THE MACCABAEAN
Published once every month by the Maccabaean Publishing Company, ot which M. B. Lande is President; and D. H. Lieberman is Secretary; whose -address is 547 Broadway, New York City. waited hv Toynisn Tinskv.
It must be a great satisfaction to all Zionists to hear that, despite the hard times through which the United States is passing, the tour of Mr. Fromenson in the South is proving remarkably successful. Wherever Mr. Fromenson has spoken, good results are evident. In view of the serious doubts that had been expressed regarding an extensive tour for Zionist speakers this winter, Mr. Fromeinsons success is doubly gratifying.
WHILE Dr. Birnbaum's tour in the interest of Jewish culture has not been successful from a pecuniary standpoint, that able gentleman has made a host of friends here, and his contribution to Jewish thought, in his many lectures, have illumined many a problem bothersome to the true Zionist. It was unfortunate that Dr. Birnbaum timed his visit to such an unpropitious season, but we have no doubt that when he comes again his visit will be much more fruitful in results.
The President of the B’nai B’rith knows how to deal with Jewish accidents. He writes an urgent letter to the Secretary of State, asking for information. He usually gets the information thirty days later. By that time the Jewish people already know the details of the calamity, have issued appeals for help, and have met the situation to their own satisfaction. It then remains for the B‘nai B’rith to issue a Bulletin. in which the remarkable activity of the organization is dilated upon, the letters of the President are given in extenso, and that chapter in Jewish history is then closed. The wonder is that the B‘nai B’rith has not invented an automaton to act for it since the late Leo N. Levi died, for it is obvious
that with such a systematic method of administration, trifles like pogroms in Russia or disorders in Jaffa, or the "Hebrew comedian" on the American stage could be disposed of by following the lines of action originated by the Kraus regime.
THE STATUTES OF THE TRUST.
The court process to alter the statutes of the Jewish Colonial Trust, now settled against the contention of the administration and the Congress, involves a problem whose proper solution affects the foundations of the Zionist organization.
The creation of a number of fiduciary institutions, with the contributions of unaffliated‘ nationalists, as well as organization Zionists, raised the natural fear that, in case the organization should decide upon one policy, what would become of the organizations thus created should they decide upon a contrary policy. Should the stockholders of the Colonial Trust decide that their policies must be carried out, even against the wishes of a Congress, then the Congress must become an ineffective conference of delegates who, in fact, have no control over the institutions it has created. In this manner the Colonial Trust, the National Fund, now incorporated; the subsidiary branches of the Trust, and all other corporations inspired by the Congress, can at any time tear themselves away from the control of the Congress and leave us but the skeleton of an organization. We are subject to the laws of the land in which our corporations are created, and at the same time our corporations are morally bound by the legal decisions of the Congress. But the Congress, as such, bears no legal relation to the corporations it has created.
The fact that a large majority of the stock- holedrs have sustained the Congress post- pones, for the time being, the 'solution of this vexatious problem; but it is bound to come up again some day, when it will require all the ingenuity of the administration of the Congress to solve it. We have held all along, however, that the proposition to alter the statutes was a formal matter, and does not at all affect conditions.