Show LINGUAL acquirements ACQUIRE MENTS IN TRADE knon of Langu languages aces needed in commeree the alk germao german merchant every large town in the midland region of amer amarii in truth every large town throughout the entire country liaa a greater or k less ks s percentage of german citizens varying from 10 to 40 per cent 9 and in many cities tile the school commissioners have made a concession to the german elen element tent by including the german lan language guage among amons ti aba le branches taught in the public schools by this course tile the fact ila has been ix en established that not only the children of german parents have derived a benefit but that the itu studious dious boys and gills of other nationalities have profited by chii opportunity for acquiring german experience has shown eliat twofold acquisition of language by practical use is ia of very decided utility to the children who embrace it and the latter make much more rapid progress than such i is as are taught by means of one language an exclusively in hi many countries they they would esteem L themselves hem selves peculiarly fortunate in possessing g buch an advantage that ii to say a majority in of the pupils I 1 bringing with the them in int into 0 the school at least a superficial know knowledge ledge of two languages such in an opportunity unity would be sedulously cultivated just jus st as the french has been cultivated in the french and wallon provinces for fully years jeara not so however in incur our o own on n country here the german tongue has had to contend con constantly against prejudice or direct hostility it if 0 one n 0 t takes al c es into consideration ai t n tho fact that a considerable proportion ti of the boys instructed in tile the two tongues later in life enter commercial vocations this aversion to german will lo be re regarded added as unwise and suicidal the german language is tho the second most widely spoken on tile face of the globe and a man who understands it well together with the english can today engage in business as a commercial traveler in any country that is not european the trade for example of mexico and central america is in the hands of german firms whose in members embers were educated from their boyhood for I 1 heir feitli future re profession by being compel compelled compello lp d to acquire spanish sli at the same time with will their mother ton tongue theand and ofton english and french besides if an all american commercial traveler should enter into conversation with such buch a merchant me in guatemala or san sail salvador in his mother ton tongue guc a lond bond of fellowship is at once est which is very likely to bear fruits A nation that in our day wishes to enjoy consideration in the markets of tho the world must possess polyglot acquire ments for this reison reason germans succeed in all parts of the tha world whilst en englishmen or frenchmen are complaining of stagnation in ill business the german imperial government encourages these efforts in all directions and last winter tho permanent establishment of an oriental department in the berlin university was decided upon not less as a measure for the promotion of commerce than as a facility for learned investigation investigation vesti gation tile tiie german trades organ export thus expresses itself upon this subject today it is i no longer sufficient to understand english and french tho the period in chich w kiich the german merchant supposed lie had acquired a knowledge sufficient of foreign languages in possessing these two is long past at present a large large and active commerce throughout bout the whole 0 globe lobe has been established the long locked up countries of africa have been thrown open to the world asia is everywhere accessible now for the fai faist st time our minds fully realize how numerous is mankind how bow multiform are nations and how many tongued likewise even in india whose sovereignty resides in tile the hands of great bri britain tain there is if only a very small raino minority rity that can speak moio than a word or two of english the merchant of modern tines times must to be successful understand aca eign tongues the moro more tho the bettor better and the school authorities instead of acting as tho the dog in the manger should afford to tho the rising generation every opportunity to acquire them especially where this can be done at the expenditure of so little time and cost as is attached atta clied to tho acquisition of german in mot of our cities by abo system indicated translated for public opinion from the baltimore correspondent |