Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1908-10-10
IS
GAINING GROUND
The State Association is Working
for Its Spread.
ONE THOUSAND SOCIETIES
FOR ITS ADVANCEMENT

T~hirty-Five Countries Were Repre-
sented at the Last international
conaress-The United States Gov
Sent an Official Represen-
ative--An Artificial Language.
Esperanto is an artificial language
devised BY Louis l.. Zamenhof, a jew
oculist of Warsaw. Poland. Its aim,
as set forth in the inventors preface
to his first book, Is to be a second
language, to be learned alongside the
mother tongue, for use between peo-
PIES of different speech.
Appearing in the year 1887, it met
With little success for ten years. Then
under the patronage OF Marquis de
Beaufront, it took serious hold OH
France, spreading from thence TO
every nation of the globe. There are
today in the world at least 1000, 000
E~sperantists of whom 10000 have reg
istered in DR.. Zamenhof's Address
Book. There are 1000 organized So
cieties officially registered. Sixty
journals in or about the language are
published IN every corner of the
earth, including Peru, Roumania, Bra
iii, Algiers, Madagascar, Japan, Bo-
hemia, and Chill, AMI on such subjects
as science ia I~nternacia Science
Reyuo,) medicine ia Yoco de Kura-
cistoj,- religion (Gspero Katolika,-
socialism (Socia Reyuo,) pacifism
Elspero Pacifsta,) humor, commerce
(Eksport-jurnalo,) literature, Chris
tlan endeavor, and teaching. More
than 1000 books have appeared in the
language, with translations from
Shakespeare, Goethe. Schiller, Moliere
the Bible. and scientific works, be-
sides not a few important original
productions. The international Ian
guage Is officially approved by the
London chamber of comerce, the
French Touring club, College de
France. the international Peace Con
gress. the United Societies OF Chris
tian Endeavor. and the independent
Order of Good Temp'ars. -Four inter-
national Esperanto congresses have
been held to date, successfully III
France. Switzerland, England, and
Germany. Each of these gatherings
lasts a week and all business (~includ-
ing progranda of the language, uues-
tions of international interest, and
sectional meetings for the futherance
of every branch of human activity
is conducted in Esperanto. AT the
last congress, held in Dresden, Ger
many, 1900 delegates represented 30
countries of the world. The United
States government was officially rep
resented by Surgeon-Major b. F..
Straub of Washington. The next
world congress of Esperanto Will be
held next August at Chautauqua, n.
Y. under the auspices of the Chautau-
qua Institution, whose curriculum now
includes the International language.
The permanence of Esperanto is as
sured by the following considerations:
l. An international language Is need
ed.
III. An international language is
possible.
III. Common sense guarantees, and
history demonstrates, that which is
both needed and possible will some
day be completely established.
Nv. No national language fills the
bill. English, spoken by only 15J,-
900. 900 against a world population oil
a billion and a half is not universal.
Every other national tongue is less
so. International rivalry absolutely
precludes the consideration Of any
natural tongue for the International
role. The only practical solution of
the problem lies in the adoption of an
artificial language, which offends no
one and has certain advantages of its
own. These advantages are % ease
of requirement (Esperanto may be
learned in three months. CD a more
scientific nedium-for being interna-
tional in character, it answers better
TO international needs, than a national
tongue that is designed to serve a
single race.
V. Esperanto can have no artificial
rivals. 1t has none at present,
though there have been no less than
two hundreds attempts in the last
three hundera years to introduce an
international auxiliary language. Now
that Esperanto has thoroughly en-
trenched itself in practice, the very
idea of international language declar-
ad hot thara shall ha hut one sucn