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WORLD LANGUAGE N OW POSSIBLE T HAS long been a dream of scholars and diplomats that if the world could have one language for the human race there would follow an opportunity for mutual understanding of the v a rious racial groups, a big factor in abolishing war. In fact, since work was stopped on the Tower of Babel be cause of the conflict of tongues, men have wanted to understand each other. So long as distances were great and the means of transportation and communi cation difficult it was not such a serious matter that these various racial groups should not come to know each other and to understand each other. The radio and the airplane have changed all that. N ow there must be a common denominator — one language common to all, in addition to the in dividual’s native language. The uni versal language must be English and this for many reasons. For one thing 200,000,000 people, or roughly one tenth of the world’s population, al ready speak it. Previous attempts to have artificial languages adopted have not succeeded. Such attempts included the following: Volapulc (1879), then Esperanto (1887), then Interlingua, Universala, Kosmos, Novilatin, R o, Ido, Occidental, and Basic English. Now at long last, thanks to the genius of Robert L. Owen, former U. S. Sen ator from Oklahoma, there has been worked out by him a Global Alphabet. This is a phonetic stenographic alpha bet of 33 letters, using letters having one immutable primary sound of the human voice, with no silent letter, and the forms simplified to the last degree humanly possible for perfect legibility and speed with writing with a pen. With this alphabet, the people of any language in the world can write their own language and print it stenographically. Only 1,200 words and their derivatives are necessary for day to day conversation. The difficulty with the alphabets which exist is their conflict with each other. They use the same letters with different meanings. The number of let ters employed in the languages of the fifty United Nations will average less than 33 letters. The number of letters which Moses used to write Genesis was 23 consonants and 10 diacritical marks, by which vowels might be inserted if the writer wished, or left out if he wished. In this record you will find that Rus sia uses 33 letters only. Russia has made the most tremendous advance in overcoming illiteracy since the R ev olution in 1917. That Revolution, ex plains Senator Owen, resulted in the adoption of a 33 letter alphabet which any Russian could learn to read in one day and by which an intensive educa I tional campaign was carried on in Rus sia, going from the kindergarten to the elementary and high schools, thence to the universities and the technological laboratories and to the factories deal ing with technological matters. “ What has taken place in Russia,” Senator Owen points put, “ has removed the deadly blight of illiteracy in Russia.” From the literacy of 9 per cent, they have now developed a literacy of over 90 per cent. This Global Alphabet of Senator Owen’s does not eliminate the learning in the libraries or the laboratories; but makes it accessible. The Russians are teaching the Eng lish language now as fast as they can, by publications of the Russian G ov ernment. The full details of Senator Owen’s Global Alphabet cannot be given within the brief compass of this article. The pamphlet entitled Global Alphabet contains 81 pages and merits the study ol thoughtful, peace-loving citizens. A copy of it may be obtained from R ob ert L. Owen, President, W orld Lan guage Foundation, 2400 Sixteenth Street, N. W ., Washington 9, D . C., or from the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The full title is: “ Global Alphabet, Hearing before the Committee on Foreign R ela tions, United States Senate, 79th Con gress, First Session, on M aking English a W orld Language, November 7, 1945. Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations.” S. W. M 3 '/ashincton, D C Septem er 18, 1 . ., b ? Universal RR Language Seen As War Result IN NORTH AFRICA—It appears that a universal railroad language may come from operations In the various war theatres, where lack of a uniform nomenclature frequently causes difficulty. For instance, the British call a ; freight car a "wagon.” The Ameri can car designed for carrying liquids is, of course, a tank car, but the Brit ish use the word “cistern” instead. Since the advent of the fighting tank the term tank car has often been confusing. A fighting tank is carried on a flat car known ps a war flat. The "brake van,” differs from any- j thing used on American roads, ; though it is being supplied now in | theatres of operations. North Afri- 1 can railroads employ hand brakes, not air brakes, and the brake vans, : in which a man sits in the cupola j and applies or releases the brakes, as the whistle is sounded by the engi neer, are spaced throughout the trains. Twenty American-built locomotives which hauled trainloads of ammuni tion and other supplies in France, during World War I are once more in military service under the Stars and Stripes, but this time in North Africa. They are of the “Pershing” type and were among a large num ber sold to France after the Armis tice. They have been in service on the French-owned Algerian and Morocca railroads. They were taken hold of by the Railway Shop Bat talions of the Transportation Corps and soon were about as serviceable as ever.
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