49 such prospective international gatherings and over one score of
exhibitions, fairs, and festivals of an international character.

What lamentable and foolish and provoking situation at such gatherings
is due to the multitude of tongues only those know who have wasted
time and money in attending them. Usually three or more languages are
officially accepted and most of the time is irretrievably lost in
misunderstandings and more or less inadequate translations.

Compare with this the nine yearly international Esperanto congresses
held at Boulogne, Geneva, Cambridge, Dresden, Barcelona, Washington,
Cracow, Antwerp, and Berne, at which from 800 to 1,500 delegates from
20 to 30 different countries spent a week in complete communion through
this wonderful language. Orations, discussions, sermons, concerts,
theatrical performances, and general fellowship among the members being
freely enjoyed by all, and often by individuals who had only had a few
weeks of acquaintance with the language.

An international language of some sort has become an absolute necessity
of our new era of universal solidarity.

A hopeful sign of progress is that many international organizations have
already declared in favor of Esperanto for their future meetings.

(2) The impossibility of ever making any national language international
will at once become clear if we imagine the whole youth of the United
States condemned to become proficient in French or Spanish or German.
Say we take the easiest of them, Spanish: does anyone dream the thing
possible? Only an infinitesimal fraction of our young people could
attain even a smattering, and that at the cost of from two to three