Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1884-09-06
The Irish in the United States.


The Irish in the United States.
That so many Irish-Americans
have become PrOtectionists in the
last ten years is not due merely to a
dislike of the country which poses
to the world as the inventor and pat
ron of Free Trade. Many of those
who hate England very heartily
still retain the preference they ac-
quiIed for the Free Trade theory
before they came to this country.
The change of opinion, in those who
have undergone it, is due to better
understanding of the true nature of
the Irish problem. That Free Trade,
even more than a vicious land sys-
TEN, is the real cause of Irish power
ty and misery is IA fact which lies on
the very surface of Irish history.
Bad as is the agricultural system of
Ireland, it is better than that of
countries which enjoy higher de,
gree of prosperity. Ireland still
has the small farm system, whose
destruction in England makes her
agricultural problem so difficult. 1t
was in truth the acGat Of mGnufac-
lures in connection aoith farming that
forced the Irishman to be a farmer,
whether he would or not, and which
obliged him to rent land on any
terms his landlord might choose to
exact. 1t Is this want that leaves
the Irish people ON the verge of a
famine, although even in bad years
the land produces far more food
than its people could consume.
Twenty million acres of Irish soil
are laid down IN grazing, to furnish
meat for the English cities; and it
is penal offense to put pillow into
land which the landlord has said
shall be reserved for grazing. On
the remainder of the reclaimed land
of Ireland the Irish people raise a
variety of crops. The five princi-
pal of these in 1SS2-an EXCEPTIONAL
ly bad year in Ireland amounted to
more than eight pounds of food a
day for every man, woman and child
reported in the census of 1881.
Ireland is the palmary instance
of the utter wretehedness to which
a country must sink when her man.
ufactures have been destroyed
by the overbearing competitions
of an industrial rival and the coun-
| try has not the autonomy required
for the protection of its industries
by law. Ireland before the Union,
under the Protective tariff laid on
British goods by her own Parlia-
ment, was advancing faster in the
development of her manufactures
than any other country of Europe.
The Treaty OF Union provided for
the gradual removal of those duties
and the establishment of Free Trade
with England. BY 1920 the re-
moval of duties war complete, and
the ruin of the manufactures OF
Cork, Limerick, and Dublin was
complete also. 1.-THE tyrannous
power of capital" to use Burke's
phrase, did the work as completely
as the sword could have done it, and
the path of the famine was prepared
before its feet. a.e.
1t is the growing knowledge OF
what Free Trade has done for Ire
land that II axes the Irish-American
voters indisposed to see the same
policy introduced into the country
of their adoption. We speak from
a close acquaintance with a large
number of them when we say that
they are inferior to no other of our
citizens in devotion to American
interests and in earnest purpose to
seek the good of the land in which
God has cast their lot. Its not their
fault If they are unable to forget the
land of their birth. They have left
their native country under an alien
and devastating rule, and are as
much exiles by forces asthough they
had been taken to the ship under a
guard of soldiery, as indeed many
were in 1847-50. The tyranny OF
English rule in ireland, once exer.
cised by the force of cold steel, in
the days of Sarsfield and his fellow
exiles, is not less powerful in these
days when gold has taken the power
of steel. and Ireland is depleted OF
its people by an economic policy
that makes their stay at home an
impossibility. Exiles as well as i'm
migrants they are-living instances
OF the tyrannies and injustices exer
cised under specious names.-From
i the PhiLd. American.