Esperanto and the Sciences

Some things never
change. That headline
could be current.

Virgil C. Dibble was not a scientist. When he wrote a letter to the magazine The Outlook, he was probably by the a salesman for a map publisher. He was, however, a fervent support of Esperanto, and so when the first Pan-American Scientific Congress took up the question of Esperanto, Dibble was not going to let the editor of The Outlook remain in the dark on this, especially as The Outlook had written about the congress.

The Outlook was, according to Wikipedia one of the leading news and opinion magazines of its day, beaten out (perhaps) only by The Independent and The Nation (of these three, only the Nation is still around). Dibble’s piece was not one of their bits of news and essays, but instead was in a section (at the back of the issue) under the heading of “Public Opinion,” appearing on the fourth and final full page of that section in the June 12, 1909 issue. It’s a letter to the editor. The only letter after that is on how English place and family names retain spellings that are no longer indicative of their pronunciation. After that it’s advertisements, with a charming advertisement for Porosknit summer underwear two pages later (a dollar for a summer-weight union suit). (Lest you think it’s all about forgotten products, the bottom of the page after Dibble’s letter contains advertisement for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and Borden’s evaporated milk).

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A Death at the Esperanto Congress

President Montt

At the end of July, 1910, it was announced that John Barrett, the director of the Bureau of American Republics (now the Organization of American States), and himself a prominent Esperantist,[1] announced a diplomatic reception to be held at the Peace Palace, the newly built headquarters of the Bureau of American Publics. As I noted, the reception didn’t happen. This is why.

On July 17, 1910, it was announced that Pedro Montt, the President of Chile, had died. President Montt was also an Esperanto speaker, and he had been promoting Esperanto in Chile. President Montt was not attending the Congress, and he was in Bremen, Germany when he died. He had just travelled there from the United States, but died of a heart attack shortly after arrival. However, as an expression of sympathy, the event was postponed and then cancelled, as a measure official mourning. Obviously, if you’re sincerely in mourning, you don’t hold a diplomatic event.

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