The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-06-18
MISNAMING NATIONS
ESTABLISHED HABIT
Titles Usually Oldest Relics
of Humanity.

does Russia recognize Russia" &C
cording to the United States Post Of
flee department.
If an American wishes to order cav
lar through a Moscow concern, the
best advice is that he address the let
ter to the Union of Socialistic Soviet
RtS ublics. In order to educate the
world to the new name, the Soviet
government frequently carries out its
threat to return all mail addressed to
Russia"
"Misnaming nations is one of our
established habits" says bulletin Of
the National Geographic society from
IFS headquarters in Washington. ''The
following are the real names which
well-known nations call themselves.
How many can you identify? Misr,
Eesti Wabariik, Suomen Tasavalta,
Afrikiya, Iran, Die Republik Oster-
reich, Ell Maghreb, Lietuva, Flstin.
"The accepted English names for
of this column.
"Since United States citizens do not
call foreign nations by their native
names, they take liberties with ours.
When a representative of the National
Geographic society left for the Tren-
tino district, Italy, recently. he car
ried business cards which gave the So
ciety's name in Italian and the address
as America Neither United States
nor u. S. A appeared on the card.
In rural districts the peasants know
of America but many of them have
never heard Of the United States
"The world habit of misnaming ma
lions can be excused. Some nations
the world must fix on some form. One
Of the discoveries of Americans tour
ing Europe is that Switzerland is not
Switzerland. If you are in north or
German Switzerland it is Schweiz,
south or Italian Switzerland it is
Svizzera, west or French Switzerland,
Suisse. The map shows Luxembourg
on the international fence between
Germany and France. 1t is also on
the lingual fence, possessing two
names, Grand-Duche de Luxembourg
and Grosherzogtum Luxembourg. The
Irish Free State also is known by the
Gaelic, Saorstat Eireann.
Perpetuate Ancient Ideas.
Excepting New world titles, names
Of nations are usually the oldest relics
of humanity. Like all antiques, their
origins are often shrouded in mystery.
Frequently names perpetuate the opin-
ion one tribe had Of another in the
days of barbarism. The official name
Of Germany today is Deutsches Reich.
They call themselves Deutsch, which
is the name English-speaking people
have allotted to the natives of Neither
lands. The French call them Allie
mandes, literally, foreigners. Slavs
call the Germans 'Niemiec,' which
means dumb men, They were dumb
men to the Slavs since they could not
speak the Slav language. Slavs call
themselves Slowjane, the intelligent
people, but all Germans call them the
Wends, that is, the strangers
England reveals name dissensiOn
nearer home. The Welsh call the Eng
lish the Saeson; the Gaels of Scotland
call the English Saoz the Irish, Sasu-
match, and the Manxmen, Sagsonach.
A Welshman is not a Welsh to
.Welshman, but Cymry.
'In the Japanese name for their is
land kingdom, Nippon, geographic
absurdity has been corrected by a
modern geographic decision. mi
means sun and 'pon,' rising. Japan is
the country of the rising sun. To
whom could it be the country over
which the sun rose? Not to Japanese
certainly! Obviously it is a Chinese
name because the island lay where the
Chinese saw the sun rise. But within
the last century the international date
line was marked down the center of
the Pacific ocean. 1t establishes where
day begins, according to earthly agree
ment. Therefore, Japan is the first
major territory touched by the rising
sun of new day.
Americans" Appropriate america"
"Consider our nations name the
United States of America Americans
proudly proclaim that that title does
not stand for nation which is an en-
pire gathering vast territories to itself
by conquest. Yet the present use OF
the United States of America is one
of the most remarkable and bare-faced
conquests on record in the world of
nomenclature. An American is recog-
nized everywhere now as u native of
the United States, but there are TO-
100000 people in Canada, Central
America, Mexico and South America,
who have just as much right to the
name as the 125,OO0,O00 citizens of the
United States. We speak of the United
States as If there could be only one
federation by that title. There are two
other the United States'-Venezuela
and Brazil