The Maccabaean

THE vast problem of reconstruction, involving as it does the demobilization of armies, the conversion of war into peace industries, the supplying of food to starving populations, and the grappling with the question of unemployment is now engrossing the best minds of Europe and America. This colossal problem is at present the order of the day in all countries, which in one way or another participated in the war.

u ee During the period of more than four years of war, the industries of the principal countries of the world suffered radical changes in adjusting themselves to war needs and conditions, in conformity with the regulations of the several war departments. Ship and aeroplane construction, and munition work of all kinds took the place of peace industries; toy factories were turned into shell plants. And not only had the organization of industries undergone such changes, but the type of labor as well; women in numberless instances took the positions of men—positions which they will hold on to even after the war. Moreover, the men will now demand higher wages and beiter working conditions than they enjoyed before. It will, therefore, take a good deal of time until industries and markets will be stabilized on a footing of peace conditions. It will also require time and patience to bring about an equitable distribution of food. amone the several nations.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of discharged soldiers will justly demand their old positions, only to find that they have been filled by others. Unemployment and labor crisis will be the natural result. Hence, the several governments are now preoccupied with this coming crisis.

We have learned from the war the advantages of an agriculturally self-sustaining country—a country that is not dependent upon import for its grain, meat, and so forth. England, whose food supply is largely dependent upon other countries, would have faced starvation during the war were it not for her gigantic fleet which brought her food and supplies from the ends of the world. The question of bread was as burning a question in England as that of ammunition and warships. And even while the war was still at its height there was great agitation there to increase food production by cultivating all the fallow land in the country. During the third year of the war thousands of acres of barren and pasture land were cultivated in England. Also in America more land was cultivated during the war than ever before.

The cultivation of fallow land and the returning home of soldiers —cannot these two factors be associated in some way? On the one hand we are confronted with the lack of work for the men and on the other—with the necessity of increasing our food production. Let one of these problems solve the other.

And this is one of the great questions that now occupies the minds of the statesmen in England, Canada, Australia and the United States: How to settle the discharged soldiers on the soil, awaiting to .be tilled? Everyone can see the dificulty of realizing this solution, the enormous funds needed to buy vast tracis of land for this purpose and the additional expenditures for their cultivation, and the provision of living conditions for the men; but all find this solution a more advisable and appropriate one,

AMERICA'S PLANS FOR SETTLING HER SOLDIERS ON FARMS

The American Secretary of Agriculture proposed to Congress an elaborate scheme in this regard, a scheme deserving our attention. It is in effect as follows:

It should be the aim of the American people to settle two millions of discharged soldiers on the soil. There is in America some 570,000,000 acres of State land and some 670,000,000 acres of private uncultivated land. Of these lands there is much that, to be cultivated, requires irrigation or drainage. It is, therefore, suggested in the plan that private owners be taxed heavily on their idle lands so as to induce them to sell their property to the Government; the Government, on the other hand, should immediately undertake to create on those lands the necessary facilities for the agricultural life of the prospective settlers. The preliminary work will require a great deal of labor and will thus give the discharged soldiers an opportunity to become familiar with the soil, and help the Government in its task of picking men suited for agricultural work.

According to this scheme every prospective farmer is to get a tract of land with the necessary buildings, implements, catile, and so forth, so that he should even in the first year be able to produce enough for his own comfortable subsistence and also have sufhicient spare funds to pay on his mortgage. This plan is not based on giving each man a farm for himself, but on the organization of agricultural communities of one or two hundred farmers with all the necessary communal facilities and institutions. These communities will be able 10 form societies for the co-operative purchasing of machinery and supplies as well as for co-operative distribution of their products.

In advocating this program, the American Secretary of Agriculture does not base his arguments on fancy theories or even experiments in other countries, like Australia. He indicates a successful experiment along these lines performed in America, where a colony was founded in California on the above principles and is now already on a sound economic footinge.

It might be added that there is opinion prevailing to the effect that many soldiers, who are able-bodied and have for a time become used to outdoor life and striet military discipline, will be loathe to return to their former confined indoor work in oflices and factories in the congested cities, and will prefer agriculture as their new occupation.

LAND FOR JEWISH LEGIONAIRIES AND OTHER JEWISH SOLDIER'S IN PALESTINE

And we Jews, what shall our comment be on these plans of England and America? If these nations are anxious about the shortage in agricultural labor, what shall we say? Is there anyone who suffers in an industrial crisis more than the Jewish workman, engaged as he invariably is in the less stable industries? Who is in direr need, both physically, ethically and economically in the healthy life of an agricultural settlement than the Jewish masses, torn as they are from the natural source of economic life, and confined in city factories and sweatshops? Who will think of providing for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers in Russia and Roumania the opportunity to settle on the soil?