Prof.  Christen.  Yes:  but it does not begin to compare with Esperanto.  Now, we have had these four words, and I want to proceed a little further, and I will take up something that will help me to answer your questions.  If I had to teach you gentlemen French I would have to make you commit to memory 2,667 endings and contractions for the verb alone; it would take you months and months to learn that alone.  The same absurdities and even worse occur in Italian, in Spanish, in German, in English, and in all so-called natural languages.

Mr. Towner.  And we never could learn these irregularities and exceptions.

Prof.  Christen.  Well, if you did learn them you would never remember them at the right time because the whole scheme is so complicated.  This is only one of the many reasons which make us so shy at speaking foreign languages.  Now, the same thing is true of German, and of all other languages, but it is not true of Esperanto.  I will teach you the whole Esperanto conjugation in five minutes and you will never forget it, because there is nothing to remember.  You already know that a noun ends in “o” and that the infinitive ends in “i,” and so on:  there is absolutely no difficulty whatever. (9) Now, I am sorry I have to speak so rapidly, because I would like to give you more information.

The chairman.  We would be glad to have you add to your remarks.

Mr. Towner.  You can extend your remarks.

Prof.  Christen.  Since my time is up and, indeed, far exceeded, I will be very glad to do so.  But before I leave you, let me read one or two items, which will only take two minutes more.  Here is a quotation from the British Esperantist, of November, 1913, showing the progress Esperanto is making: 

The central Esperanto bureau, of Paris, gives the following statistics:  In 1889, there had been published 29 books in Esperanto; in 1899, 128; in 1910, 1,554; in 1912 (to August 30), 1,837.  Enough already to keep most readers going for full five years of Sundays, and the output, both of bookshop and of press, is increasing daily.

Mr. Towner.  In a general way, what is the character of this literature?

Prof.  Christen.  Up to now chiefly textbooks for learning Esperanto, such as this little book [indicating], which can be purchased for 10 cents.  You can learn the whole mechanism of the language from one of these little books.  Then there are a great many other publications, translations, scientific articles, etc., and we have already several novels originally written in the new language.

Mrs. Crafts.  May I say a word right here?  I hold in my hand the New Testament, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society together with the Scotch Bible Society.  It is a translation from Nestle’s Greek Testament, and the Old Testament is now being translated by one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars in the world.