.
Notes on
the land question and on Henry George
from the diary of
Theodor Herzel
|
The
following entries were made in 1895 and 1898 by Theodor Herzel,
founder of the Zionist movement, in his diaries. The diaries were
published by Dial Press, New York, in 1956. |
JUNE 9, 1895 (page 40)
]About stock brokers, and writing in the present tense as if the
Jewish state were already established]. Now it
[brokering] is no longe rnecessary and will no longer be tolerated. I,
too, could have made a fortune while directing this vast enterprise,
just as I have made millionaires of men around me. It was I who
determined the location of our cities -- what real-estate deals I
could have arranged! No, I have merely my salary, which I need for
diplomatic prestige, and the house I built out of my savings. ...
JUNE 12, 1895 (page 44)
Work will be a joy. Everyone, if possible, to
attain a little house of his own. ...Rental and amortization for these
houses. In the construction industry (whether for housing, railroads,
highways, or the like) we will materially aid private enterprise by
the grant of wholesale credits. The Society will profit only through
the increase of land values. Construction is to be cheap, because
building enhances the value of the land.
JUNE 12, 1895 (page 45)
Today the thought strikes me that perhaps I am
solving more than the Jewish question. To wit, tout bonnement, the
social question! I do not know, I can hardly believe it, for in all
these matters I am thinking of the creation of new conditions; and the
difficulty in the social question is that men everywhere are hamstrung
by ancient abuses, habitual inertia, and inherited or acquired wrongs.
Whereas I propose a virginal soiil. But if it turns out to be true,
what a gift of God to the Jews!
JUNE 13, 1895 (page 47)
Our entire youth, all those between twenty and
thrity years of age, will veer away from inchoate socialistic leanings
and turn to us. They will go forth as preachers to their own families
and among the people -- without my urging them. For the Land is to be
theirs!
NOVEMBER 25, 1895 (page 83)
A good idea of his is to levy a progressive tax
on land property. Henry George!
SEPTEMBER 18, 1898 (page 237)
Recounting long discussion with Count Bernhard von Bulow, foreign
minister of Germany.] This brought us to
Socialism. I explained my position: it was folly for the Jews to go
over to Socialism which, when the time came, would rid itself of them.
I further told him -- which I had recently read -- that pre-Mosaic
Egypt had been a socialist state. Through the Ten Commandments Moses
created an individualistic society. And the Jews were, and remained,
individualists.
|
