The Irish standard., 1897-10-09
THE LAND CRABBERS
THE INHUMAN MONSTERS CONDEMN.
ED by WILLIAM O'BRIlsN.
At A GREAT NATIONALIST MEETING
IMPASSlONED APPEAL IN AID OF
THE EvICTED TENANTRY,
The NECESSITY Of NATIONAL UNITY
A PATRIOTIC PLEA by THE GIFTED
MEMBER OF PARLIAME2Mr.

II.
The following is condensed report
OF an address recently delivered by
WIN. O'Brien, M. F., to a mass meet
ing Of farmers in the village of Athca,
! county of Limerick:
Heavily as the evcted tenants have
suffered, homeless and poor, and ap-
parently deserted by the country at
whose call they gave up their homes,
the general body Of the farmers of Ire
land have been still heavier losers by
| the abandonment of tho evicted ten
| ants (hear, hear). This may seem a
| strange statement, but l believe 1t can
be very easily proved. You groan and
| complain because the grabber has found
place in your midst. Yes, you are
| quite right in groaning. The land
| grabber In Ireland is the most selfish
and the most detestable creature that
walks Gods earth CHEERS No words
could be too strong to denaunce his
| injustice to the poor-his dishonesty
and treachery towards his brother Irish
farmers. The doctrine seems to be laid
| down of late in Ireland that once a
man seizes his neighbor's farm, he be-
comes being so sacred that, like the
Emperor William, it becomes a crime
of "lese majestic" to utter an irreycrcnt
word of him. l repudiate that doctrine
(cheers) and am prepared to tramplc
upon 1t from one end OF the country
to the other if the people mean busi-
ness (renewed cheers.) But what do
you think the g1abber will care for
your opinion or mine SO long as he
KNOWS that the evicted tenants who
once made the country too hot for the
grabber are abandoned by the men
they fought for. A subscription to the
evicted tenants is better weaDon than
! groan to hurl at the head of the
grabber (cheers), and on the other
hand every man who withholds his
subscription is giving comfort and 10y
and encouragement to the grabber In
what the Archbishop OF Cashcl Uoud
cheers) in Il memorable letter has de-
scribed as his ignpble trade But there
is something more, and something still
worse. We have before us winter
which tho strongest farmer In the
country shudders to look forward to
| (hear, hcar). travelled through the
greater part Of the country in the win
ter in which the Land League was
started, and I have no hesitation in
saying that the destruction of crops
and the whole outlook of the farmers
Is blacker and more desperate now
than 1t was then (hear, hear). In all
| the poorer parts of the country there
won't be a potato left before Christ
mas, and even the foreign flour, that
has been the salvation of the people
for the last few years, has already
risen from Is I'd to Is 1Od a stone and
will go on rising higher. In many
districts that l know there will inevit-
ably be hunger and famine next spring
unless the government look alive, and
that quickly (hear, hcar). The Irish
farmers are in the position that their
house is on fire and they have neg
| lccted to pay the policy Of insurance
that would have enabled them to reco,lp
themselves for their losses. The cvict-
ed tenants were their policy of insllr-
ance (cheers). AS long as they were
enabled to hold the fort they insured
the Irish tcnantry good reductions, Sc
curity in their homes and security
against the grabber. But what is The
state of affairs now? Why, the land
lords, instead Of getting ready to give
ATTACHMENTS this winter, are organizing
to prove to the new Royal Commits
sion
A Voicc-rhc Landlord Commission.
Mr.. O'Bricn-That your rents are en-
tircly too low. This Fry Commission
iron (chcers and laughtcr), is appoint
ed not to lower the l%nts, but to raise
them.
The whole cry of the landlords is
that the wretched reductions in the
land courts are entirely too large, and
that the Irish tcnantry are reveIing
in prosperity and luxury. Were it not
that the National Federation and the
National League, out of very slender
| funds indeed, are endcavOrng to fight
the tenants battle before this Commits
sion, the whole case of the tenants
would have been left derclct, for the
tenants have no organization and no
funds and the landlords are organizing
and agitaung and subscribing and ear
rying all before them. And that al
though almost every day this harvest
was in itself No Rent manifesto is.
sued by the skies of heaven (checrs).
Why, If the country was properly or
ganized and sufficiently hot this win
ter. It's not a commission to make ducks
and brakes of the Land Acts we would
have, but we would have the Tory
government rushing helter-skelter to
] pass an act to pull down the judicial