languages of Western Europe. Even so, their multiplicity is vexatious.
But outside the world of business other languages are entering the
field, and striving for equal rights. The tendency is all towards
self-assertion on the part of the nationalities that are beginning a
new era of national life and importance. The language difficulty in the
Austrian Empire reflects the growing self-consciousness of the Magyars.
Everywhere where young peoples are pushing their rights to take equal
rank among the nations of the world, the language question is put in
the forefront. The politicians of Ireland and Wales have realized the
importance of language in asserting nationality, but such engineered
language-agitation offers but a feeble reflex of the vitality of the
question in lands where the native language is as much in use for
all purposes as is English in England. These lands will fight harder
and harder against the claims to supremacy of a handful of Western
intruders. A famous foreign philologist,[1] in a report on the subject
presented to the Academy of Vienna, notes the increasing tendency of
Russian to take rank among the recognized languages for purposes of
polite learning. He is well placed to observe. With Russia knocking at
the door and Hungary waiting to storm the breach, what tongue may not
our descendants of the next century have to learn, under pain of losing
touch with important currents of thought? It is high time something
were done to standardize means of transmission. Owing to political
conditions, there are linguistically disintegrating forces at work,
which are at variance with the integrating forces of natural tendency.

[1]Prof. Shuchardt

From an economical point of view, a considerable amount of time, effort,
and money must be unreproductively invested in overcoming the "language
difficulty." In money alone the amount must run into thousands of