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SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 820 



stock of tongues was remote and that they 

 could only expect, in similar gatherings in the 

 future, a repetition of the same disappointing 

 experience ! 



But America has seen a new thing and 

 those who had the pleasure of attending the 

 International Esperanto Congress in Wash- 

 ington during the week of August 14—20, 

 1910, have experienced a new and pleasant 

 sensation. They have seen a gathering, inter- 

 national in scope, entirely free from the ob- 

 jectionable features enumerated; a gathering 

 of persons from many nations, as diverse as 

 possible in their national characteristics and 

 tongues, but alike in the one respect, that 

 they spoke the artificial auxiliary language, 

 Esperanto, and consequently had a common 

 medium by means of which to exchange ideas 

 when they met, either socially or in conven- 

 tion assembled. The international character 

 of the congress can not be questioned, there 

 having been noted by the writer persons from 

 not less than twenty-three different nations 

 and countries — their varying natural lan- 

 guages numbering eleven. In addition, many 

 widely-separated parts of the world not in- 

 cluded in this enumeration, because peopled 

 or controlled by the same race, were in evi- 

 dence; as, for example, India, Malta and Ire- 

 land, whose delegates were Englishmen. 

 Other countries still were represented by men 

 of an alien race; as, Italy by a Frenchman 

 and Peru by an American. The nation with- 

 out a country also sent its salutations by a 

 Yiddish-speaking member of the Hebrew race. 



With most of these persons I had the pleas- 

 ure of conversing in Esperanto, though often 

 absolutely ignorant of their language; as, for 

 examples, Russian, Spanish or Croatian. One 

 very pleasant social evening was spent in the 

 company of a small party, which included, 

 besides English and Americans, a Spaniard, 

 a Russian, several Frenchmen, a Pole, a Ger- 

 man, a Mexican and a Portuguese. None of 

 these gentlemen knew all the languages repre- 

 sented and some knew only their own, yet 

 they conversed together easily and freely. 

 The experience of participating in such cos- 

 mopolitan gatherings as this, and still being 



able to comprehend and to be comprehended 

 at all times, was not only novel but extremely 

 pleasant. The thoughts and emotions of 

 these men of other climes and tongues, which 

 had been before as a sealed book, were at last 

 approachable at first hand, and my mental 

 horizon seemed to broaden and the way to a 

 new world-view lay invitingly open before me. 



Besides representatives of Esperanto so- 

 cieties all over the world, there were ac- 

 credited to the congress, officially, delegates 

 from twelve governments and governmental 

 departments, including besides European and 

 American countries, Persia, China and Ja- 

 pan. In addition, four states of the union 

 sent official delegates and the United States 

 government was also represented by officials 

 of the navy, war and interior departments. 

 All of these representatives who addressed the 

 congress (and most of them did so) spoke in 

 Esperanto except in a very few instances, 

 notably in the case of the Chinese delegate, 

 who used his native tongue. These few ad- 

 dresses were the only ones requiring trans- 

 lation to be universally understood, and even 

 then, only one translation — into Esperanto — 

 was necessary. 



The entire official business of the congress 

 was conducted in the international language 

 and no translations or explanations, other than 

 those noted above, were' required, nor will any 

 Esperantist delegate need to await publication 

 in his own tongTie in order to know what took 

 place. The usual sectional meetings inci- 

 dental to such general conventions were held 

 during the week, and the special interests of 

 jurists, physicians, journalists, teachers, 

 pacifists, engineers, physicists and many 

 others, were considered in the common tongue 

 — this fact assisting in making the meetings 

 more enjoyable, and it is to be hoped, more 

 fruitful, as it permitted a freer and fuller 

 comprehension and discussion of the subjects 

 presented, than was possible under the old 

 methods. 



This congress can safely be said to be the 

 first international one ever held in America 

 at which such things were possible, and it is 

 an object lesson in the feasibility, the value 



