The New York herald., 1921-01-30

handed workers of the soil. Mr.. Chesterton
pretends to speak for the Arabs, but is he
such a deplorable economist that he does
not realize that already there are too many
horny-handed people on the Arabian penin-
sua and too few Montagus and Ecksteins?
Huerta, during his last visit to the United
States, said IF we had 5000 Jews In Mex
leo we would have national integrity" That
was political wisdom.
But on the very grounds on which Mr..
Chesterton processes to embrace Zionism.
Mr. Zangwill rejects it. Mr.. Chesterton well
comes an adventure which may mean the
total destruction of the Jewish people. Mr..
Zangwill, who loves his people. refuses to
gamble so lightly with their destiny. His
heart aches because of the destruction al
ready wrought among the limbs Of Judea
and declares himself unprepared for the
enterprise. History viii frown at Mr.. Zang-
will and call his position cowardly, for his
logic lies in counting the dead and the
wounded.
Mr.. Zangwill's, alas. is a book OF negation.
He writes with the splendid despair of a
prophet, but prophet who has given God
the lie. for he extends us no hope. In the
chapter THE Legend of the Conquering
Jew" he treats with lofty scorn the most
insidious attack upon this people. as insid-
ious as 1t is untrue that they go through
the world, from valley to valley and from
of the earth. He mocks at the rags of our
Ghetto and demands to know whether these
are the owners of the world" He recounts
the numerous recent slaughters of Jews and
asks how much strength we have left us
for a new conquest of Jerusalem Mr.
Chesterton would be surprised to learn that
there are millions of Jews who not only are
not bankers but have never so much as seen
q bank.
Mr.. Zangwill writes out of knowledge of
Jewish life and a love of the Jewish people
Since the death of DR.. Herzl the founder
of the Zionist Movement. he has been the
only Jewish statesman with a vision. The
succession has an aspect of destiny for it
was DR.. Herzl who called Mr.. Zangwill into
Jewish politics. The tragic aspect Of It,
though is that upon Dr. Herzls death Mr.
Zangwill withdrew from the Zionist Move
ment and founded a Jewish colonization
organization of his own known as the ITO.
The ITO declares its disbelief in Palestine
as the future home of the Jew and avows
that II is necessary for the Jewish people
to find some other place. Twenty years of
activity have not helped the ITO find an
other such territory Is there any hope
that the ITO will ever find such a place?
And are Jews TO remain homeless because
Jewish organization forbids them TO settle
the only land that is theirs and to which
they have now an economic as well as a
historic claim?
There is very little I can agree with in
Mr.. Zangwill's book, though there is a great
deal to be admired. / may not agree with
him In the view that Poland must eventually
make friends with the Jews. but / admire
the greatheartedness and the broadminded-
ness of the man who can overlook such
rapacity and faithlessness in the hope that
II Jews only will have faith Poland may yet
become safe for the vast numbers OF them
who cannot possibly leave the country. For
i know that Zangwill has no sympathy with
the slaughter of Jews. He is wise and hu-
name and he writes English touchingly
Never was the Jewish sage that is in Fang
will as evident and as lofty as I'm this book
Essentially English. his is yet the Voice of
Jerusalem--a voice which heralds neither
the dawn of a new day nor the destruction
of the day Of days. 1t is the voice OF Q
heartrendng silence