On the translation issue, there is also the matter of selecting which works  
to translate. Wm. Jaffe, sponsored by the AEA elders, translated Walras'  
Theory of Pure Economics in 1954. This projected an image of Walras that has  
stuck, so his name is now a synonym for rarefied theory soaring in realms of  
Laputa, and also idolatry of the market mechanism, and, by association,  
extreme ideas of the rights of private property.  
  
What if Jaffe had instead translated Walras' works on social economy, in  
which he proposed to nationalize land?  Walras was a veritable Alfred Russel  
Wallace, but less sober. He demanded nationalization, in florid Gallicisms.  
What a different Walras we would visualize today.  
  
Years ago I was exercising my inadequate French by reading Dumas, and met a  
passage that Edmond Dantes dispensed with translators because they are  
always inaccurate and sometimes treacherous. This passage was omitted from  
the otherwise faithful English translation, thus proving itself.  
  
Instantaneous translation at international conferences is even more  
error-prone. But you will prefer to supply your own war-stories.  
  
Mason Gaffney