II

THE QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE—ECONOMIC
ADVANTAGE OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

As stated above, the question of principle will be treated here from
a purely economical point of view, since practical value, measured
by saving of time, money, and effort, must be the ultimate criterion
by which the success or failure of so far-reaching a reform as the
introduction of an international, auxiliary language will be decided.
The bearing of such a reform upon education, culture, race supremacy,
etc., is not without importance; but the discussion of these points must
be postponed as subsidiary.

Reduced to its simplest form, the economical argument is this:

(1) The volume of international intercourse is great and increasing.

(2) This intercourse is at present carried on in many different
languages of varying degrees of difficulty, but all relatively hard of
acquisition for those who do not know them as a mother-tongue. This is
uneconomical.

(3) It is economically sounder to carry on international intercourse in
one easy language than in a large number of hard ones.

(4) Therefore in principle an easy international language is desirable.

Let us glance at these four points a little more in detail.