considerable sum. There are three ways of raising this sum, all of which the Society will take under consideration. This Society, the great "Gestor" of the Jews, will be formed by our best and most upright men, who must not derive any material advantage from their membership. Although the Society cannot at the outset possess any but moral authority, this authority will yet suffice to establish the credit of the Jewish Company in the nation's eyes. The Jewish Company will thus be unable to undertake any business enterprise which has not received the Society's sanction; it will also not be formed of any mere indiscriminate group of financiers. For the Society will weigh, select and decide, and will not give its approbation till it is sure of the existence of good securities for the conscientious carrying out of the scheme. It will not permit experiments with insufficient means, for this undertaking must succeed at the first attempt. Any initial failure would compromise the whole idea during many decades to come, or might even make its realization permanently impossible.
The three methods of raising capital are: (1) Through "la haute finance"; (2) Through small and private banks; (3) Through public subscription.[1]
The easiest, most rapid, and safest would be by "la haute finance." The required sum would then be raised in the shortest possible time by our great body of financiers, after they had discussed the advisability of the cause. The great advantage of this method would be that it would avoid the necessity of paying in the thousand millions (to keep to the original cipher) immediately in its entirety. A further advantage would be that the unlimited credit of these powerful financiers would be of considerable value to the Company in its transactions. Many latent political forces lie in our financial power, that power which our enemies assert to be actually and now as effective as we know it might be if we exercised it. Poor Jews feel only the hatred which this financial power provokes; its use in alleviating their lot as a body, they have not yet felt. The credit of our great Jewish financiers would have to be placed at the service of the National Idea. But should these gentlemen, who are naturally satisfied with their lot, decline to do anything for their co-religionists who are unjustly held responsible for the large possessions of certain individuals—should these great financiers refuse to cooperate—then the realization of this plan will afford an opportunity for drawing a clear line of distinction between them and the rest of Judaism.
The great financiers, moreover, will certainly not be asked to raise an amount so enormous out of pure philanthropy; that would be expecting too much. The promoters and stockholders of the Jewish Company are, on the contrary, intended to do a good piece of business, and they will be able to calculate beforehand what their chances of success are likely to be. For the Society of Jews will be in possession of all documents and references which may serve to define the prospects of the Jewish Company. The Society will also undertake the special duty of investigating with exactitude the extent of the new Jewish movement, so as to provide the Company promoters with thoroughly reliable information on the amount of support they may expect. The Society will also supply the Jewish Company with comprehensive modern Jewish statistics, thus doing the work of what is called in France a "société d'études," which undertakes all preliminary research previous to the financing of a great undertaking. Even so, the enterprise may not receive the valuable assistance of our money magnates. These
- ↑ The third was adopted. The Jewish Colonial Trust was capitalized at £2,000,000, in £1 shares.
