The Irish standard., 1897-09-25
A GLOOMY PROSPECT.

The news from London leaves no
doubt of the lamentabe condition of Of
fairs in Ireland consequent on the fail
ure of the crops in that country The
leaders of the people are alive to the
disastrous situation and are passing
resolutions calling upon the government
to take timely steps to establish relief
works in the poorer districts. John Dill
lon has called a special meeting of the
council Of the Irish National Fedora
ton, to secure support from all sec
lions, and the Irish members of Par
lament are demanding an early as
sembling at Westminster to adopt meas
ures for averting famine. The author
tiles at Dublin Castle pay no heed to tho
warning cries coming from all quarters
of the island. Their organ, the Dublin
Express, asserts that the cry Of dis
tress is only continuation of the Ma
tionalist cry which is raised every time
the Unionists are in Office, and adds
that much of the crops doomed to de-
struction by the prophets of evil will
be rescued. and the general yield will
be much larger than expected" The
Irish government and it's satellites are
deaf to the cry OF impending famine,
and the imperial government will be
apt to follow sliit
1t devolves upon the Irish people
themselves to provide means for the
alienation Of distress, and their coun-
trymen all over the earth will come to
their assistance. A rumor is afloat to
the effect that the Duchess of York will
soon appeal for funds in behalf of those
in restitution, but the Dublin hide
dendent says that such action on her
part would be d gross insult and de-
clares that "if the country was ten
times as badly off as it is likely to be
it would resent any charitable appeal to
the English"
The Dublin Freeman's Journal in its
issue of September II, declares that
in some Of the poorer parts of the
country-principally in the south and
west-starvaton stares the people in
the face with the approach of winter.
Referring to the landlords who have no
desire of making any remission of rent,
and who are more insistent than ever
in years of distress, the Freeman says:
There is nobody who is more con-
WINGED of the honesty of the Irish ten
ant than the Irish landlord In the pros
porous year no knows he will be paid
in the year Of distress he goes to the
sheriff. because he knows there is just
the chance of getting his rent out of the
tenants stock before 1t is eaten into.
The land Is of course making no
economic rent under present conditions.
Economic rent pre-s,lpposes the pay
ment Of the shopkeeper and the mer-
chant and the recompensing of the ten
ant for his capital outlay before the
landlord gets anything. No such rent
is now made in Ireland. nor, if we are
to believe the statement made by the
English landlords, in England either.
The Hon. George Russell, writing an ar
ticle in the Nineteenth Century, which is
intended to poke fun at his relative,
the Duke Of Bedford. practically proves
that the duke derives his living income
from his ownership of English lodging
houses, and that his estates entail
dead loss Of $1,000 a year. The fact
is that Of the two classes subsisting on
the land one must eventually be elbowed
out, and as the cultivator can never
be spared the person to go is obviously
the landlord. With no excrbitant rent
to pay the Irish peasant could make the
bad year balance against the good Now
he has to choose between eviction and
starvation, except where the generosity
of the suffering shopkeeper is not
exhausted. Yet III this state of affairs
the great boon to Ireland this winter
is a commission appointed to decide, IL
possible, that the reductions given to
the tenants in their ren:s are too great"
AS we said LAST week in the IRISH
STANDARD. the landlords should get
only what is left after the tenant and
his family are provided with the neces-
saries Of life. Giving the landlords
their rents and then falling back on
public charity to sustain body and soul
together would be an Act of folly on the
part Of the Irish tenants If the land
lords resort to Harsh measures in COL
lecting rents in q year of distress. If
they evict the tillers of the soil from
their homes for the non payment of i'm
possible rents. and IL the Tory govern
ment In power gives them troops to aid
them in evicting their tenantry, let The
Irish leaders wage war OF extermina-
ticn against the inhuman monsters, and
the Irish race abroad can be depended
on for moral and financial support.
II the Irish leaders continue their
chickering's and allow their countrymen
to suffer for want Of concerted action
in the face OF landlord oppression in
the midst of famine. upon them and
them alone will rest the responsibility.