The Maccabaean

factors in production with a view of making large groups of settlers self-sustaining as much as possible.

The Zionist Society of Engineers and Agriculturists has adopted for its Standard Group a population of 100,000. This Standard Unit of population,—irrespective of the distribution of its constituent communities,—is assumed to contain the requisite number of agriculturists, artisans, professionals, etc., to make it self-sustaining.

The process of settling the Unit of 100,000 presents three (3) distinct problems:

1. The settlement proper, including organization, selection, transportation and distribution.2. The determination of consumption and production which involves the development of agricultural and industrial enterprises and the respective settlements.3. The determination of the ratio of the utilization by the Standard Unit of public improvements and utilities to be developed for the country at large.

The analysis of the three problems will enable us to arrive at the budget in terms of quantities of materials, machinery, implements and labor.

The method of procedure involves the quantitative determination of:

1. Prime necessities: Food, Shelter, Raiment.2. Communal necessities: Public Health, Education, Public Safety, etc.3. Public utilities: Water power, transportation facilities, Coast development, River and Lake development, Sanitation, etc.

These determinations will enable us to derive the necessary materials, machinery, implements and labor involved in the project.

These determinations will lead us to a systematic approach to the problems of provisioning and producing the necessities and to the systematic approach to the steps involved in the project.

It is understood that the execution of the projects will be based upon the findings of an industrial commission in Palestine engaged in a study of the actual conditions prevailing in the country.

It should be reiterated that the findings of such an investigation will result in the establishment of units for our basic industries, which units could be adapted to varying circumstances. Mathematically speaking, a co-efficient will have been found for each basic industry. At the same time this investigation will indicate in the case of each basic industry the principles which must be applied in its establishment. Whether those principles are the ones enunciated in the Pittsburgh Program or dear to the heart of the laissez fairist does not primarily concern the engineer. What he desires is to see those industries function with the maximum efficiency for the needs of Palestine as a whole. And when he finds certain principles, namely those of the Pittsburgh Platform, vindicated by his findings, he accepts those principles solely because they harmonize with the demands of national economic efficiency.

GIVEN as extant a competent machinery for the sifting, organizing, educating and instructing a prospective Yishub, the question arises: what are the numbers with which we have to figure? What number of immigrants must serve as a basis of calculation for the nearest and for a somewhat remoter future? What time is requisite for an extensive colonization? To answer these questions with detailed exactness is difficult, but at least we can approximate a true answer. Dr. Ruppin has made a calculation which he himself designates as a maximum program. According to him, an annual settlement on an exclusively agricultural basis of 1,400 families, or 7,000 heads, is practicable during the first ten years. That means 70,000 agriculturists for the first decade; for the second decade, according to Ruppin, twice as many; for the third decade, thrice as many. Total of the newly settled agricultural population, within thirty years, 84,000 families or 420,000 heads. According to Ruppin, such a population can support another non-agricultural one, of equal numbers, namely:

1. The physicians, teachers, mechanics and merchants of the settlements.2. All employees of industries that are direct outgrowths of agriculture.3. Townspeople trafficking with the settlements: carters, drivers, peddlers, etc.4. All other urban vocations: workers, merchants, clerks, professionals.

Together with the natural increase of the settled population by an excess of births over deaths, we arrive at a grand total of about one and one-half million souls. This, of course, is merely a crude estimate, but sufficiently serviceable to form the angle of our outlook into a Palestinian future. Not a doubt can exist of our satisfaction, should we succeed in settling such a soundly constructed Jewish colony of one and one-half million souls in Palestine within thirty years. According to Dr. Ruppin’s maximum program, an anunal total immigration of 20,000 heads is possible and desirable during the first ten years. This gives 200,000 for the first .decade; 400,000 during the second; 600,000 during the third; add to this the natural increase, and you arrive at our figure of one and one-half million souls. This figure demonstrates, with overpowering lucidity, that a chaotic Yishub en masse is not only not desirable, but that it is by no means requisite for the establishment of a populous Jewish commonwealth within thirty years. It is probable that during the initial years, Ruppin’s estimated balance between agriculturists and non-agriculturists will not be tenable. During these initial years, public works of vast extent, including the construction of piers, harbors, houses, roads, etc., will have to be taken in hand. But the reaction following these initial labors is likely to set Dr. Ruppin’s balance right. If we take these basic figures as a foundation, there will be between two and three millions of Jews in Palestine two generations hence—which means the solution of our colonization problem.