HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS SECOND SESSION
H. RES. 415 A RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE STUDY OF ESPERANTO AS AN AUXILIARY LANGUAGE
HON. RICHARD BARTHOLDT A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1914
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS.
WILLIAM W. RUCKER, Missouri. JAMES F. BURKE, Pennsylvania. ROBERT L. DOUGHTON, North Carolina. CALEB POWERS, Kentucky. JOHN W. ABERCROMBIE, Alabama. HORACE M. TOWNER, Iowa. J. THOMPSON BAKER, New Jersey. EDMUND PLATT, New York. JOHN R. CLANCY, New York. ALLEN T. TREADWAY, Massachusetts. THOMAS C. THACHER, Massachusetts. SIMEON D. FESS, Ohio. STEPHEN A. HOXWORTH, Illinois. ARTHUR R. RUPLEY, Pennsylvania.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, Tuesday, March 17, 1914
The committee this day met, Hon. Dudley M. Hughes (chairman) presiding.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BARTHOLDT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
Mr. BARTHOLDT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I do not wish to occupy your time, for the reason that I can be here almost any time, while Prof. Christen has made a special trip from New York for this purpose, and I should like to give him all the time you can afford to devote to this bill.
I merely wish to say, in explanation, that I have not, as you will notice, introduced this bill by request; I have assumed responsibility for it personally because I thoroughly believe in it. I first introduced the bill in the shape of a request to the Committee on Education to investigate the subject; that is, as to the practicability and advisability of introducing Esperanto as an auxiliary language in the public schools. That resolution was referred to the Committee on Rules and, of course, I could not get any action in that committee, and for that reason I introduced the bill in its present form, which merely provides that Esperanto be taught as a part of the course of study in the schools of Washington, this being the only jurisdiction we have in the matter of education.
We Americans are known the world over as being deficient in the knowledge of languages. I think we might as well admit that. While every other nation is teaching two or three languages in its schools we have failed to do so, and yet the requirements of international trade and commerce make it absolutely essential that our young men should be taught at least one language or two languages besides their own. Now, this being the case and Esperanto now being taken up by nearly all the civilized countries as an auxiliary language, how easy it would be for us, instead of compelling our children in the schools to learn Spanish, French, and German, to simply take one lesson a week in Esperanto and thereby enable this nation to correspond and communicate in a common language with all the other nations of the world.