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Show English Will Be World Language By LLOYD ALLEN. (Western Newspaper Union Staff Correspondent.) Cor-respondent.) Paris. It's beginning to look as if English will be the world language of the future with French as a close second choice and with German running run-ning a poor third. This discussion of a "world language" lan-guage" which is occupying considerable consider-able ' attention around Paris, reveals among other things a strange chapter of German duplicity and trickery. It ' now seems certain that the Germans, knowing the German language was inadequate in-adequate as a world tongue, tried their best to' get the world to think favorably favora-bly of certain "cooked-up" languages made to order things as It were, in order or-der to prevent French or English from being . considered as the legitimate wTorld languages. These artificial tongues, such as Esperanto, Es-peranto, which -was probably the best known to them, in America at least, were fairly numerous and each one was given some sort of an odd name. They were called Esperanto, Ido, Novo-Lntin Novo-Lntin and several other 'queer-sounding names. Naturally enough there were a few people in nearly every country that took up these tongues 'and learned learn-ed them. ' But at best the languages were, and are fads, and are unequal to the great task assigned them the fask of becoming a world tongue. Paul Mieille, a French scholar, a college col-lege professor who holds the chair of English at the Lycee and who is a well-known well-known promoter of international education, edu-cation, is authority for the foregoing remarks nnent ' Esperanto and German. Ger-man. His brochure on the suB-ject suB-ject of a, world language has attracted considerable attention in France and England recently. While some political economists are talking about the establishment of an international currency that will be worth its face value all over the world, and while others are talking of a kind of International government that will prevent future wars, of international control of the drug traffic, and several more "internationalized" subjects, including in-cluding international welfare, the Frenchmen of learning are discussing the international innguage of the future. fu-ture. And they admit, modestly enough, that English will probably be the favorite as a world tongue, because be-cause English first of all Is the best known and most widely spoken language lan-guage of business and mercantile transactions tran-sactions in the world today. Acknowledging that English is bound to be the favorite the French professors profes-sors claim their own language will naturally nat-urally take second 'place in preference to German. Possibly the Germans some years ago foesaw the coming popularity of English and French rind the consequent shoving of the German language into third place, in the race, because it was before the war even that the "kultur crusade" for popularizing Esperanto and Ido and the other artificial languages lan-guages started, according to Mieille. Briefly, it Is Mieille's idea and the opinion of other noted French and English scholars that the world needs two languages for its future welfare English and French. While there was a lot of speculation some years ago about finding a universal univer-sal tongue, such as Esperanto, we had as living languages in this world of ours the two tongues that completely filled all requirements. There was really real-ly no need for Inventing a new language. lan-guage. . There has been . a kind of official adoption of the idea that English and French shali be the world languages of the future in the fact that proceedings at the peace conference have been conducted con-ducted in these two languages. The procedure has been cumbersome, It is true, but it has been possible for practically prac-tically all of the delegates to understand under-stand everything that takes place in the way of speech making. The French clique of educators promoting pro-moting tile plan of making English j and French the common international j tongues want the peace conference, or the league of nations, to perpetuate j the procedure of the peace conference j and make both tongues the official languages lan-guages for conducting (he business of the league of nations. ' Semiofficial communications have 'been addressed to the various govern-! govern-! inents that were lined up against C.er-J C.er-J many, and to many officials of all these I govei'nim nts recommending the plan. I Xunioi":s senators and depulies have gone? on record as favoring the scheme. |