of passengers, 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 spungers, borrowers, and dependents; of a better class of Christian they know nothing. The Ghetto subsists still, though its walls are broken down.
The middle classes will therefore make elaborate and careful preparations for departure. A group of travelers 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. If they so choose, they may either travel alone or attached to any local group they prefer. The conditions of travel—regulated according to classes—will apply to all alike. Any sufficiently numerous traveling party can charter a special train and special boat from the Company.
The Company's house 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 been 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 intelligence to point out everything that we might do. Every man who attaches himself to the National Idea will know how to spread it, and how to make it actual within his sphere of influence. We shall first of all ask for the cooperation of our ministers.
OUR MINISTERS.
Every group will have its minister, traveling with his congregation. Local groups will afterwards form voluntarily about their minister, and each locality will have its spiritual guide. Our ministers, on whom we especially call, will devote their energies to the service of our idea, and will inspire their congregations by preaching it from the pulpit. They will not need to address special meetings for the purpose; an appeal such as this may be uttered in the synagogue. And thus it must be done. For we feel our historic affinity only through the faith of our fathers; the very language of different nations has been impressed on us so deeply that it seems impossible to obliterate it.
The ministers will receive communications regularly from both Society and Company, and will announce and explain these to their congregations. Israel will pray for us and for itself.
RESPONSIBLE MEN OF THE LOCAL GROUPS.
The local groups will appoint small committees of responsible men under the minister's presidency, for discussion and settlement of local affairs.
