Our people should emigrate in groups of families and friends. But no
man will be forced to join the particular group belonging to his
former place of residence. Each will be able to journey in his chosen
fashion as soon as he has settled his affairs. Seeing that each man
will pay his own expenses by rail and boat, he will naturally travel
by whatever class suits him best. Possibly there will even be no
subdivision for classes on board train and boat, so as to avoid making
the poor feel their position too keenly during their long journey.
Though we are not exactly organizing a pleasure trip, it is as well to
keep them in good humor on the way.
None will travel in penury; on the other hand, all who desire to
travel in luxurious ease will be able to follow their bent. Even under
favorable circumstances, the movement may not touch certain classes of
Jews for several years to come; the intervening period can therefore
be employed in selecting the best modes of organizing the journeys.
Those who are well off can travel in parties if they wish, taking
their personal friends and connections with them. Jews, with the
exception of the richest, have, after all, very little intercourse
with Christians. In some countries their acquaintance with them is
confined to a few spongers, borrowers, and dependents; of a better
class of Christian they know nothing. The Ghetto continues though its
walls are broken down.
The middle classes will therefore make elaborate and careful
preparations for departure. A group of travellers will be formed in
each locality, large towns being divided into districts with a group
in each district, who will communicate by means of representatives
elected for the purpose. This division into districts need not be
strictly adhered to; it is merely intended to alleviate the discomfort
and home-sickness of the poor during their journey outwards. Everybody
is free to travel either alone or attached to any local group he
prefers. The conditions of travel--regulated according to
classes--will apply to all alike. Any sufficiently numerous travelling
party can charter a special train and special boat from the Company.
The Company's housing agency will provide quarters for the poorest on
their arrival. Later on, when more prosperous emigrants follow, their
obvious need for lodgings on first landing will have to be supplied by
hotels built by private enterprise. Some of these more prosperous
colonists will, indeed, have built their houses before becoming
permanent settlers, so that they will merely move from an old home
into a new one.
It would be an affront to our intelligent elements to point out
everything that they have to do. Every man who attaches himself to the
National Idea will know how to spread it, and how to make it real
within his sphere of influence. We shall first of all ask for the
cooperation of our Rabbis.