The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1922-08-18
YANKEE SLANCIS
WINNING FAVOR
French Scholars Prognosticate In
Regard TO Fate OF Own
Language.

perhaps American slang-probably
will be the future universal language,
the speech of the elite, the tongue of
diplomacy.
In a not distant decade, perhaps,
the French premier may cable the
secretary of state of the United
States: "Say, put me straight on this
Pacific business. What's Japan's
idea?"
And the secretary will cable the
Japanese premier: "If you can give
France the info shoot IL across -
Sooner or later I'VE have with us
tonight" will be e. the after dinner
formula at international banquets
from Indo-China to Heligoland.
Eventually Tell 1t to Sweeney" or
cite 1t outside" will replace the
potter forms of population current
in cosmopolitan social circles.
All of this French scholars are
shudderingly demonstrating II
French is not retained as the inter,
national language, and If Esperanto
is not pushed as an auxiliary and sub
sidiary universal tongue. Once give
English look-in, they insist. and
slang will become the table talk of
statesmen and princess.
Esperanto Started Trouble.
| The trouble all began because of
Esperanto.
Som ebody-perhaps an agent of
! police-heard bewhiskered indivi-
! dual, wearing horn-rimmed glasses
whispering in Esperanto to wrinkle
browed person, with pamphlets in his
pocket. Being a curious person, he
was annoyed because he could not
understand a word.
neutrality-suspicious. the agent of
| police-started the story that Esper-
anto was becoming the language of
Bolshevism. Whenever dark
browed Russian wanted to inoculate
an innocent young Frenchman with
I
form of government he said it in
Esperanto. The. police, however dis
gused, were foiled.
Finally persons in authority one
way and another became convinced
that Esperanto was being used to
further the spread of commrnistic
doctrines.
An appeal was sent to school au-
thorities thruout France to do all
they could to prevent the theoretical
world-language from being taught
or spread.
Esperanto Opposed.
7 Interviews against Esperanto ap-
peared in the newspapers. "Es-per-
anto Injuries the intellectual devel
opment of youth" urged Alfred
Capus. interviewed by LIE Matin. ut
is language without finer shapes,
incapable of expressing anything but
the crudest ideas. 1t would be i'm
possible to conduct an argument
against communism in Esperanto.
Communistic ideas are primitive
the language suits them"
But the reaction was inevitable. !
A row ensued. Sudden interest was
manifested in Esperanto. Faddists who
were busily studying Arabian or
Sanscrit or medieval Chinese fired
their teachers and hired Esperantists
with the proper international accent
to teach them to speak universally. |
After Russian Esperanto became the
most popular language to "'take up"
in study groups"
For every sober authority who de-
nounced Esperanto a man of letters |
has been found to support it. The |
president of the examining board of |
tho Polytechnic Association, quoted |
by the lie Matin asserts that ito say
that Esperanto is a vehicle for Boil
shevism is profoundly upjust-a |
language belongs to anybody who
cares to use it," He asserted that Es-
perantists in Paris>were being perse-
cuted.
Aulard Explains.
But it was Prof. A. Aulard, of the
Sorbonne, who hit upon the really
Frenchmen should tolerate if not
support Esperanto
French is too difficult to remain
the international language" he
wrote LIE Matin. but shall it con-
tinue as the language of good socie-
tyr"
He implied that II should. And
to obtain that end he urged French
educators to facilitate the diffusion
of Esperanto.
Otherwise" he threatened, "if
there is no artificial language. Eng
lish will become the international
language of all the peoples of the
earth, just as 1t is already the inter-
national language of the yellow