Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-07
WHY KNOCK ESPERANTO?
ASKS ENTHUSIASTIC CONVERT


,[Editor Heraldl: Some belated question:
ers are asking: why Esperanto rather
than a live language? And, without paus-
ing for an answer, are even venturing to
slate Esperanto as nonsense" Now, the
person who does this either does not
know-in which case more delicacy of
procedure and modesty of expression
would be fitting-or else he does not care,
but lets prejudice run riot over his better
judgment. In either case an answer is
in order for the benefit of those who
having heard the question and Qn some
cases) denunciation, are yet in doubt.
To the question: "Why not a live Ian
guage for international use rather than
Esperanto?" l would answer
"a Because all the national languages
are too complicated and irregular
~ Because national and racial jeal-
ousy and prejudice would never permit
the adoption of any national language
by the rest of the world.
(3) Because Esperanto is free from
needless complexities and Irregularities;
quisition and euphonious, and, being a
foreign language" to all, places all who
use it on even terms, and provokes no
jealousies.
So slipshod and inconsequent, too, are
some of the objections to Esperanto or
any artificial" language. One writer
starts out by suggesting that, instead of
Esperanto, we should use one of our old
living languages-thus apparently recog-
nizing a present contingency. Yet a
moment later, the present and its need
seems to slip clean from his mind, and
he bids us look away to some dim, dis
tant future for our universal language
as the outcome of long struggle for
supremacy, the one surviving language
having, of course, enriched itself from the
conquered tongues in the process How
logical, how consistent is the writer!
Having spread himself in extolling the
wondrous beauty and power of thought
expression in our grown languages,
every word with it's own peculiar beauty
and historical associations, etc, he
calmly proposes that all, except. one. with
their priceless literature and chronological
significations shall be ruthlessly killed
out in a survival of the fittest" STRUGGLED
Contrast this with the sane position of
the Esperantist, who says: Let not these
beautiful languages, with their marvel
Gus literature and richness in historical
memories and meanings, perish. Preserve
and cherish them, each nation for it,
self; but since they are so complex and
irregular that few but the natives-those
who "live" them-can ever thoroughly
learn them, let us have, in addition, for
international use, simple, precise, un-
ambiguous, scientifically constructed lam
guage, so easy that all may learn 1t. Thus
shall the free interchange of human
thought be freed at last from the bar
riers incidental to diversity of language,
and that without injuring or menacing
the survival Of those diverse tongues
and literatures.
Another objector busies himself with
alleged analogies between the making of
an artificial language when there are good
living languages existing, and the at
tempt to manufacture" baby out of
"odds and ends. when there are plenty of
babies running around or to make an
artificial forest out of shavings and old
paper A truer analogy would be: The
building of a stately serviceable ship
from the hearts of stout old oaks; the
good ship "Esperanto'' to carry our ar
gosies of thought and good understand
ing to and fro between every port In
the world And the comparison holds
good. too for the heart of a language is
in it's radicals. from which, and the best
of which. in the best OF the old national
tongues. the great DR.. zamenhof has
built up this marvellous new lanenase--