The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-06-12
NEWS, VIEWS AND GOSSIP OF NEW YORK
BY GLENN GUERNSEY.

The present meeting of the Zionists,
| which opens tonight with a mass meet
ing in Copper Union, will doubtless
be fuller of portent than any previous
session in the history of the fedora
ton. Abdul the Damned, the Turkish
autocrat of the cruel heart and the
fear-filled brain, who stood as a rock
in the path of the Jewish naturalists.
| is fallen, and another rules in his stead.
In this fact the Zionists see prospects
for greater hope. Rabbis and wise
men of the chosen people discuss the
change in the political complexion of
the Turkish empire as a mile stone
marking a great advance in the march
of the Jewish hosts to the promised
land. Hope long deferred had made
the heart sick, and until the recent
Turkish revolution, many among the
Zionists were almost tempted to aban-
don the crusade as a lost cause.
Louis Lipsky, editor of a New York
Jewish publication, is firmly of the
belief that the deposition of Abdul in
wolves the speedy fruition of the
Zionist program. In an interview he
said:
4, 1,,I
the greatest stumbling block in our
plans has been removed. Zionists may
now face the future with a smile,
as they have never had a better OPP
portunity for carrying out their wish
es. The movement was started, in a
political sense, about twelve years
ago by DR.. Theodore Herzi, a Viennese
Journalist. DR.. HerZi tried to enter
into negotiations, before his death.
with Sultan Abdul Hamid to open the
doors of Palestine to the Jews. and
to grant autonomy to the territory.
he initiated a widespread movement.
"The opponents of Zionism do no
measure the amount of work which,
has been done in the really short time
we have been organized. Not only
have we in Palestine these thousands
of colonists but we have a national
fund, collected from the small contri-
buttons of poor people all over the
world the money of which is being
used for the development of land. We
have a Palestine Development COM
pany, a Jewish Colonial Trust and a
bank with headquarters in London and
branches in Palestine which assists
Jewish settlers in their colonization.
We have cultural organizations estab-
lished in the Holy Land. and our peo-
pie who are there do not speak Turk
ish or Arabic or Russian or Yiddish.
or any Of their immigrant tongues,
but they have learned the pure old
Hebrew of their forefathers, and speak
and write it as a living language. I
consider that as perhaps the most
auspicious phenomenon in this move
ment, for if there is anything that is
the basis of a nationality it is to have
a distinct native language.
The present circumstances which
make this convention more important
than any that have preceded it, con-
sidering the success Of the movement,
is the political state of affairs in the
Turkish empire. Turkey was hither-
to non-committal in its attitude to-
ward the Jewish immigrants, but now
it is publicly, and with the certainty
of constitutional guarantees, friendly
to Jewish hopes. It's new leaders
have formally invited Jews to come
into their land and make themselves
at home in the territory or their
choice. The land of backwardness
and Oriental immobility has moved
forward; it is modern, up-to-date, and
it appreciates the value of the Jews
as a factor in the progress OF turkey