EDITORIAL PAGE
THE FOURTEENTH CONVENTION.
THE Zionist movement in America has a record of fourteen years of work behind it; nevertheless, it becomes our duty to inform Zionists that there are yet many more years of labor before us ere we may say with certainty that our program has become so vital a part of Jewish life as to warrant the disappearance of our party as the constructive force among our people.
Until a people conscious of its national heritage has its roots in the soil of Palestine, our work is unfinished and our continued devotion is imperative.
When Herzl sounded the call for a reunion of nationalist forces to combat modern disintegration, when thousands responded to that call with enthusiasm and hope, there were few who realized that the work would outlive the conflict of immediate circumstances, and that years and years of inspiring service would be required before the golus people threw off the shackles of spiritual and physical slavery, and in spite of great obstacles projected themselves as a racial group into the land where their race was born, and where it gave birth to its greatest sons.
The program of Herzl was, in effect, an immediate political one, with interviews at the doors of the mighty in diplomacy, with charters to be bargained for, with a demand that if the Jewish people really desired salvation they at once empty then pockets into the coffers of the Great Monarch who controlled the destinies of Zion. This political program dealt with the outward circumstances of our national life: at its initiation, it concerned itself very little with the internal conditions of the people who were to be liberated. The effect of immediacy gave the spur of romance and urgency to the movement. It roused the blood and kindled the enthusiasm of those who responded to Herzl's call. It lead many to believe that the con-
trol of the material Palestine meant the actual geulah. It inspired many to believe that Zionism would at once solve the problems of golus life, the golus temperament, the golus derangement of the Jewish spirit. Lead us back to Zion and in the waters of the Jordan shall all our sins be washed away, all our imperfections and all our sorrow.
That stirring time, when Herzl's portrait took a place in Jewish homes, side by side with those of the Geonim, which resulted in the creation of the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Colonial Trust, the Zionist Congress, has passed by, and is now a part of the record of living Jewish history. We have entered into another period of the gigantic struggle of a dispersed people to regain its national integrity. The old period was called a political period; the new period is a political period too, but of a different character.
We do not hope to take Zion by storm. We are prepared to build our nationai home as ants do their hills, one grain of sand after another. We know that Zion must grow in Jewish hearts as an unconquerable longing: that Jewish ideals must blossom with its roots so entwined about every Jewish' soul that they cannot be eradicated. When you are building for the future, it is impossible to see the structure for the details that are in the making of it. Before we are in a position to say that we have Zion, we must have the Jewish people.
What we are now forging are the indestructible Jewish national values. The growth of the National Fund cannot be checked. It is bound to become the means by which Jews who are conscious of their obligations to the Jewish future, may demonstrate their willingness to sacrifice of their means. The Jewish Colonial Trust cannot be destroyed. Its capital is indestructible. Its stock will increase, its activity will become more extensive. It may not make as much headway this year as