The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-08-26

alone that English rule is maintained in
Ireland am sorry to hear that in this
splendid district of Tipperary the grab
bers have taken advantage of the period
OF discussions to walk boldly ahead, and
to hold their heads as high as ii it was
no longer regarded as crime in Ire
land to strip and rob the poor and the
defenseless. Now, l tell you candidly
l hope you won't go through the farce
OF establishing the United Irish League
at all unless you have made up your
minds to make every branch OF it bat
talon OF men who will devote their lives
to make the grabbers and all their aid
ers and abettors feel that they were only
tolerated up to the present because the
country was distracted with discussion;
but that now the days of discussion are
over, and the days of grabbing are over
with them, have said that their aiders
and abettors are as bad as the grabbers
themselves. We have got plan in the
West that every shopkeeper who is
Nationalist puts his card OF member
ship of the League in his shop-window,
and in that way the grabber knows the
shop he ought to avoid, and the people
know the shop where they can deal
without helping the landlords to Danish
the widows and orphans from their
hearthstoncs. We must be cruel only
to be kind. The grabber and the shop
keeper who supports him have only to
give UP their evil work, and they will re-
ceivc pardon and absolution with
heart and a half from our kind hearted
people. I don't think we ought to go
back upon anything that is passive
ought to begin with clean slate from
this meeting fortll-but l tell you, you
have got to show these men that the
first business of the United Irish
League is to sweep landgrabbing out
OF Tipperary, and in spite OF all the
coercion law and judge-made law, that
was ever welded by Dublin Castle, you
have the power OF doing that without
violating law OF God, and without
committing a single deed for which this
government would dare to bring you
before jury OF your fellow-country-
men.
l don't think men like your gallant
member, Mr.. Condor, or the uncon-
querable "Star" man, are likely to be
very particularly terrified by the Whit
and wind OF the vicc-c hancellor's anath-
emas against the freedom OF the press;
but tell you here to-day you can deal
with anybody you please; you can de-
cline to look at the same side of the
road as the grabber; you can decline to
work for him, or to save his hay for
him, or to buy his meadowing from him
in spite OF all the horse, foot and artil-
lery of England. One meeting like
this, that will carry out such program
as that, does more to forward the cause
OF the evicted tenants than waste
paper basket of futile resolutions-more
than all the feeble attempts to start
rival associations, which never lead to
anything, and which can never get a
grip on the public opinion OF the coun-
try There is one other thing which
the farmers have to do as we'll as Civ
ing the cold shoulder to the grabbers
and that is to be kind to the laborers
and to make it clear to them that this
League is bound to fight their battles
as faithfully and as strenuously as the
battle OF the farmers. The help of the
laborer is one Of the most splendid
weapons against the grabber 1t is ar
indispensable weapon. No farmer who
is not selfish fool will fail to appre.
ciate how much the Irish cause owes tc
the laborers, and that debt will have tc
be paid honestly and generously in the
shape OF their acre of land and OF
whatever employment they can reason
ably obtain from the county and district
councils during the hungry winter
months. If you want to be the owners
OF your own holdings at 40 per cent less
than your present rents for evcrmorc-
you and your children after you'll tell
you you have only to put the screw
upon the government and the landlords
between this and the general election,
and the day is won.
Landlordism cannot possibly last
under its present conditions, if the peo-
pie only put their shoulders to the
wheel, and clear out the grabbcrs, and
make the landlords feel once more the
Inconvenience OF their present position,
which is like Mahomets coffin, that OF
men hanging between earth and heaven,
or rather between earth and a hotter
region down below. l don't know
whether it is the Liberals or the Tories
that will win the next general election,
and | don't greatly care. But what I
do know is that if the men OF Tipperary
give the landlords and the government
a touch of the Land League between
this and the general clcction-if you
freeze out the grabbcrs and fight the
battle of the evicted tenants, and induce