The Irish standard., 1901-06-29
IR1sH-AMER1cANs TO BLAME.


The great falling off in Ireland's pop
ulation during the past ten years has
been already commented on in these
columns. While England, Scotland
and Wales gained in population, Ire
land lost 26S,2O4. The result is mainly
due to British misrule; but the Irish
themselves, both at home and in Amer
lea, are somewhat to blame.
In leading article by William
O'Brien in the Dublin Irish People,
under the caption of "The American
Wake" it is clearly demonstrated that
Irish-Americans are largely responsible
for the vast emigration of the bone
and sinew Of Erin to Columbia's
shores. In the course Of his article,
which is written more in sorrow than
in anger, Mr.. O'Brien says:
"Do our Irish-American brethren re
alize that, by their celebrations and
their presents of passage-tickets, they
have within the last ten years ban
ished more of the Irish race from Ire
land than Cromwell succeeded in trans
porting into Connacht?
at is hard thought-an appalling
one-but that and many another un-
pleasant truth have got to be looked
straight in the face if there is to be
any stop to the tragedy of hacking our
old race to pieces which is going on be-
fore our eyes.
Needless to say, the generous sons,
sisters. and cousins who shower tens
Of thousands of passage tickets every
year upon their relatives in ireland,
and joyously welcome them at the
landing-stage, are not conscious of the
bitter wounds they are inficting upon
tlle Irish cause. The hearts of millions
Of them will instantly melt into ten
derness at thought of the stored isle
beyond the Atlantic mists which to
their last hour will still be home. Their
blood would burn like lava if any op-
portunity offered of being even with
her Saxon masters.
"It becomes all the more necessary
for Irish-America to ponder we'll the
disagreeable-indeed, horrifying-truth
that the only contribution she has been
making for years to our struggle
against all the might of England has
been to seduce forty thousand year
of our sparse battalions, and that in
the tremendous effort by which Ireland
has put an end to the greatest civil
strife that ever rent our race"
What Mr.. O'Brien says regarding the
prepayment of passage tickets by Irish
Americans is too true; and in future
the exiled sons Of Erin in America
should discourage their kindred from
leaving home instead of paying for
their transportation hither. We be-
lieve that Irish-Americans in the east
ern cities who pay the passages of their
relatives in Ireland in order to procure
mental employment and dwell in tene-
ment houses are guilty of wrong to
their own flesh and blood. The young
men Of ireland who come to the United
States from the farms should not settle
In the seaboard towns. They should
go west and settle on the land where
they can become Independent and be
their own masters in a few years. The
young men Of Ireland who have nei-
ther trades nor professions should
give a wide berth to the large cities
If they wish to rise in the world. Bet
ter for them to stay at home and fight
landlordism than to come to America
to eke out miserable existence in the
big, overcrowded cities of New York,
Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago
where hard work awaits them, the like
of which they never knew at home.
MIR. O'Brien is right in saying that
the only contribution made by Irish
Americans toward the struggle against
England during the past decade is to
take away 10000 a year of Ireland's
population. That sort of a contribu-
ton should Immediately cease. If it is
kept up much longer the cause of Irish
independence will be lost forever.
lrish-Americans are unwittingly acting
as auxiliaries Of England in draining
Ireland of its young men and maidens.
Since the unhappy split in the Irish
party over the leadership of Parnell,
1rish-Americans have done very little
FOR ireland in a financial way. The
fact is, the faction fighting of ten long
years is responsible for their apathy.
Now that the Irish are again united it
Is time. that 'Irish-Americans should
render them every support in their