WAKING THE DEAD

Again a serious proposal is being made to undo the mischief of the tower of Babel and supply the world with a universal language. Dean West of the Princeton Graduate School is the sponsor of the new movement, suggesting simplified Latin as an auxiliary tongue to be used by "the statesman and the traveler, the scholar, the professional man and the business man."

At first the idea of Latin, even of "simplified Latin" as a common medium of expression, obtains none too sympathetic a reception. It is difficult for the average American to conceive of a person actually speaking Latin, even if that person were Macaulay's schoolboy himself and the language had all its gerundives and supines omitted. Professor West, however, approaches the problem from a new angle. He does not suggest Latin because of any inherent advantages, but arrives at his conclusion only after a careful examination has exposed the impossibility of using any other language either modern, or ancient, or artificial.

It is comforting to know that a serious attempt is being made to find a universal language. At last Eskimos and Ethiopians will be able to converse congenially; perhaps, in the twenty-first century, the debates of the League of Nations Assembly will no longer be mutilated by interpreters; and in later years the University's hoodoo, the language requirement will cease to haunt the undergraduates.

At first, however, "simplified Latin" is to serve merely as an auxiliary, as a stepping stone. Herein its advocates are wise. Today as yesterday the people are too busy to substitute a new language for every-day use. Tomorrow the case is apt to be the same. Not until the economists have taught the people a new relationship between the mark, the pound, the franc, and the dollar, will there be time to begin learning a common denominator for the un, deux, trois, the ein, zwei, drei, and the one, two, and three.