842 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoT.. XXX. No. 780 



dom, and I find them suitable only for creating 

 confusion, and of putting in danger the progress 

 attained after decades of hard work. 



Professor Forster was not the only member 

 of the committee who resigned from it in dis- 

 gust at the action of the subcommittee. In 

 the Oermana Esperantisto, No. 8, 1909, Pro- 

 fessor Dr. Ad. Schmidt, one of those mem- 

 bers who left the committee, speaks very 

 pointedly of the misrepresentations in an 

 article published by Dr. Pfaundler, one of the 

 men whose names were mentioned by Pro- 

 fessor Jespersen. Couterat, also mentioned 

 by Jespersen, is editor of the official organ of 

 the " Idists." In a recent number of this 

 journal he prints statements concerning the 

 position gained by Esperanto at the Psycho- 

 logical Congress last summer that, to say the 

 least, are misleading, though in a subsequent 

 number he publishes a very lame retraction. 



Since the disruption of the International 

 Language Committee, occasioned by the belief 

 on the part of conservative members that the 

 subcommittee were putting in jeopardy the 

 whole question of an international language, 

 a faction of that committee have continued the 

 propaganda for Ido, a language invented, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Schmidt, by the Marquis de 

 Beaufront, one of the most ardent of Esper- 

 antists, and a most powerful opponent of 

 changes in Esperanto. Beaufront himself had 

 abandoned his own language because he con- 

 sidered Esperanto superior to it, and, on ac- 

 count of his staunch advocacy of the latter, 

 had been commissioned as the personal repre- 

 sentative of Dr. Zamenhof before the language 

 committee. In addition to the faction re- 

 ferred to there are scattered here and there in 

 Europe and America a few opponents of Es- 

 peranto who call themselves Idists, Ildists, etc. 

 These gentlemen are not at all agreed as to 

 the structure of their language. Their official 

 organ is devoted, not so much to the propaga- 

 tion of a particular form of international lan- 

 guage, as to a learned ( ?) discussion of what 

 the characteristics of an international lan- 

 guage should be, and to an attempt to discredit 

 Esperanto. It is not uncommon for the con- 

 tributors to this magazine to give, in connec- 

 tion with their articles, a synopsis of the 



grammatical forms with which at the time 

 they are experimenting. Even the Idists are 

 now beginning to perceive the folly of their 

 course, and are beginning to clamor for a 

 " period of stability," the one thing they have 

 fought most strenuously in Esperanto, and 

 the absolutely essential element of success. 

 Esperantists realize that to open the gate to 

 " improvements " can only end in a wrangle 

 that means certain death to the movement for 

 an international language, which at present 

 has such brilliant prospects. 



The writer well remembers when he began 

 the study of German, how many things he 

 found in it that he could have improved. 

 The same was true of French. It is not 

 strange, therefore, that beginners should have 

 a strong desire to " improve " Esperanto. But 

 after two and a half years study of Esperanto, 

 the writer has come very fully to the convic- 

 tion that the very points in which he desired 

 to see the language changed are the best fea- 

 tures of it. After having acquired the ability 

 to read Esperanto practically as freely as 

 English, and the ability to speak it with a 

 fair degree of freedom, the writer is of opinion 

 that, without any changes whatever, Esperanto- 

 will make a satisfactory international lan- 

 guage. Professor Jespersen refutes his own 

 statement that Esperanto can not be printed 

 in any printing office, by showing in the latter 

 part of his article that this can be done. 

 Since more consonant sounds are needed than 

 there are letters. Dr. Zamenhof chose two 

 ways of representing certain sounds, one with 

 supersigned letters, the other with combina- 

 tions of letters. Either may be used. Tele- 

 grams are sent daily in Esperanto, Professor 

 Jespersen's statement to the contrary not- 

 withstanding. His statement (in Esperanto) 

 that this language lacks many roots is trivial. 

 If he knows Esperanto he knows that in the 

 laws governing the development of the lan- 

 guage any root whatever can be added by any 

 Esperantist whenever needed, the only re- 

 quirement being that the root shall be ade- 

 quately defined. If, then, the new root is 

 taken up by writers of repute, it is in due 

 time given formal approval by a committee 

 having full authority. Eight hundred and 



