putterings 460 < 461 > 462 index
that seizes the whole compass; a definite territorial space
The Zionist movement so diligently * * * * * is a brilliant adventure of the creative imagination. And like all splendid new things it is dangerous to old things. Our shabby ways of building cities by haphazard and the flow of blind forces are threatened and imperilled by this vision of a city built by intelligent design...
The one thing specially needed just now, for the heartening of the race, is a succesful civilizing enterprise that refuses to stop at puttering details and the patchwork of reform; that seizes the whole compass of human interest in a single grasp of the imagination — and dedicates a definite territorial space to decent living. If the Zionists can do this they will turn the hinge of the new century. And if the Zionists can’t, there are others who can. There are single millionaires among us who could do it. What they lack — if they lack anything — for the purpose is a touch of the intellectual audacity of Cecil Rhodes, plus some common-sense views on the rudiments of political economy.
The Utopias have failed because of their sentimentality.
Charles Ferguson, “What the Zionist Movement Suggests,” (from the N. Y. American), in The Maccabean (“A Zionist Magazine, Edited by Louis Lipsky”) 16:1 (January 1909) : 21
NYPL copy/scan (via google books) : link
The Maccabean is described as the “first Zionist publication in the U.S. in English”
see collection overview, American Jewish Historical Society, Louis Lipsky Papers : P-672 link
The Maccabean was previously encountered in composition of “still, still what. 2” at asfaltics 2612 (20240508)
Charles Ferguson (1863-1944), writer, newspaperman, sometime Episcopalian minister; progressive (of his time); hard to pin down
- “Chas. Ferguson Dies; Minister and Writer; uplscopallan (sic), a Lawyer, Helped Establish 2 Finance Schools”
New York Times obituary (May 28, 1944) : link (paywall) - Robert D. Cuff, “Woodrow Wilson’s Missionary to American Business, 1914-1915: A Note.” The Business History Review 43:4 (Winter 1969) : 545-551 : jstor : stable link