The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-01-03
EUROPE HOME
OF WHITE RACE.
Habitat 5000 Years Ago Was in
Lithuania, Declares Profess
Sor Bender of Princeton.
HONEY BEE SEEN AS FACTOR
Indo-European Language Indicates An
Gent Home in Common Word for
lnsect-Traced Through Com
parative PhiIoloqy.


parative PhIoIogy.
Princeton.-Wh would your home
be if you had lived 5000 years ago?
The search by ethnologists and other
scientists to find just where the first
white peoples lived, before splitting
up into what are modern nations, is
described by Prof Harold H. Bender
of Princeton university, who declares
that our ancestors of the cave man
period lived in what Is modern Lithu-
ania
AS a student of languages and pro-
feSSOr of Indo-Germanic philology at
Princeton Professor Bender's investi-
cations have led him back to the or
igin of all white races, before the dawn
of history. His conclusions, together
with a description Of the methods by
which he came to them, are embodied
in THE Aryan Question, Did the Ian
guages of Europe Come From Asia ?"
a lecture published by Princeton
The Indo-European race which -four
ished almost 5000 years ago, is the
founder of all the present peoples of
Europe save the Hungarians, Greeks,
Romans, AnglO-SaXOnS and other Ger
MANS Celts. all these people are de
scendants of the One-time race, which
Professor Bender believes lived in that
section of Europe between the Baltic
and Black seas, or modern Poland and
Lithuania
Comparison of Languages.
Living before recorded history, in
what is often referred to as cave man
times, this ancient people from whom
are descended all of the modern Eur
opean races left us little with which
we might learn of their culture and
daily life. All that we have is meth
Cd of comparative language study by
which we find their own language. and
hence much about their civilization.
Phlologists have discovered that the
languages of quarter of a billion peo-
pie in Asia and most of the inhabi-
tants of Europe, North and South
America and other regions of the
earth coIonized by Europeans are fun
damentally alike. That is, Latin, Ger
man. Russian and Greek are at the
bottom of same, having all descended
from the same parent language. Pro-
fessOr Bender says: Language is the
best evidence of community, Of life
and culture, and we can at least as
sumo that at some time and in some
more or less definite territory there
dwelt people. or group of peoples
racially pure or racially mixed, who
lived to a large extent common life,
and who spoke tongue which was
the common ancestor of the languages
now spoken by the majority of the
civilized peoples of the earth.
"Wfth the beginnings of the science
Of comparative philology early in the
century came the knowl-
edge that Sanscrit was the oldest Of
the European languages-if not
the mother of them all, at least their
elder sister Philologists concluded
that the home Of the Hindus must al
30 have been the home Of the Indo-
Europeans, and this common home |
they visualized on the banks of In
HAS most sacred stream, the Gauges. |
The study of the Veda soon showed. |
however, that the Vedic people did not |
know the Ganges, but lived in north |
vest India; so the primitive home of |
he Indo-E Europeans was moved once
more. this time into the Iranian re-
ZION east of the Caspian sea-"
Professor Bender goes on to show
low philologians and theologians met
IN common ground for different rea-
IONS and decided that the location was
southwestern Asia He presents the
arguments In support of this hypo-
hesis and shows how most Of them
AVE been disproved and presents the
method whereby modern philologists
ave arrived at this new conclusion.
Honey Bee Is Factor.
On account of the fact that almost
very Indo-European language shares
With its cognates a common word for
oney, or for an intoxicating drink
nade from honey, it is made clear that
he primitive home of the Indo-Eur-
peans must have been a land where
he honey bee abounded. But not one
f the ,Asiatic sites, that have been
considered by modern philol-
gists as the possible home of these
copies, falls within the bee belt. In
Europe, on the other hand, the bee {
indigenous almost everywhere.
BY continuing this process of COM
arative phil0logy and by the processes
f elimination the conclusion above {
lentioned is reached. Eve have. left,
nally," says Professor Bender, "the