Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1888 — The English Speech Spreading. [ARTICLE]

The English Speech Spreading.

A universal language must be a growth. Some national language must expand until it covers the whole world. Of late years the English language alone has been much spoken of as likely to grow so great. Hardly any philosophic linguist attempts to forecast the future without some discussion of the destiny of English; and De Candolle calculates that within a hundred years English will be spoken by 860,000,000 of men, German by 124,000,000, and French by 96,000,000. At present the populations either speaking the English language or under the domination of English-speak-ing people number more than 318,298,000, or one-fourth of the population of the globe. The English-speaking races occupy one-fourth of the dry land of the earth and own nearly two-thirds of the tonnage of the ships. They live in all regions; they handle all articles of trade; they preach to all nations; they command one-half of the world’s gold and silver, and distribute more than two-thirds of the Bibles and Testaments. More than half of the letters mailed and carried by the postal service of the world are written, mailed and read by the English-speaking populations. The expectation that English ■will come into universal use is not based upon anything in the nature of the language, but rather on the character and circumstances of the people. The English people have been the great colonizers of modem times, They have taken possession of America, of Australia, of South Africa, the regions which are to be the seats of new empires, and they control and assimilate the populations which flow into them and which grow up in them— The Forum.