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ing of Spanish. The summer courses and extension courses of the universities are being thronged with teachers seeking work in the Spanish language and literature. Courses in phonetics, in methods and material for teaching Spanish are gradually worked out and offered. The Southwest and the Far West are producing those who have an actual acquaintance with the living language and these people are seeking training in methods of teaching. Numerous publishers are busily engaged in supplying any shortage that may exist at present in the way of suitable textbooks. And everywhere enthusiasm for Spanish on the part of those who teach it and those who study it is surprisingly strong.

Let us delineate briefly some of the aims which our Association should strive to accomplish.

First, we should aim at a more thorough preparation of the high school teacher of Spanish. Too few of them have encompassed more than an elementary study of the language. In many cases only a year or two of study of it in college has been had, whereas most of the teachers of French or German began the study of the foregin language in the high school and continued that study throughout their undergraduate course and then did a year or more of graduate work in the language. There should be available to these teachers in every college and university advanced courses in the language and literature of Spain and Spanish America. Our Association surely can take steps to urge and encourage the establishing of such courses in the higher institutions. Again, too few of these instructors have had the benefit of experience in Spain or Spanishspeaking countries. They should be encouraged to spend their summers in Porto Rico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico or Panama, if they cannot get to Spain or the more distant countries of Spanish America. Residence for at least a short time in a Spanish land is almost a sine qua non for the Spanish teacher. Perhaps some day our Association may help to effect a plan for the interchange of teachers with Spanish-American lands or with Spain. Again, there is practically no body of methodology suited particularly to the needs of the teacher of Spanish. It is hoped that

Hispania, the first journal published in this country particularly to aid the Spanish teacher, will meet this need.

Second, we should aid teachers of Spanish and educators in general to make a clear-cut evaluation of the worth of Spanish studies. There are at least four values that the study of Spanish offers and the teacher of the language should inform himself thoroughly about those values. The first is the commercial or practical value that Spanish has for the North American. No language from a purely business point of view is so useful today to North Americans as Spanish. This claim probably needs no elucidation, so self-evident is it. The second value resides in the disciplinary training it provides. Spanish, especially for the student who approaches foreign language study for the first time through that language, provides excellent material for the development of brain loops. Irregular verbs, an exceedingly rich vocabulary, peculiarly complicated verb idioms, unusually extensive use of the subjunctive, abundant aphorisms and elliptical expressions, very puzzling forms and uses of object pronouns-all these make Spanish worthy of the best mental effort. The third value of Spanish is that, contrary to the common and uninformed opinion of most North Americans, even of those in educational circles, there is embodied in the Castilian tongue one of the richest literatures of the world. Take the ballad: the old romances are a mine of popular poetry unquestionably superior to the ballad literature of any other nation. Or take the novel: the novel of adventure, la novela picaresca, was brought to its greatest perfection in Spain and culminated in that world masterpiece, the Quijote. The modern novel of Spain is almost sin par. As our own incomparable novelist and critic. William Dean Howells says: "Take the instance of another solidified nationality [having previously mentioned the Germans], take the Spanish, and you have first-class modern fiction, easily surpassing the fiction of any other people of our time, now the Russians have ceased to lead." (Harper's Monthly, November, 1915).

What of Pereda, Alarcón, Valdés, Galdós, Valera, Azorín, Blasco Ibáñez and numerous others? What nation can excel their work of the last seventy-five years? Or take the drama. That of Spain is rightly called one of the three great national dramas of

the world. From Lope to Echegaray and from Echegaray to Benavente, Martinez Sierra and Marquina the list is unsurpassable. Who writing drama this day even can approximate the wonderful work of Jacinto Benavente? More of the glories of Spanish literature could be added. Why, then is asked, if Spanish literature is so excellent, do we not hear more about it in the schools of our land? The answer is: because of tradition plus sheer neglect. Tradition says that only the literature of central Europe and of England is of value. The literary ideals of Germany, England and France have dominated us. Those of Spain have been neglected-probably because so few North Americans could read Spanish well enough to appreciate the literature it embodies.

The fourth and greatest reason for the study of Spanish in North America is that, as suggested in the early part of this article, a knowledge of that language among North Americans will do more than any other one thing to promote international amity in the Western Hemisphere. To secure to all Americans of all the Americas that liberty of thought and action so desired by all, to make possible at the same time that unison of effort and that shoulderto-shoulder effectiveness which will make for democratic solidarity in the Americas, the two great national languages of the New World, English and Spanish, must be fostered in Spanish America and Anglo-Saxon America respectively. In this way much can be done to ward off the possibility of our hemisphere becoming some day the shambles that the Old World is now.

These, then, are the reasons for the "faith that is within us." For these things we must strive. Realization of our hopes for better prepared teachers of Spanish and a proper evaluation and defense of the study of Spanish are surely worthy objects to strive for. But we can realize none of these things as scattered individuals. Therefore, on the threshold of new things our watchwords should be: TODOS A UNA and A DIOS ROGANDO Y CON EL MAZO DANDO.

New York. N. Y.

LAWRENCE A. WILKINS

THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF

THE TEACHER OF SPANISH

A number of causes are working directly and indirectly in producing the unprecedented demand for Spanish in the schools and colleges throughout the country. Among these causes may be mentioned: the propaganda of the American Association for International Conciliation (with its splendid Pan-American Division); the All-Americas Association (with its important Trade Journal); the Pan-American Union (whose great value our public is only beginning to appreciate); the recent Mexican affair (with its A. B. C. arbitration and its subsequent Commission); the discussion in public of the various shipping bills (which are aimed primarily at Pan-American trade); the new venture of the National City Bank of New York (which in the past three years has already established nine branches, to say nothing of subbranches, in Latin-American countries, and which is annually preparing a goodly group of promising young collegians for work in that field); the visit of a delegation of university men. to the principal countries of South America in 1914 under the auspices of the aforesaid American Association for International Conciliation (which delegates have since been lecturing all over the country on Latin-American relations or writing books and articles on related subjects); the presence at Washington during the holidays of 1915-16 of the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress; the presence in this country of many representative Latin-Americans during the whole period of the San Francisco Exposition (many of whom remained among us during the year 1916); the further fact that many of these same delegates made long tours individually for lecture purposes throughout the central and southern states; and as a result of our own recent entry into the war, the intensified interest in the spiritual and political. ideals of the twenty other sovereign states in the western hemisphere, in eighteen of which Spanish is the official language.

Our people are gradually coming to realize that President Butler of Columbia University was right when he said recently.

that in view of our international duties and privileges every American citizen ought to learn Spanish as his second language. If the present writer should make this statement in his own name he would instantly be accused of presenting a pro domo argument; but that charge cannot be laid at the door of Dr. Butler, who as president of a great university is not supposed to have any linguistic prejudice and who by reason of his training in the older linguistic school (Latin, Greek, French and German) would, if he had any prejudice at all, lean rather toward some language other than Spanish. As a matter of fact, in admitting that President Butler is right in the aforesaid statement, the present writer is contradicting some things that he himself has printed on former occasions, but this is not the time for him to enter upon either a justification or an explanation of his change. of opinion.

It is to be hoped that young America, in turning to the study of Spanish, will not limit her interests to the merely commercial aspect of our international relations. The Hispanic American. likes to be treated as a man, not merely as a business man. He likes to be understood morally, intellectually, socially, as well as commercially, and he likes to have people know that he has antecedents and forebears, and is not like Topsy who "never did. have no father and mother but jus' grew." In other words, he likes to have others acquainted with the history of his own country, with its literature, art, institutions, and general culture, and with that of the mother-land; Spain or Portugal as the case may be.

But this increasing opportunity for informing our compatriots concerning the language, literature, life and ideals of our southern neighbors and of their ancestors brings with it enormous sponsibilities.

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In the first place we must be on our guard against losing judgment under the stress of this new demand for the language of our predilection. We ought never to descend to the position of mere propagandists and act as though we considered our own language specialty to be the only subject that should occupy the student's attention. A concrete example will show best what I mean. During the registration period at this University, one of the advisers, a member of the department to which I belong, was being consulted by a student who wished to take the language

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