Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-10-09

HERBERT HARRIS OF PORTLAND.
Representative of the United States at
the Barcelona Esperanto Congress.
or developments which they have
made in their particular line of WORK.
There is already an Esperanto bank
in England, that issues checks in ES-
perantO, and there is an Esperanto
currency, the unit, | believe, about
the value of q shilling, but the system
a decimal one of course. But one OF
the practical features of Esperanto
that was brought out at this Congress,
and one which | do not believe even
Dr. Zamenhof, the founder of the Ian
guage fOresaW, was that demonstrate
ed by teachers of the language. 1T
has been almost concluslvely proven
by their experience in teaching chill
dren that they can be taught Es
peranto and one other language in the
same time which it would take to
teach the other language alone, by
teaching them Esperanto first. For
this reason there is a strong move
ment among European countries to
have children taught Esperanto the
first of any language Otter their native
tongue. This is because Esperanto is
based upon universal grammar that
is. on the grammar of all languages
without any of the bugbears of eX-
ceptions and Irregularities, idioms, de-
,lo
child learning this universal gram
mar in Esperanto has practically con-
quered it in the other language to be
learned, leaving only the peculiarities
of the other language to be mas
tered which would always mean add
tional effort. In Esperanto there are
noun endingS, adjective endingS, adj
verbal termination, which always re-
main the same, a uniform accusativc
ending and uniform singular and plu-
raj endingS for the verbs, while uni
form pronouns used with them give
the person. The absolute system and
uniformity of the language, built up
as it was by expert linguists, choosing
no root that was not in at least two
languages and no sound that was not
at least common to two, with the
phonetics that of the English, with
the exception of the German cultural
'ch,' which by the way is also in the
Scotch, gives the student something
logical and tangible
Did you yourself have any practi-
cal experiences in the benefit of Es-
peranto while travelling in Europe ,"
asked the Journal representative.
Yes. certainly I did" answered MIR.
Harris. Il was given a delightful
day in Cordova by a man who spoke
Esperanto, that should not have been
able to have enjoyed otherwise. and
while in Gibraltar | met a German and
a Spanish officer. and by means OF
Esperanto we enjoyed some delightful
trips. In nearly all the European
cities now there are Esperanto offices,
to which one may go for information,
and usually there is some one to show
you about, while in many cities there
are hotels ando stores where atten-
dants speak the language. Guide
books too are being printed in it,
rs there any hope on the part of
Esperantists that the language may
ever become q universal one, when all
men shall speak one tongue?"
ooh. no, not at all said Mr. Har-
riS. 1T is merely their hope that in
ternational intercourse may be facili-
tated; interchange of ideas brought
about business FACILITIES increased,
and that greater ease and pleasure
may be accorded tourists. Now at
the Congress. aside from the regular
sessions. when a definite program of
speeches in Esperanto is carried out,
these sectional meetings, when men
of different professions get together
and talk over professional matters in
Esperanto these are the good works
which the language is trying to do.
This leads to TRANSACTIONS being made
into the language. One very pleas
ant feature of last years Congress,
which was repeated this year, was the
giving of play in Esperanto by pro-
fessionals. Last year in Dresden
Goethe's Iphegenia of Taurus was
given in Esperanto. by a professional
company of high order. This year the
play was one written by native
Catalonian and given by CataIonian
artists. All this goes to show the de-
velopment which we are trying 20
bring about, doesn't ito" said Mr. Har-
rls, and the Journal representative
readily assented, and confessed 20
having spent a most enjoyable and
improving hour just in listening to the
recital of this progress. Mr.. Harris
is very earnest in his beliefs of the
future of Esperanto, and he has 4
personality which is quietly but GER
tainly most convincing. The United
States government could scarcely
have had a better representative to
the international Congress than Mr..
Harris Of Maine