Then another difficulty is that Americans are not generally very much given to what I should call ethical ideas of this kind, that offer no immediate and sudden cash returns, until they really become a craze or until a certain class, perhaps, takes them up. (4) Let us not forget also that the American people are not so much in touch with the language difficulty as are other countries, and they do not yet appreciate the enormous use that Esperanto will be to them, for, in my opinion, no white people will benefit more from Esperanto than will the American people, chiefly because like all English-speaking nations they are very poor linguists.  Then it is becoming more and more acknowledged among educational people that the English language is the only language that can not be taught.  It is well known that if you put educated people from different countries together the Anglo-Saxon will invariably be the one who understands his own language least.  That is due to the peculiar construction of the English language.

However, Esperanto would not be difficult for the American people because it is so scientific, so logical, and entirely free of all irregularities.  Prof.  Mayer, of the University of Oxford, learned Esperanto in his seventy-ninth year.  I heard him make a speech in the language about six or seven days after he took it up, and he declared that Esperanto ought to be introduced into the educational system of the country.  He was professor of the Latin language at the Oxford University.  He declared Esperanto ought to be introduced into the schools, into the kindergartens, where children of 5 years of age should begin with Esperanto, and I hold with him, because if children were to learn Esperanto it would be of help to them in their English.  It is extremely easy to learn and can be learned in a very pleasant fashion, because it is so scientific and so simple. (5)

If children understood Esperanto, they would understand English better, and much of the time we waste in trying to teach them English would be profitably spent, for they would have something to go upon, something to compare English with, and that something so scientific and so logical as Esperanto.  Take, for instance, analysis.  I will not say it is difficult but I will say it is impossible to analyze an English word, because every word can be so many things.  It can generally be an adjective, a noun, a verb, a preposition, a conjunction, and an interjection, that is, the same word, without any structural change, so that it is difficult for a child to discriminate and label the word.  Take the word “benefited.”  That might be used in the past tense (I benefited), or as a past participle:  (We may have benefited), and it is impossible for a child to sense the difference, and such confusion occurs to a great extent with most words in the English language.