Prof.  Christen.  That is the intention, to give the whole of the civilized world one and the same secondary language.

The chairman.  In which they can all meet on a common plane?

Prof.  Christen.  Yes; no matter where you may go, if you know Esperanto, you shall not be a foreigner anywhere.  The intention is to do away with this terrible handicap of being unable to converse with your fellow men of the various countries you may visit unless you learn all or most of those languages, a thing which, as you know, is in most cases quite impossible.  It is the intention to have all the nations understand Esperanto, and by that means make it possible for all the peoples of the world to commune directly with each other.  The time has come in the world’s history when a common vehicle of human expression is absolutely necessary, and the barrier of Babel must fall, as mostly all other obstacles to free intercourse have already fallen, before the triumphant advance of modern science and technology.  It is positively fatuous and futile to ask the modern man, be he in commerce or science or what not, to become an expert in his particular line of endeavor and a polyglot besides.  It can not be done.  Languages are too many and each one too complicated for our crowded curricula.  The obligatory study of foreign languages belongs to a remote past when there existed no sciences and no industrial arts, when life was less crowded and when there were fewer world languages.  Even less than a hundred years ago a man was an accomplished cosmopolitan if he knew French and his own mother tongue.  To-day he wants and ought to be conversant with French, German, and Spanish, at the very least, besides English, and before long he will have to tackle Russian and Japanese.  As a matter of fact in some of the European countries and in South America the school children actually spend from 35 to 60 per cent of the school time in acquiring that sort of an education, which is really not education at all but only a means to an end.

The chairman.  What progress has Esperanto made in the United States?

Prof.  Christen.  In this matter the United States is behind all other progressive countries.  There have been many sporadic efforts made and there are Esperanto groups in different places from New York and Boston to Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, etc., but as a national movement it is not what it should be, and the difficulty is, to far as I can make it out, the enormous size of the country.  It is difficult for a society, without very large funds, to carry on an effective propaganda all over the country.