Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-08-25
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.
With English a Person Can Make His
Way About Any Of the Worlds
Beaten Tracks.

English is to-day what French was in
the eighteenth century and Latin in the
middle ages, the language chosen by
common nsentforintercommunication
between statesmen, savants and fashion,
able and literary persons of different ma
lions, says the San Francisco Bulletin.
With English one can make his way con-
veniently along any of the beaten tracks
in Europe. More people now speak Eng
lish as their vernacular than speak any
other European tongue.
A sign of the growth in Importance of
the English tongue in the recent action of
the school authorities ofthe German gov
eminent in making English an optional
study in the public schools of SaXony.
This action was induced by a petition adj
dressed to the government by the Dres-
den Schoolmasters' association. The Pc
tition was an excellent syllabus of the
arguments in favor of English as a sub
ject for study in the German public
schools. A portion Of it was as follows:
1. English is the most widely used
civilized language in the world.
2. tits the ostimportantlanguagefor
Germany's International trade relations.
In Dresden especially the knowledge of
English is of great advantage to shop
keepers and commercial men, owing to
the important Anglo-American colony
there.
8. English deserves preference over
French on account of its literature,
which (a) excells that of France both
from the artistic and moral point of
view; (b) appeals more nearly to our
sentiment and understanding as that of
a Germanic people; (c) has played a
prominent part in the development OF
u own literature.
4. English is not inferior to French in
educative value.
s. In the teaching Of English the read
lily learned grammatical forms Of the
language enable the time allotted to its
study to be spent in attaining the most
important object in teaching a foreign
1anguage-the power of it's free use in
speech and writing. This is not possible
in the case of French, owing to the diff
ficulty of its grammar.
1t is only within recent times that
English has been taught carefully even
in England and American schools. The
old theory was that a student learned
English best by reading the Latin and
Greek authors. While the benefits of q
knowledge Of Latin and Greek are very
great and certainly assist in acquiring
the accomplishment of using English
correctly and elegantly, the close atten-
ton now given to English in our OWL
schools will improve the average quality
of English composition.
We scarcely appreciate what a treasure
we possess in our English tongue. The
vocabulary of English has been enriched
by plumber from every land and every
language. 1t is a flexible tongue, adapt
able to any idea, and a tongue which
welcomes accessions when those are
necessary. 1t is not by its intrinsic vir.
tue, however, that the English language
is spreading and is becoming the cosmO'
politan medium of communication, bu'
rather by the increasing Importance o.
the people that speak English. The Brit
ish and the Americans control a large
portion Of the worlds trade. Their infiu
ence is felt everywhere. They sell t,
everybody and everybody wishes to sci
to them. Verify, the English Language
has co9ae forward since the time whe1
Bacon, despairing of the perpetuity o
the English tongue, translated some 0
his works into Latin.