Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1892-06-28


curses on their lips.
In sevesty years preceding 1890
three and one-half mill ,ns of Irish
landed in the United States land
this does not include the children of
Irish parents who came from Britain
and British North America). II we
take into account those who were in
the colonies and those who came prior
to 1920. it is safe to say that Ireland
contributed to the United States not
less than four and quarter millions OF
people,; and that their descendants
are no fewer than thisteen millions,
which with the parent stock now liv-
ing, would swell the Irish element in
this country to something like fifteen
millions. Let us say that one. third of
this element has forgotten the parent
lske to which this life blood ought to
be traced. Let US say that the Irish
element IN the United States is ten
millions. They cast in Congressional
and Presidential elections two mill
lion votes. Their sway is absolute in
many American cities; they are pow
erful in the New England and Middle
States. When England drove them
out they did not seek homes in Geor.
gia, Alabama, South Carolina or Ken>
lucky. They settled in New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New
England, where Northern enterprise
and Northern capital built factories
and inaugursted public Improvements,
and gave them labor for their hands
and bread for their families. Act
ing under the natural law that
men decide to live where they
find least resistance to living, two
thirds OF all the Irish emigrants that
ever came to the United States settled
in that region bounded on the south
by the Ohio River, and on the west
by line drawn north and south
through the western limit of Pittsburg,
Pa. And yet it is strange, and to the
American mind incomprehe nsible, that
the tremendous political power OF this
vast mass Of men has been welded
almost solidly, until within the pres
ent decade, in cooperation with the
slave oligarchy of the South and ex.
actly in accord with the wishes and
interests of England, and in opposi>
'ion to the interests and desires of the
Northern people by whom these Irish
exiles were employed and among
whom they and their children made
their homes. At last the lines are
broken. and thousands of self.respect>
ing Irish>Americans refuse longer to
be dragged at the chariot wheels OF
England in American politics under
the lash Of the old slave oligarchy and
their allies in the cities of the North. +.
America and England cannot both
be foremost among the manufacturing
and commercial nations of the world
One Of them must go under. Eng
land or America-which? The de-
cision rests in the hands of Create,
Ireland. II free trade is to succeed
in this country, it can succeed only by
a practically solid "Irish vote" We
venture the belief that this vote can
never be solidiied for the Democratic
party on free trade platform. The
schoolmaster has been tamnering with
the lrishmen on both sides Of the
Atlantic, and the labors OF the educa,
tor have not been in vain. In the
following pages We have endeavored
to trace the growth and progress OIL
American principles in the Irish mind
The pictures have perhaps been
crudely drawn. Some people may
say that they have been too strongly
drawn, especially the pictures Of
famine in Ireland. But they repre-
sent facts, attestel by history anc
within the memory of living men. It
is not the writer's purpose to i..voke
a new Ireland in America. Quite
the contrary. 1t will be blessed da,
when the great rivers of immigration
shall be merged and mingled in the
ocean of American nationally. Blu,
$50 long as ono great political party il
this country lays claim to q sole
"lrish VOTE" regardless of the issue
to be determined, and seeks to per
petuate that claim, SO long will self
respecting Irish Americans resent tina
claim as odious and insulting, and in
sist that they arc not the pariahs o
American political society, but rae
of liberty>loving men net less Amer
can than other Americans, and VIII
insist upon voting for tho best in
terests of America in accordance wit
their own material welfare, their jude
ment and their consciences."