The New York herald., 1879-12-09
VINO pays the Rent ON Irish F.rmss


past year or two did not come from the SOIL
but from America" AS we understand thls'
the reference was to money sent from tnis
country by the thrifty sons and daughters
here of families resident in Ireland-mohey
sent to help the old folks at home by du'i-
full children who have prospered III the Ne"
World. But we scarcely understand why
the speaker should have limited this
source of the income of many irish
families to ''the past year or two.
For twenty or thirty years the stream
| Of small drafts from American cities
has poured into Irish pockets. If it were
possible to collect and put before the world
| a full statistical account of the whole
| amount of money SO sent home by Irish
immigrants the total might well startle at
once Irish landlords and that particular va
riety of Irish patriots which now pirates
with a little cheap rhetoric about the sacri-
fees which the Irish people make when
they expatriate themselves from country
in which, as they assure us, they are not
free and are likely to starve. Were it possi-
BILE further to show the proportionate rela-
actually earned by the senders, these figures
would be, perhaps, more remarkable than
those exhibiting the total OF these contribu-
tions for they would present display
almost without q parallel in the history OF
humanity of generous self-sacrifce and OF
deep and untiring devotion to the sacred
memories and affections of home. Most
AL cI,. 8 <1,a %r;
ships that become financial; but if there
ever was race of men who loved their rela-
tions ''out of pocket, it is certainly the
Irish, as thus tested, through many and
many weary year of separation and exile
Now, the effects of this devotion in the
critical circumstances of the people who
received the money. as we'll as upon the
economical and even the moral condition
of Ireland, have been but little thought of
either on this or the other side of the Allan
tic, and are just now considered rather un-
favorably than otherwise by those friends
of Mr.. Parnell who sneer at emigration as
remedy for evils that have never yet been
benefited by any other means. Mr..
Egann, whose words are reported above,
unlike some of his associate agitators,
seems to have taken the pains to consider
the case Of the tenants and landlords from
simply economical standpoint, and as the
case is economical rather than sentimental
he seems to be on the right course. Ire
lands present trouble is to be settled, if at
all, by reference to the arithmetic, and not
by declaration, however eloquent, of the
lofty and extreme hatred that Irishmen
have for the Saxon. No doubt the Saxon is
hard man to be under but it seems that
of all the people in Ireland more want the
Saxon to be just where he is than want him
out, for otherwise he would have been GER
tainly expelled before this time. But as he
is there, and as he cannot be driven out
without war which the people say they do
not want. it is not easy to see how
an agitation fomented to stir up pas.
sion and fury and provoke the repressive
operation of the laws can be other than
evil, while it is easy to see how really
sensible consideration and reasonable argu-
ment upon the economical position of Ire
land may force even reluctant Englishmen
themselves to see that it is for the good of
the British Empire that we'll founded dis
contents should be satisfied by sufficient
remedy. With the liberals, who are pretty
sure to come in with the next Parliament,
the Irish may make their case sure if they
can present sound arguments with statis-
tical basis, for the liberals, unlike the tories.
comprehend figures.
And Mr.. Egann has put his finger upon
the real point in the case. Has the land in
Ireland paid its rent and supported its
workers any time within the past twenty
years? We do not believe it has. And if
it has not in the past twenty years it's
failure will be more conspicuous in the
years to come. and as time goes on will be
worse and worse every year. Without the
help from America which for twenty years
has more or less yelled or disguised the real
financial condition of hundreds of thou
sands of families, there would have been o
great crisis ere this. But the girl at service
in America, or the boy, or two or
three of them together, paid the rent
year in and year out. If the rent was
not more than ten pounds one girl in good
place in this city could pay it and have
money to spare to contribute even more
largely to the physical comfort of those
over whose heads she was keeping roof
Wages for girls have ranged in that period
from FIVE to fifteen dollars a month, and
more than half of all earned went home.
Ten and even twenty pounds year has not
been an uncommon sum to be sent home by
one child. How much more literally those
who made ampler gains poured their earn
ings into this common channel it will never
be possible TO tell but it may bo estimated
in the light of the consideration that
Irish children never measured their
gifts by what they might deem was
needed. but only by what they had Even
il the money contributed from America was