The Irish standard., 1897-01-23
The Bond of Political Union Be-
coming More and More
Necessary in Ireland.
Landlordism and English Greed
the Cause of FIJI the Agita-
ton Now Going On.
Irishn1en Without Regard to Par
ty Should Unite at Once
in Demanding Redress.

The great significance of the meetings
now being held in Ireland to protest
against the financial practices Of Eng
land will be apparent on considering the
rel lation between overtaxation and land
l6rdism says w. M. G. in g late issue of
.he Irish World Nothing in Ireland is
so potential in combining the masses Of
the people in q. political agitation as the
land question. This question is of as
grave import for the landlord as for the
tenant. The former has tried to justify
rackrents and despotic methods by
showing the hardness of his own condi-
ton. He is pressed between the upper
and neither millstones of rapaciOus taxa
ton and increasing arrears of rent. No
wonder that he sometimes feels despe-
rate, The mistake he has made, how
ever has been to look to England for
help, instead of looking to better econ
omic conditions in Ireland for relief.
He has procured coercion laws, and fos-
tered the expansion of an anti-Irish con-
stabulary. He has looked upon his ten
ants as enemies, and acted so as to make
himself a aend in their eyes. And all
this wrongheadeilness is the result of
not giving calm and common sense con-
sideration to the facts of his environ
mept.
In the first place. there are ten men in
ireland living on the land where there
should be only two. 1t is fact that
ever since the union the number Of
agriculturists have been five times too
many. If ireland had been treated like
Scotland there would have been SO many
diversified industries in the former that
the pressure on the land would have been
relieved, the land owners would have a
instead of an excess of impecunious ones,
and the land question would never have
attained prominence.
In the next place, the money pumped
out Of Ireland should have remained
there to give employment to the people,
to finance their industries, to be invested
in public works, and to return with
hundred fold blessings to the Irish peo-
pie, rich and poor. It is a matter Of COM
mon belief in Ireland that rents are too
high, and no matter how they are re-
duced there is still the same difficulty
in collecting them, SO that 1t is averred
that there is no economic rent at all in
a great part of the Irish estates. No
matter how low the rent is made, no
matter how many arrears are wiped
away, the tenants have the same recur-
ring difficulty in paying rent. And if
there were no rent at all, there are
thousands of cases where the condition
of things would pauperize the farmers.
This increasing pressure comes from
the action of the pump. Taxation is in
creasing; the land owner is taxed for
thousands of officials and thousands OF
police and thousands of paupers that are
the concomitants of the plundering and
wasteful system that England works for
her own benefit in Ireland. The tenant
ry feel this taxation in the price of every
thing they buy as we'll as directly. And
so the landlord finds his rental reduced
without the tenant being benefited in
the least end all the result is that Eng
land wakes richer on the impoverish-
ment of the Irish landlord and tenant.
It rs needless to go into this subject
farther, for the more the economic Dues
tion Is Investigated, the more clearly the
one inevitable result is demonstrated.
From every point Of view we are logic
ally led to the single conclusion that
England's greed is the cause of all the
suffering, starvation, land agitation and
enforced idleness of Ireland. England
never carried into effect the compact of
union. She never granted to Ireland the
relation Of sisterhood Ireland, like In
I dia and Jamaica, has been ruled since
1900 as crown colony. Her admins
traitors are Aliens and as they have no
stake in the country they consistently
subordinate her interests to those OF
England.
How different wo,l7 It be were all the
officials Of ireland Irishmen, living with
L their families and relatives in Ireland,
interested in her progress and prosperi-
ty, working according to their lights Tor
D her true benefit? But Ireland is ruled by.
~ Lord Lieutenant, who is almost always
G No foreigner, and Liberal as. well as Con-
SS servative governments have invariably
sSfoisted an alien into the Office OF chief
q ssecretasy, and the boards are always re-
,letes with Englismen or Scotchnaen, to
III l,sion Of native Iris hlnaen. This
d u a Il Il u part 81 /. deep.
Ss Ssl At sar sto