The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-28
The Irish in the United States.

From The Philadelphia American.
That so many Irish-Americans have be-
come PTotectionists in the last ten years
is not due merely to dislike of the coun-
try which poses before the world as the
inventor and patron of Free Trade. Many
of those who hate England very heartily
still retain the preference they acquired
for the Free Trade theory before they
came to this country. The change Of
opinion i'll those who have undergone it,
is due to a better understanding of the
true nature of the Irish problem. That
Free Trade, even more than a vicious land
system, is the real cause of Irish poverty
and misery is 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 far
higher degree of prosperity. Ireland still
has the small-farm system, whose de-
Struction in England makes her agri-
cultural problem so difficult. It was in
truth the acaqat of manufactures in con-
qseet5oss aoith farming that forced the Irish
imam to be a farmer, whether he would or
! mo, and which obliged him to rent land on
amy 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 pro-
duces far more food than its people could
consume. Twenty million acres OF Irish
sell are laid down in grazing, to furnish
| meat for the English cities; and it is
penal offense to put q pillow into land which
! the landlord has said shall be reserved for
grazing. On the remainder of the re-
claimed land Of Ireland the Irish people
| raise q variety of crops. The five princi-
pal of these in 1SS2-an exceptionally bad
year in Ireland-amounted to more than
eight pounds of food q day for every man,
woman, and child reported in the census
of 1881. s., as &C.,.
Ireland is the palmary instance of the
utter WretchednesS to which country
must sink when her manufactures have
been destroyed by the overbearing compe-
titionS of all industrial rival and the cOun-
try has not the autonomy required for the
protection of its industries by law. Ire
land before the Union, under the Pro-
tective tariff laid on British goods by her
own Parliament, was advancing faster in
the development of her manufactures than
any other country of Europe. The Treaty
Of Union provided for the gradual re-
noval of those duties and the establish
Il lent Of Free Trade with England. BY
Il go the removal OF duties was complete,
al I'd the ruin of the manufactures of Cork,
Limerick, and Dublin was complete also.
L .Iio OJlduuOuo pOWCI VI Oteploeti, W uoO
Blu rke's phrase, did the work as completely
as The sword could have done it, and the
pat Of the famine was prepared before
its Feet.
1t is the growing knowledge of what
Free Trade has done for Ireland that
max es the Irish American voters indiS-
pose a to see the same policy introduced
into the country of their adoption. We
spea from d close acquaintance with a
large, number of them when we say that
they are inferior to no other class Of our
citiz ems in devotion to American interests
and in earnest purpose to seek the good OF
thel md in which God has cast their lot.
1t is not their fault if they are unable to
forge It the land of their birth. They have
left heir native country under an alien
and devastating rule, and are as much
exiles by force as though they had been
taken to the ship under guard of soldiery,
as in deed many were in 1847-50. The
tyran ny Of English rule in Ireland, once
exerci sed by the force of cold steel, in the
days Il Sarsfield and his fellow exiles, is
not lie IS powerful in these days when gold
has ia ken the power of steel, and Ireland
is dep eted Of its people by an economic
policy that makes their. stay at home an
imposs 'ibility. Exiles as well as immi-
grants they are-living instances of the
tyrann les and injustices exercises under
SpeciO rs names.