The Maccabaean

IN the June-July issue of THE MACCABAEAN there appeared an article by Bernard A. Rosenblatt, entitled "An Industrial Army for Palestine." Mr. Rosenblatt again sounds the note of "preparedness for peace" which is at present in such grave danger of being drowned in the rolling of drums and the clang of weapons. He brings home to us the fact that if, at the coming peace council of the nations, we wish to demand Palestine for the Jews we must be able to provide, and to prove that we can provide, Jews for Palestine.

The industrial army of which Mr. Rosenblatt speaks may or may not be recruited from among the Jewish soldiers engaged in the world conflict. A part of it, at any rate, will be supplied by America. And for that part it is our duty to establish training camps, as it were, so that our pioneers may increase their usefulness and efficiency by gaining a thorough knowledge of the country which they will set out to conquer with the plowshare.

It is obvious that the mental equipment of the pioneer colonist should include an understanding of the political and economic conditions prevailing in the country in which he intends to settle, a certain familiarity with the language in current usage among the population, and a theoretical and practical knowledge of that calling which he purposes to make his own. The more ambitious settler, who hopes to take an active part in the erection of the new national Binyan should acquire at least a rudimentary training in the dicta of sociology and should study their application to the peculiar problems of the embryonic Jewish state.

Some months ago the Jewish National Fund Bureau at The Hague published a book entitled "Methoden und Kapital bedarf Jüdischer Kolonisation in Palästina" (Projects and Requisite Capital for the Jewish Settlement of Palestine), by Jacob Oettinger, a well-known authority on agricultural questions. This book is invaluable as a source of information for the prospective colonist. It consists of four sections, dealing with (1) colonization methods; (2) farming plans and budgets for colonists; (3) a computation of the capital necessary for the establishment and maintenance of a colony; and (4) a scheme for the Jewish agricultural settlement of Palestine.

The book contains a number of skillfully compiled tables illustrating the subject matter in clear and succinct form.

The first section begins with a brief résumé of the colonization methods which have been applied in Palestine up to the present time. Mr. Oettinger devotes several paragraphs to the unfortunate results of "philanthropic colonization" as demonstrated by the Rothschild administration. Not only is the initiative of the colonists atrophied, but injustice on the part of the administrators and dissatisfaction and ill-humor on the part of the settlers are bound to manifest themselves. Colonization by individual enterprise, on the other hand, as in the case of Patah

Tikvah, has proved unsatisfactory because it brings with it the employment of alien labor. The "M'nuhah V'nahlah," a private association, was successful in founding Rehobot, but, nevertheless, such organizations must fail to fulfill their ultimate purpose unless they work out plans and budgets for a whole series of colonies.

The succeeding paragraphs set forth the good and bad points of co-operative colonization as illustrated by the Galilean settlements founded according to the system of Professor Franz Oppenheimer, and other co-operative communities such as Huldah and Kastinieh. It seems that this form of colonization lacks the quality of permanence since it fails to encourage the workingmen to marry. And it is evident that in agricultural communities where the participation of the whole family in the work is indispensable, colonization must of necessity be carried on by families and not by individuals.

In summing up Mr. Oettinger points out that the settlement of Palestine cannot be brought to a successful issue until it becomes a national undertaking; that is to say, until all Jewish aspirations and efforts become united with regard to (1) the manner of preparing the land and the soil for Jewish colonization; (2) the securing of Jewish labor; (3) the guaranty of Jewish cultural interests; and (4) the acquiring of Jewish capital.

While all these undertakings have had similar goals heretofore no common national Jewish agency has worked out a comprehensive system to meet the various problems of Palestinian colonization.

The Jewish National Fund, which is based upon the principle that the soil of Palestine must be the inalienable property of the whole Jewish people has attempted to initiate a policy of national scope with regard to land tenure by introducing the system of hereditary leasehold. This system makes it possible for immigrants with small means to devote the bulk of their capital to the erection of farm buildings, running expenses, and the support of their families, and does not incapacitate them at the outset by depriving them of their available funds.

The National Fund maintains that the land is not nationalized by its owners but by its cultivators. It has been careful to put this axiom into practice in the enterprises which it has thus far inaugurated, such as the erection of workingmen's homes, the formation of workingmen's co-operative associations, and the laying out of national forests. But its activities, as well as those of the Palästina amt, cannot be regarded otherwise than as being of a preliminary nature, as an introduction to a national colonization system.

In addition to touching upon the methods of colonization which have already been applied in Palestine, Mr. Oettinger gives the reader, for purposes of comparison, a glimpse of the devices employed by other nations. The German system of so-called "internal colonization" consists in acquiring large estates and cutting them up into small holdings. A "settlement commission" is responsible for the establishment of