The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1911. AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 287, 28 April 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1911. AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE.

Those practical Germans have not up to now suggested that the wrongs of the world are to be righted by a German Imperial Conference. They have recognised that there arc two or more parties to all bargains. The recent suggestion that an International Conference be summoned to Berlin next year in order to consider the introduction of an international language is at least one atop in the direction of international amity. The suggestion is not entirely new. The British people in the bulk are quite convinced that "English is good enough for me," and so British people may frequently misunderstand foreigners, their aims and ambitions. Because of the enormous influence of the British, and the fact that they are scattered over the earth, millions of foreigners have found it necessary to be conversant with our own language. Although most educated Britishers "learn" some foreign language, thev rarely speak it. It is supposed to put a polish on one's education to vaguely recognise written French, a little Latin, and perhaps a word or two of German. There is no language common to all the people of all the leading nations, and this is a handicap to their friendly relations. Of course, if an international conference decided that a certain language for international use should be compulsorily taught in the schools of the nations, there would at once he a conflict as to which of the great languages should be used. The French nation might, argue that their splendid language, being the language of diplomacy and universally used in that connection, might well be the tongue to be universally learned. The British people, on the ground that "English is good enough for me," and that it is so

widely used, might with some justice claim that it should he the proposed medium, while Germany, seeing that the suggestion is made in that country, could prove conclusively that German should become a compulsory subject in the schools of all the great nations. It seems hardly likely that a language constructed from many existing languages —such as Esperanto—should become an international medium. In less than a generation the use of a general language a.s well as the language of the existing great nations would transform thought and increase information enormously. It is only necessary to recall to the traveller his wanderings in a strange country and his joy in meeting a fellow countryman with whom he could converse, to show the advantages of a universal medium. The value to literature cannot he over-estimated. Nine-tenths of the people of the nations arc debarred from reading the result of current foreign thought. International suspicion and dislike are usually occasioned by misunderstanding. With a literature available and readable by every person in all the nations the general education would advance by leaps and bounds. The pub lication of a press in a language under, stood equally in Berlin, London or Paris, containing the essential features of the

life of each, would do more for thq brotherhood of man than all the speeches statesmen ever made. We affect to smile at the vivacity and emotion of the Frenchman, the "stolidity" of the German (who is much more demonstrate than his English cousin), the fire of the Italian or the Spaniard, and so on. On their side they more or less politely refer to our coldness, our very good conceit of ourselves and our conservatism. We get most of our ideas of foreigners second-hand, and most foreigners know the British only by the examination of individuals generally of the wealthy class. International visits of working men have done incalculable service in clearing away international mists and myths, but a language understood by all and used commonly between German and Briton, Austrian and Italian, Spaniard and Norwegian, Swiss and Hungarian, would lead to a mutual understanding unattainable by any other means. It is as easy to teach youngsters a language other than their own as it is to teach them arithmetic, but the present laborious and incomplete method of instruction in languages makes their learning obnoxious to most British children. One has little doubt that if the Germans have set their hearts on the teaching of a language that may become a universal I medium, the idea has a good start, and no nation will be found to gainsay the | enormous advantages to be derived from a completely organised international system. The mere fact that the nations would have to agree to the medium ! would be of service in creating amity among them, and the idea is worthy of I the thought and labor of the greatest | scholars and statesmen. All that is best in science, literature, art and politics would become common property, a mental stimulus exceeding any as yet devised would be given to the people, a completer understanding of habit and idea would be established, a nobler conception of the duty of man in reaching the goal of universal brotherhood would ensue. The idea is commended as more valuable than any coming from great thinkers for many years. It is a plan to defeat false conceptions, hasty judgments, and international ignorance. It might even be a better insurance against international aggression than fighting ironmongery, and cheaper than Dreadnoughts. The world will watch with vivid interest the deliberations of a conference that proposes so great a step to. wards international understanding.