No. 1 surely needs no demonstration. Every year there is more
communication between men of different race and language. And it is not
business, in the narrow sense of the term, that is exclusively or even
chiefly affected by diversity of language. Besides the enormous bulk
of pleasure travel, international congresses are growing in number and
importance; municipal fraternization is the latest fashion, and many
a worthy alderman, touring at the ratepayers' expense, must wish that
he had some German in Berlin, or a little Italian in Milan. Indeed, it
is at these points of international contact that language is a real
bar, actually preventing much intercourse that would otherwise have
taken place, rather than in business, which is organized in view of the
difficulty. Then there is the whole realm of scientific and learned
literature—work of which the accessibility to all concerned is of the
first importance, but is often hindered because a translation into one
language does not pay, or, if made, only reaches a limited public. Such
bars to freedom of interchange cannot be reckoned in money; but modern
economics recognizes the personal and social factor, and any obstacle to
research is certainly a public loss.

But important as are these various spheres of action, an even wider
international contact of thought and feeling is springing up in our
days. Democracy, science, and universal education are producing
everywhere similarity of institutions, of industry, of the whole
organization of life. Similarity of life will breed community of
interests, and from this arises real converse—more give and take in the
things that matter, less purely superficial dealings of the guide-book
or conversation-manual type.

(2) "Business," meaning commerce, in so far as it is international,
may at present be carried on mainly in half a dozen of the principal