The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-06-07
great military and naval power? What
shall it profit man if he shall gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?
LEAVING. THE OLD LAND.

The population of Ireland, so fast
decreasing, has caused the Irish hier-
archy to make an earnest appeal to
their clergy and to others who exert
any popular influence, to do all in their
power to induce the people to remain
and disagreement in Ireland is doing
it's work. In the face of it all, this
preamble, so faithfully and earnestly
presented, will find most hearty en-
dorsement wherever read and should
be the means of checking the exodus.
The preamble reads as follows:
"The population of Ireland having
decreased by quarter of n million of
inhabitants within the last ten years,
and by little short of four millions
within the last half century, we can
not but regard this continued depletion
with feelings of deep anxiety for the
fortunes Of our race in their own
country.
is there any parallel to the fact here
presented? Modern history fails to af-
ford any analogy for it. We are conf
PEELED to revert to the pre-Christan
times. when Egyptian and Babylonian
oppression compelled the flight of the
chosen people en- masse, in order to
establish a precedent" The b2dy of
the Indictment is found in the succeed
ing paragraph:
eve. therefore. deem it pressing
duty to publicly discourage the ruinous
outflow of our people from their own
country, where providence has provid-
ed sufficient room for them. if only
they We're employed in cultivatins Irish
land and engaged in the manufactur-
ing and industrial occupations that
should find a place in every city, town
and village of Ireland"
Before the union with Great Britain.
Ireland was largely land of tillage
farms and cottage industries. Then
she supported a large population in
comparative comfort. The big grazier
and the big factory have changed al
that. They have left her solitary fields
and crowded towns-a land dotted all
over with melancholy eye-offending
ruins of the once-happy homes of a
brave and virtuous peasantry. The
immediate fruits Of the union We're the
destruction of the chief industries of
Ireland and the conversion Of her resi-
dent nobility into absentee landlords.
Thus the ground was cleared for the
'mortgagor. and the mortgagor becom-
ing in time the evictor. cleared the
ground for the big grazier. The big
grazier, the big emigrant ship and the
big factory comprise the sad triology
of 1reland's story of ruin.
Now the Irish bishops earnestly ap.
peal to the people of money and enter
prise in Ireland to provide industrial
employment for the working popula-
ton. so as to retain it in the country:
and they appeal to the people them
selves to patroniZe homemade goods in
preference to English manufactures.
They have made that appeal in terms
the most impressive that men can use.
Every true friend of Ireland in Ameri-
ca as well as in all other parts of the
world. will best show love for the old
land by seconding the efforts Of Ire
lands Jealous and devoted bishops and
clergy by dissuading those of their
friends who desire to swell the volume
of emigration from that course of ma
tional suicide"