The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-05-04
The ErisEa Question.
IFrom the American.

1t does little credit to the acuteness Of the
landlord interest, that they have never dis
covered the ground upon which they might
discredit and reasonably resist any innoVa-
in the land laws. They are disposed to fall
back upon the abstract rights Of property,
and to denounce the agitators Of all degrees
as incipient Communists. But then they are
| met by the plea that the public interests COM
| pei an interference with their rights in this
case, just as they 90 in the creation of rail-
road. And in the United Kingdom, private
| interests, however sacred in the abstract,
always have to give way to the public when
there is collision. a much stronger defence
of the landlords, and one which would divide
the Irish agitators themselves, would be
| found in the contention that what Ireland
needs is not legislation about land, but legis-
/ latiOn for the creation in Ireland Of those
| alternative occupations" without which the
Irishman is not free to make what can be
called free contract. Give the Irishman
something else to do; create employment for
him at home; utilize the vast waste Of Irish
labor. When that is done, you will not be
forced to choose between driving either the
landlord class or the tenant class out Of the
| country. Then ssthe pressure Of the people
upon the land'' wilE cease; rents will be even
higher than now, but far less burdensome,
and harmony between the classes will take
the place Of this prolonged enmity.
"But," cries every Wing, "do you mean US
to create, on Irish soil, by protection, indus
tries which will not arise there without it ?"
Protection is one way of doing it. Another
would be the exemption Of manufacturing
property from public burdens, and in some
cases premiums upon native products. How
ever it Is to be effected, this is exactly what
must be done for Ireland before there will be
any high degree Of prosperity and content
ment among her people. Lord Dufferin is
the only man of prominence, since Mr.. Butts
death, who sees this clearly. His book on
the Irish land question showed the selfish
and wicked policy pursued by the manu-
featuring classes of England, in the destrac-
ton of the wooden and other manufactures
of ireland, and, by inference, the mockery
Of asking 9 people, thus deliberately checked
in their industrial development, TO enter upon
free competition with the manufactures OF
countries which had grown normally. But
Whig doctrine was too strong for his judg-
ment. He described the disease most &C.
curately, but he dared not even mention the
remedy. What he did not propose will be
effected by the logic of events. Discomfort
will continue, with but little abatement what
ever the new land law may do. It will end
in separation from England, and q protective
tariff will be one of the first measures passed
by the new Irish parliament.
The condition of the laboring class in Eng
land is even worse than that of. the farmers.
In Bedfordshire, for instance, they are said
to be in most lamentab)e and precarious
condition. Their mental and moral growth
is the most backward of any class in the two
islands, being far below that of.the Irish cot
ter or the Highland crofter. 10 keep the
wolf from the door has been the one strug-
gle which has occupied their whole life, and
their children commonly have no time for
more education than can be got in a Sunday
school, as they have to earn their living as
soon as they are old enough to begin frlghten-
ing birds out of a Wheat-feld. From that
they get their promotion to herding cattle,
and then to the hard life Of ploughboy, as
the steps preliminary to full work and full
wages. Full work means the very utmost
that mans stength is equal to; full wages,
the pittance that will suffice to keep body and
soul together 'The fault, it's said, sis in
themselves. They have too many children"
They do multiply very rapidly,as all unculti-
yated classes do. But it is useless to talk Of
faults to class which have not the intelli-
gence to appreciate an evil or apply rem
edy. Here are millions of Englishmen, of
pure Saxon and Danish blood most of them,
who lie IS absolutely outside the public life
of the nation as do the Russian noa!jsks, or
as did our own slaves. They have not the
intelligence required for q larger horizon than
their own parish. They are given no voice
in the councils Of the nation. They are,
most Of them, descendants of Saxon churls
and medieval yeomen, who had land Of their
own By tenure older than that BY which the
king had his crown. To this they have been
forced by the long series of acts of violence
and chicanery by which the mobiles got pos
session OF English land. And with these
people Is England's one chance for an agri-
cultural future.