreign |
language.
There are at present many indications /
that the language struggle is implacable |
and that no quarter a0il be given nor soill |
it be expected. In Ireland, for instance, |
there has been of late revival of interest
in the Irish tongue. Universities in many
parts OF the world have acknowledged this
interest by introducing the study of old
Irish or Celtic into their curricula. Germany
has had great difficulty in Germanizing the
language of Als9ce and Lorraine since their
conquest. The war OF 1870 acas an easy
victory compared to this linguistic struggle.
So consistent, he,cever, has been the lm-
perial police throughout the German Empire
that few years ago all words OF foreign
origin in official use by railroad employees
were supplsnted by purely Germs an soords
But the aims OF the Berlin government have
met with most serious opposition in the
Province of Posen. The gov, rnment had
been trying for some time to supplant the
Polish language under absolute ban in the
schools, churches and courts OF law. They
have resisted by boJcotting everything
German. Up to this time the German
plan has been total failure, and the Ger
man methods have been so severe that
Russia and Austria have limited to Germany
that they fear 40 uprising in their own
Polish provinces.
Russian Poles have always been content
ed because their rights to their language
have been allowed. Nevertheless Russia
tries to Russianize all the smaller natioDs
within her influence. The uprising in
Athens few months SINCE in behslfof the
ancient Greek language was in principe
only a resistance to the Slav propaganda
schich, many evidences show, is seeking to
Russanize Bohemia, Bulgaria and Greece.
The students in Athens felt that the move
ment to eliminate ss"pure" Greek from the
church was instigated by Queen Olga, who
is Russian, and that it meant the disinte-
grafton of Greece itself. The weakness of
Austria as European power is linguistic
sceakness, for that country is composed OF
many races speaking different. tonanss. II
Austria should fall spart-and this might
easily happen at any time-a portion would
naturally ally itself with Germany and the
remainder with Russia, EnglanG's control of
India is pvecarious because less than mil
lion people can speak English in that popu
lous land; the loyalty of Australia to En-
gland, on the other hand, has Eeyer been
doubted. The Philippines and Porto Rico
can never with certainty be called American
until the English language is reverenty re-
garded as the colloquial language OF those
islands.
At the present time, therefore, the
struggle is between the great languages and
those less widely spoken. The Spanish
language is at a standstill. The rich lta-
liam is being supplanted by the French.
But French is no longer the language of
diplomacy, and it's future is not bright.
German is the language of scholarship, bus
its inherent difficulties make it an impossi-
BILE m ssionary. Were prophecy permis
sibls here we should say that some day the
Occident and the Orisnt-the English world
and the Russian world-would faos each
other upon that narrow sewage of land upon
the E gean Sea, where the East and the
West have 50 often met in conflict. The
sseas.ern questionn-the tseternal eastern
gu .stionn-will be forever with US. In the
Ocoident the English language has the right
of way. Its vast and profound stores of Ii |
terature and its difficult idioms and con-
s.ruction. In the Orient the Russian nation
is carrying its language toward the yellow
Sea and the Persian Gull, while at the
same time in recent years it has developed |
a rich and scholarly literature.
1t is, moreover, interesting inc dental y to
note hos much modarninventlons have had TO
do With the making of great languages D.ffs.
rences in idioms, accents, names, dialects
and even idess have been lessened if not
eliminated before the power Of steam and
electricity. For steam has made rapid
trar sit possible, while the telephone and te-
legraph have had q unifylng and clvilizingI
DO or that is inestimable. The indtyidua-
ism Of modern times would have made . |