New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-07
NO MORE MONEY FOR PARNELL.

the main collecting agency by which the Irish
land agitation has been sustained. The
lecture tours of Home Rule members of
Parliament have been remunerative, and the
treasurer of the National organization has
made handsome remittances, but Mr.. Ford has
been recognized as the American banker of the
Land League. Since the opening OF the irish
campaign he has collected and forwarded to
Dublin and Paris 1912, 54S SO. During the same
period he has organized as many as thousand
branches through the influence OF his Journal.
Indeed it was to him that Michael Davitt was
indebted for the original conception OF the
Land League itself. A man of genuine force
and remarkable powers Of organization, he has
been the main patron OF the movement which
Mr.. PANEL has headed. Without Patrick Ford
and the American base of supplies, the Land
League would have langushed long ago from
sheer inanition. The close of the subscription
fund which he has conducted with such signal
success must be regarded as fact of critical
importance in the history of the movement.
Mr.. Ford, being an outspOken man, dOrs not
leave the public in doubt as to his reasons for
closing the fund. In the current issue of Tile
Irish World is published letter over his
has arisen in the councils of the Irish party is
sharply defined. He closes the fund because
"a reaction has set in }" 4; or, rather. because
"a halt has been given to the logic OF the
movement" He charges that from the day of
the Kilmainham treaty there has been nothing
but going backward" He asserts that Lord
Randolph Churchill hit the mark when he said
that between Mr.. Gladstone and Mr.. Parnel
there was a difference of twenty per cent. lie
represents the Irish members of Parliament as
conducting "a class movement of the very
essence of Toryism ia half measure per-
Torrance ia quietng-down policy Ito
which no one believing in democracy and
Justice can give more than half heart" lie
repudiates the Parliamentary party and de-
clines to give cOuntenance or material support
to the deluson that Irelands battles are to be
fought at Westminster. He thus separates him.
self from Mr.. Parnell and the Parliamentary
party of compromise and reaction. He leaves
them to fight. out what he cOntemptuously
terms those constitutional sham battles Of
theirs" without having the financial support
and moral sympathy OF the Amercan-lrish.
BY an odd coincidence, one of the leaders OF
that party, Mr.. Mccarthy in the course of the
brilliant series of papers contributed to The
TRIBUNE few months ago, described Dr.
Butts tactics as series of sham fights, and
compared 1t 10 the strategy of a general OF the
past generation who regularly appeared on the
field and withdrew from it on the slightest
rainfall or when night approached According
to Patrick Ford the Parncllites only fight
ing over again the sham battles of DR.. Butts
time.
The close of the Land League fund and the
structures of the American Irish journal on the
course of the Parliamentary party will I'M
doubleday influence the reorganization of the
party in Ireland which is soon to be effected.
The new rules of procedure which Mr.. Glad
stone will probably succeed in carrying through
the Commons, will interrupt the Obstruction
tactics, by which Mr. Parnel has endeavored
to force Irish questions upon the attention OF
the English people. We remember that Mr.
Mccarthy has declared that human ingenuity
cannot devise any means whereby obstruction
can he absolutely IePressed in the Commons
But it is apparent that with the passage of the
new rules the Irish members can be easily
subjected to restraint and that divisions can be
ordered whenever debates are unduly pro-
tracted With the reform of procedure the
importance of The Irish members will be
materially diminished. Practical agitators
like Mr.. Ford perceive that the in
fuence of the Parliamentary delegation
will be speedily obscured. They favor
an abandonment of the lines at Westminster
and the reorganization of the party for an
effective agrarIan campaign on Irish soil.
Practical agitators in Dublin undoubtedly
share these views. They have already induced
Mr. Dillon to remain in the councils of the
party as the advocate OF Il more aggressive
policy. Now that the American fund is
abruptly suspended, they may thrust Mr.. Parnell
aside and change the aspects of the movment.
On this point the leading article in The Irish
World has direct bearing. 1t is an elaborate
argument against the policy of Parliamentary
agitation. 1t contends that Catholic emancipa-
ton was granted when there was not q single
Irish member at Westminster, that disestablish-
ment was not due to Parliamentary agitation,
and that it was the social revolution not the
influence of the Parnellltes, which opened "A
way for the Land Act. Certainly the logic of
history bears out the conclusion that these
great measures are to be ascribed to forces at
work in Ireland rather than to Parliamentary
agitation. Mr.. Parnell, of course, may retort
that the Arrears bill followed the lines marked
out by the Home Rule members, and Mr..
Mccarthy has ALREADY made an ingenious plea
in benalf of his Parliamentary associates.
But even If Mr.. Parnells critics are mistaken
in their logic, they have resolved not to send