What are these historical-cultural factors which cause us, first, to form our own literary language, and, second, to select the central dialect area? Here they are. We have seen how national interests are closely bound to language, and the latter with the national character and spirit. We see now that three varieties of national and religious propaganda are contesting with each other in our fatherland, and that all are fighting together against us and our interests, hoping to deal them the fatal blow and to subjugate them, undertaking among us, with this aim, religious and educational activity, hoping to deal this fatal blow to our nationality with their own arm, through the church and school, and to force upon us their own language in place of ours. National interests force us to defend them, to defend our language from the political action of the Balkan states. This defense will be successful and will upset all p1 arts of the propagandizers only if it is united and common. And in order for it to be such, there must be general agreement in choosing one dialect as a common Macedonian literary language. There will be agreement, it seems to me, only if each of us makes this selection not out of some esthetic conceptions and not for purely local reasons but from the viewpoint of common interests. The latter suggest that the peripheral dialects give way to the central ones. Just as a state has a state center, which is best located in the center of the state and where all the reins of state life are held, in the same way language areas of related dialects should have a center, which by its very meaning should relate to the peripheral dialects and idioms in the way that the center and capital of the state relate to the extreme districts and areas. All of our scholarly and literary forces should be grouped about the central dialect in order to purify it and enrich it with the treasures of other Macedonian dialects and to create of it a beautiful literary language. It should become the vehicle of a rich pedagogical scholarly and belletristic literature, so that it can spread throughout all of Macedonia as a literary language which will replace all the languages of propaganda. And along with this replacement of the languages of propaganda and the creation of our literary language, we will drive out from Macedonia the interests of the small Balkan nations and in their place will rule Macedonian interests, expressed in the Macedonian language. And thus the usefulness of our common literary language serves us as a measure in the choosing of a dialect for this purpose, and this is the main factor in the creation of our new literary language. In the process of raising one dialect to the level of a literary language, its esthetic properties have never played an important role. One reason for this is that practical considerations take precedence over esthetic ones, and another reason is that the latter are relative and for the most part subjective. For such a reason one finds more beautiful almost exclusively only those dialects and local idioms which he hears or has heard frequently. Therefore it is not possible even to speak of esthetic qualities in language, dialects and local idioms. Thus means that a Macedonian from eastern, or northern, or southern, or western Macedonia has no right to object to the selection of the central Macedonian dialect as a literary language only because it does not seem beautiful to him. He has no right to protest against the central dialect for the additional reason that it is central and because the selection is made for practical considerations. Now let us see how the selection of the central dialect is justified from the practical point of view. Bitola has been chosen as the residence of the Inspector General of Macedonia and his advisors - civil agents. It is becoming the capital of Macedonia. This new capital is not far from the old ones, Prespa and Prilep, and from the seat of the until recently autocephalous Ohrid Archbishopric. This means that the central dialect area has behind it, so to say, his torical rights. The latter are based on this central position, which is geographic as well as ethnographic. The central city in Macedonia is Veles. We need only remove ourselves slightly from this geographic center, through Prilep in the direction of Bitola and Ohrid. Such a direction of movement away from the geographic center is explained on the one hand by the fact that these areas are of greater historical significance for Macedonia and on the other hand by the fact that they are further removed from the Serbian and Bulgarian linguistic centers, making up a Macedonian linguistic center. And in truth the dialect of Veles-Prilep-Bitola-Ohrid is the nucleus of the Macedonian language, since to its west is the Debar dialect (roka), to the south, the dialect of Kostur (ronka), to the east, the eastern or Solun (Salonika) dialect (r'ka) and to the north the Skopje or northern dialect (ruka). The creation of a literary language is for us a spiritual need, by which it is thought that an end will be brought to the abuses of the political action of the Balkan states, in our own interests, and by which our own literary and scholarly center should be created, so that there will be no need for Belgrade and Sofia. And this difficult task will be accomplished only if the Macedonian from northern Macedonia gives his hand to his brother from southern Macedonia, and the Macedonian from eastern Macedonia gives his hand to one from the west. These joined hands will meet around Prilep-Bitola. And so: the movement by the Macedonians to create their own cultural center, the fact that Bitola is the capital of Macedonia, the fact that Bitola, Ohrid, and Prilep are historical places for the Macedonians, as well as the fact that they make up a geographic and linguistic center; all these circumstances together are cause to accept as a common Macedonian literary language the central dialect group. (prodoluva vo del 4)