Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-07-28
FOREIGN EMIGRATION.
cts effects on Portions Of IreIan,


Its effects on Portions Of ireland.
London Times.
IL 4s probable that the emigration
during the past ten years has not done
n uch to relievethe congestion of popu-
lation in places where it was really dam
gerous. The statistics of the census
give us only general results, but we
know from other sources of informa-
ton that during several years included
in the period now under review the
emigration from Ireland was almost
suspended. During those years the
United States suffered from prolo.. .ged
and severe depression. When trade re-
vived, and prosperity returned with q
swelling tide, America again began to
hold out irresistible temptations to the
small farmers of Ireland. The de-
vclopment of American competition
worked doubly to encourage the emf
grafton of such men. The competition
of transatlantic produce in the home
markets was not only injurious in its
actual operation, but threatened to be-
come infinitely more oppressive. 's--c.
altogether ruflOus. At the sa
it was clear that the seemingly limit
less and inexhaustible fecundity of the
far west gave the owner of a small
capital who was earning a hard and
uncertain living as the tenant of a
little holding in Ireland chance of be-
coming Il prosperous farmer on his own
freehold in Nebraska or Colorado. The
recent emigration has been, in the
main, drawn from this class, and we
do not know how any legislative
changes in the Irish land laws can pos
sibly prevent the same causes from
continuing to operate in the future.
There is indeed, one feature in the sta
tistics of the Irish census. from which
it may be inferred that when the land
bill becomes law, the withdrawal of
small capitalists, generally men of en-
terprise and industry also, from Ireland
will be increased rather than dimin-
ished. Between 1871 and 1881, the
greatest decrease of population was in
Ulster, where the tenant fal mers have
had the protection of the custom recog-
nized by the act of 1870. The popula-
ton of Ulster in April last was less by
over $4,000 than that recorded in 1871,
while in Munster the diminution
amounted only TO $1,000, in Leinster
10000, and in COnnaught to $4,000.
1t is evident hat the small farmers
who had the privilege of selling their
tenant-right to the highest bidder in
the open market availed themselves
of it largely during the last few years,
and carried off the proceeds of free
sale" to the other side Of the Atlantic,
where they were led TO believe they
could employ a little capital TO much
greater advantage. There is strong
probability that the same results will
follow III other parts of Ireland when
free sale is granted by law to every oc-
cupier unless some unexpected check
to American prosperity shoald super"
yene.
Those who consider it most eXpedi-
ent that the superabundant population,
in those districts of Ireland where
there is chronic pauperism and con-
spicuous absence of capital applied to
the culture of tho soil. should be re-
lieved by systematic emigration under
the control of the state are 10y no
means satisfied with the prospect of a
drain upon the not too numerous class
of industrious and enterprising small
farmers. Henceforward this class Will
have something to turn into money,
not only in Ulster, but in the three
southern provinces, whenever they
choose to sell. They will be tempted to
do so whenever agriculture is unpros-
porous in Ireland, and prosperous in the
United States and the colonies. The
average price of the tenant-right of
farms in Ulster is far too high to ad-
nit of fair return upon the money,
and there is no doubt that it will run
as high or higher under the influence OF
the "land hunger in the other provin-
ces, where there is no other industry
to compete with farming. But what
has been the result of emigration from
4 Ulster? The abstraction OF large
capital in the aggregate-though small
in each particular case-fIom a coun'
try where the cardinal difficulty is the
want of capital is not to be contem-
plated with any satisfaction, especially
when it is borne in mind that the man
who sells the tenant-right and goes
away to a foreign country leaves his sue
cessor in the holding permanently
charged with the interest on the pur
chase-money. The benefits of the lant
bill, however great they may be, vii
scarcely induce enterprising men wh'
can command small capital 10y th'
exercise of free sale to stay at hom
when domestic adversely is contraste'
with foreign prosperity. But thi
kind of depletion, which is altogethe
beyond the regulation of law, is nc
that which is needed to solve the socia
problem in the most miserable port Q
Ireland. 1t is noteworthy and instru'
tive that while the small farmers {
Ulster carried away SO much capita
so much industry, and so much ente
, prise out of the country during IL
past ten years, the population of Il
, pauperized counties in some cases,
, in that of Mayo, was diminished on
) by fraction, and in some, rs in TN
of Kerry, actually showed a small
4 crease.
( London SMALLPOX Figures.
: LonlOn Truth.