Steche's notions of peacemaking accorded in some sense with the tradi- tion of Esperanto, specifically Zamenhof's proposition that the practice of a neutral language helps to reduce conflicts. But Zamenhof's think- ing was always focused on the elimination of national antagonisms through Esperanto; he barely addressed the social roots of interethnic animosity. In any event, in the postwar situation, in the midst of infla- tion and unemployment, it was mere illusion to indulge in generalities about Esperanto's potential to overcome disharmony among the classes. Not surprisingly, Steche's theories on neutralizing class conflicts through Esperanto were condemned by worker Esperantists as capitalist snares. For them, the idealism of people like Privat, here discussing 'Esperantism', was an anachronism:
Esperantism is the least 'bourgeois' movement of all, yet it stands above and beyond all human conflicts, either ethnic or class-based.[216]
Now it was the worker Esperantists who saw themselves as the true guard- ians of the Esperanto tradition: using Esperanto to advance socialism, they claimed, put them on the right path:
What does 'socialism' mean? If we wanted to replace the word 'socialism' with some other term, we could best do so with a term like human libera- tion, human happiness. But isn't the idea of human happiness the very foundation of Esperanto? We didn't add that idea to Esperanto; we found it there. And it was put there ... by Zamenhof himself.[217]
For his part, Steche regretfully noted the 'unhappy situation' in which the lower strata of society enthused over the 'new Latin of democracy' while 'the more literate levels, educated and integrated into the worldview of the old Latin, fail to meet expectations now, when they ought to be taking the lead'.[218]
Matters developed differently than Steche imagined; inevitably the Esperanto movement, like everything else, reflected the social conflicts and political tensions characteristic of the 1920s; nor was that entirely Esperanto's loss. The separate path followed by the worker Esperantists increased their chances of injecting the language into the ranks of the workers' movement, while leaving a broad field in which the neutral movement could gather recruits from other social strata. Thus both could co-exist, particularly in the democratic states.
Indeed, in the years following the war, in many countries of Europe, in the USA, in Brazil, in Japan, and in various other places across the world, the ground was favorable for Esperanto. Most often, the study and use of Esperanto was an entirely private affair, pursued by people who, curi- ous about the world, aimed to overcome linguistic and national boundar- ies as rapidly as possible. In most countries with Esperanto organizations, their activities developed freely and without direct hindrance. Nor did they lack official support. In Germany, for example, the 'Esperanto Institute for the German Reich' received regular state funding; educational authorities declared their sympathetic support and permitted the teaching of Esperanto in schools outside the official instructional program. And all this came about, in the judgment of the Esperantists at the time 'from strong pressure from below, from circles of people who valued international relations, but had not themselves experienced foreign language instruction in school'.[219]
A method for teaching Esperanto rapidly and without a textbook, also for less educated people, was developed by Andras Cseh, a Catholic priest from Romania of Hungarian extraction. The courses taught by him all across Europe, in which the language was presented as an entertain- ing game, soon found many imitators. Elements of the so-called direct method also found their way into traditional instruction. In the inter-war years, thousands of people could thank Andras Cseh, his charm and his skillful teaching, for their knowledge of Esperanto.
Those who had learned the language practiced it in various ways, pre- dominantly for correspondence and for travel. Among the most interesting results of such connections were international marriages, in which Esperanto served as 'edzperanto' (spouse-purveyor) and from which 'denaskaj espe- rantistoj' (Esperantists from birth, i.e. native speakers) were produced. For the active Esperantist, the culmination of the Esperanto year was the World Congress, in which on average some 1500 or 2000 people participated. In addition, almost every year an international conference dedicated to the practical application of Esperanto was organized, attended by represen- tatives of governments, chambers of commerce, trade fairs and financial organizations. Conference topics included the use of Esperanto in busi- ness, broadcasting, science and tourism. Also particularly notable was the conference on 'Peace through the School' convened in Prague over Easter 1927 by the Geneva-based International Bureau of Education. Almost 500 delegates from 19 countries participated, accepting recommendations for pupil exchange and for the removal of chauvinistic elements in textbooks; Esperanto was used as the sole language of translation.
The number and quality of original literaryworks in Esperanto increased. Schools of writers began to emerge, the most famous being the Budapest school. Following the founding of the journal Literatura Mondo (1922) the Hungarian capital became a center of Esperanto culture. It was also the home of the most popular Esperanto writer Julio (Gyula) Baghy, a former actor, who, on the basis of his experiences as a prisoner of war in Siberia, found his voice in Esperanto. In numerous short stories and poems he described his philosophy of love, peace and humanity. His works, optimis- tic, highly idealistic, often coming across as sentimentally nai've, infused the ideals that underlay Esperanto with an emotional force that strongly appealed to the Esperantists. Baghy, nicknamed 'Pacjo' ('Papa'), expressed feelings that were dear to Esperantists from the beginning and also typified the inclinations of the moderately progressive middle class in the period between the wars. Baghy's success was all the greater because of his passion- ate protests against social injustice and the barriers of nationhood, though he seldom showed his readers concrete ways of overcoming these evils. He avoided identifying himself with political and ideological positions, thereby helping the average apolitical Esperantists to identify themselves with his ideal of human brotherhood.[220]
Other literary works in Esperanto displayed a similar idealism—such as those of the German Teo Jung, whose principal contribution, however, was his founding in 1920 of the newspaper Esperanto Triumfonta (Esperanto on the path to victory).[221] Of the hundreds of Esperanto-language periodicals, this was the most frequently published, appearing weekly. The newspaper, as of 1925 renamed Heroldo de Esperanto (Esperanto Herald), provided its readers with arguments they could use in promoting Esperanto and printed frequent reports of successes in the movement as a way of reminding the Esperantists not to grow weary in their efforts on behalf of the language and to maintain faith in its final victory.
Harassment in the 1920s
Esperantists became the object of police surveillance in Germany because of their political activities. After the Reich government overthrew the labor government in Saxony and Reich troops occupied the region in October 1923, the Police Presidium in Leipzig established its own 'Esperanto- language office' to collect information on the activities of the German Workers' Esperanto Association. An internal report described this associa- tion as 'a factor to be taken seriously among political movements' because it explicitly declared its desire to use Esperanto merely as a means of bring- ing about the worldwide union of the proletariat.[222] The police noted that between January and October 1924 communist Esperantists in Leipzig had published 16 issues of the broadsheet newspaper Volkerspiegel, taking their material from Esperanto periodicals and the letters of comrades in other countries. But the police did nothing to stop it, even though it served as a kind of substitute for the banned Sachsische Arbeiterzeitung.;[223]