Says Zionist Congress As Now Organized is Hindrance to Upbuilding of Homeland

Arguing that the Zionist Congress, as it is at present organized, is a hindrance instead of a help in the work of upbuilding the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine, Isadore D. Morrison, well-known American Zionist leader, suggests in the current issue of the “Jewish Tribune,” published today, that the method of choosing the Congress and its program of work be changed. Mr. Morrison believes that there is an ever-increasing body of men and women in Zionist ranks which is dissatisfied with the present manner in which the Congress is run.

“In the first place,” says Mr. Morrison in his article, “the Zionist Congress should more adequately represent the Jewish contributing public. The greatest advantage of this would be that it would give the great body of contributors a stabilizing sense of responsibility for the upbuilding of the Jewish Homeland. By changing the basis of representation, the Zionist Congress may lose in the direction of what is assumed to be democracy, but it will be amply compensated in the direction of efficiency. This does not mean that only contributors will have a voice in the Congress, but that their place in it will shift the burden to those who can and should bear it.

“In the second place, the task of fixing a budget should be removed from the jurisdiction of the Congress. Intricately technical budget fixing has always been in the province of experts. That power should be placed in the hands of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, which should be composed of men thoroughly equipped for their administrative duties, who will plan the budget from the point of view of the larger needs of Jewish Palestine.

“Another item which suggests itself in connection with the present constitution of the Executive is that no salaried official of the Zionist Organization or of the Jewish Agency should be eligible for membership in the Congress. It is inevitable that a person connected with a specific piece of Zionist work should place greatest emphasis on his sphere of activity, with the result that he loses the larger perspective. Inevitably the work as a whole suffers.”