The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-11-24
OPPOSED TO EMIGRATION.
William O'Brlen Advises His Country
men to Stay In Ireland.


There is still goodly number Of
young people left in Ireland. Many
who thought they We're Il little too
Inexperienced to leave their native dis
tricts and face the world last year are
already looking forward to the end
of the winter and the opening of the
next "Emigration Season. while
many others have succeeded in saving
as much money as will satisfy the
immigration Commissioners in New
York since the close of the last dread
"Scason." says William O'Brien in the
Dublin Irish People. And before the
end Of March the captains of the trans
atlantic liners will have prepared their
steeragc accommodation forthe sum-
mer traffic; the officials of the great
carrying companies will be busy re-
ceiving the money of the emigrants
aud issuing passage tickets;' the
have begun to reap their harvest; and
the Ion forlOrn procession of wander
ers will march day after day down the
steep streets of the Southern port, over
the gangways into the tenders-and
then away across the Atlantic to the
great heartlcss. Western Continent,
where the peasant girls from fair Irish
valleys "spend their lives in factories
where naught is heard from morn till
eve but the mad whirr of machinery,
with now and then, perhaps, a ribald
jest or obscene remark to relieve the
neutrality-suspicious. these girls care
coopcd up without air, sweltering in
the heat from Kissing boilers and pant
ing piston rods"--and where our young
men, fresh from the pure open air Of
their own land. "may soon afterwards
be seen. with Italian laborers for their
companions, digging the New York
sewers under a blazing sun, and burst
ing their hearts to keep pace with men
who have been brought up to constant
sordid, unremitting toll"
"Thc Liberty of the Subject is IL
fine phrase, with limitations. Divine
and human laws agree in forbidding
suicide. And every Irish emigrant
who leaves the country While there is
a possibility of living within it's bor-
ders. is an accomplice in the slow self
murder of a nation. Had patriotic
Irish statesman the command of a
small army of Irish volunteers, he
would be quite satisfied in placing Il
regiment on the Quay at Queenstown
with strict instructions to forbid the
passage of any would-be digger of
New York sewers from the country.
II. myself said Mr.. Il. p. O'Connor,
at the National Convention, 'if had
the power, would put n wall Of fire
around the shores of Ireland so that
her people may be kept here ut home"
Rackrenters and evictors, the horrors
Of the famine and the want of employ
ment, originated Irish emigration. 1t
goes OH ceaselessly because the people
have for two generations. become ac-
customed to look abroad rather than
make up their minds to fight for the
land at home.
A young fellow in an Irish country
district will take little interest in tho
National struggle. ''Why should 1
bother?" he asks himself. "Next year
or the year after shall be in Ameri-
ca" And he goes-to feel the heart
hunger of the exile while he digs the
sewers-to learn too late to long for
Ireland, and to love her with love
that would have kept him clinging to
her soil while dry crust remained for
him had it been awakened ere he
yielded to what he deemed the de-
crees of memorable fate.
In the first place, we must strive to
rouse the entire people, and force them
to believe in their own future in Ire
land. Ten millions of money are cart
ed out of this country by the rack