The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-12-03
acts are an utter sham and failure, so
far as the small farmers of the West are

tions Of $40 or ESQ year, and have
never subscribed pound to the organi-
cation that has won these reductions for
them. (Groans.) But these were Just
the people who least required protection,
and who least deserved it. In many in
stances those who profited most by the
land acts were the Orange farmers of the
North, who traded upon the sacrifices of
our poor people. and these were the
men who, instead of showing a spark of
gratitude, elected the other day as men,
Der for Fermanagh an Orange landlord,
who branded as an old ruffian the dead
statesman to whom the farmers of Fer
managh owe their reductions of rent.
These were the men and the lawyers
(groans), who have thriven and fattened
upon the land acts and the land commits
sion courts, but as to the small farmers,
1t may seem a startling thing to say,
but they would not be poorer men if all
the land acts from the act OF 1870 to the
act of 1896 were wiped off the statute
book in the morning. (Cries of "I'rue.')
One year of Land league methods or OF
United Irish league methods, which come
to much the same, would do more than a
century Of this tinkering litigation in the
land courts loud cheers), to bring about
the only real settlement of the land ques-
ton. which is the destruction of land
lordism. stock, lock and barrel (cheers),
and providing the people with holdings
out of which an honest and Industrious
man can support his children without
obliging the lord mayor of Dublin to beg
the world for charity for them (Hear,
hearO / have often heard the cry Of
the landlords: "Oh, that has nothing to
do with it; these people could not live
on these holdings If they had them rent
free" AS ii that were any excuse for
the landlords Of Connaught, who levy
two or three millions year of rent off
these lands, which they confess yield no
economic rent. But it is quite true, and
| fasten the landlords to that admission
that people could not live out Of their
present holdings if they had them rent
it is an unanswerablc argument for pro-
viding them with larger and better hold
ings? cloud checrs.} That is what
this United Irish league has started out
to do (cheers), and tell you that tho
moment we have succeeded in hammer
Ing the facts into the thick skull of John
Bull that it is a demand in which we are
are as sure OF succeeding as our fore
fathers were when they demanded the
repeal of the infamous penal laws
(Cheers.) It's English misgovcrnment
that is responsible for this state of
things. It's the old hell or Connaught
policy (gronns), and it Is the crimes Of
the exterminating landlords whom Eng
land subsidized to do their work What
are they going to do with these couple
of hundred thousand people? They
cannot well transport them to Bnrbndoes
as Cromwell did (groans); they cannot
forever sit down under the disgrace
they, the richest country in the world
of having at their door province where
the people are pinched with hunger,
while the cattle are heavy wl.n fat.
(Groans.) This agitation has blown
skyhigh the old lying legend that Con-
naught Is poor province cloud checrs),
condemned by nature TO stcrility and
famine. There are a good many rocky
wastes around the Connemara coast,
from which some of the population will
tn INn 10 GrI l,rI, st.,Il
farms. but even III the heart OF Come
mara, around Clifden and Oughterard
and Moycullen, | myself know immense
grazing tracts that are available at the
peoples doors (cheers), and which some
selfish grabber or shOpkeeper or hotel
keeper has appropriated, owing to the
peoples own almost criminal patience
and want of organization. (GrOansD
We will come at the cases of these Con-
nemara grazers and grabbers by and
by, one by one CHEERS and laughtcr);
but far outside of Connemara VIC have
only to cast our eyes over this province,
over that great grazing wilderness
around Athenry, and the great limestone
pitLIuo VI I"u5uI ga, VI mdyO iLUu
of ROscOmmOn. and in every county we
are able to point to hundreds of thou
sands of acres of the richest lands,
lands which are not even paying the
grazers, and when these facts are
brought home to the English minds in
the only way that anything Irish can be
brought home to them, by making the
country too hot for them (cheers), it is
impossible that any civilized state can
ever again see people starving, while on
every side of them there are the most
abundant means Of providing them with
holdings that would enable them to
bring up their children In health and
strength and decency In this beautiful
and pleasant land of ours cloud
cheers.) ] rc-ccho what Mr.. Roche has
just said, that neither in this nor In any
other matter is there the slightest use
in your looking to the English parlia-
ment until you have first done your duty
yourselves. (Hear, hcar) You will
naturally say, If the people OF Come
mara were so much interested in this
question they would not be lying dumb
and specchless while the fight is going