The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-15
THE IRISH PROBLEM.
Intelligent Views of an English Cor
respondent.

ASSRVuNSANs
In letter to the London Daily
News, Mr.. g. II. G. Masterson says:
Every hour spent in Ireland deepens
the conviction that the land system is
the root of disturbance. No content
ment or tranquility is in the least de.
gree possible until the land problem at.
tains solution. The country has no in.
dustries or manufactures; mineral
wealth appears absent; the fisheries
can never affect more than few. On
the possession of layer of earth a
few feet thick in the center, few
inches thick in the west, appears to
depend the survival of the Irish race
in their own land
No system outside Bedlam has prob
ably ever been devised so paralyzing to
industry and enterprise as the dual
system of Irish Land tenure. Mr..
Gladstone's great act of 1881, the char
ter of the Irish peasant, marked indeed
an epoch-making change. But the
change was not so much Of a policy
which can have but one termination.
The fastening of that end should be
the effort Of all statesmen, concerned
with the future either of Ireland or
the Empire. The present transitional
period in certain respects is less salts
factory even than the old evil sys-
TEN. Then good landlord might hope
to improve the land by personal inter-
est and expenditure; in the future the
peasant will be able to put all his eff
fort into his own holding. But now
in the interregnum the landlord not
unnaturally stands aloof, refusing to
spend money on an estate from which
he can only draw a legal rent dimin
ishing at every revision. And the ten
ant possesses none of that sonsn of So
,curity and permanence w!::::.'' would
justify the free expansion of his ener-
gies. The land court, indeed, gives O
"far rent" which cannot be increas
ed. But large number of estates
have never passed through the court;
many are hopelesSly tied up in that
interminable tangle of red tape which
the Land Commission has collected
around it, And even the tenants that
have passed successfully through two
revisions feel no inducements towards
solid improvement. Every fifteen years
they know that their rent will be re-
vised by Commissioners who seem to
have excited with singular unanimity
the distrust alike of landlord and ten
ant They are convinced that any i'm
prOvement in house or holding will
mean a rise in rent or at least Il lesser
reduction. a large part of the west
bears no economic rent at all, but
the Commissioners have rarely pos
sessed the courage to reduce it to a
nominal sum. And above all, the
sense of insecurity and the uncertain
ty of the next move in the methods OF
treatment of Ireland in the English
parliament pcrmcatcs all classes. The
tenants see for example the Fry Com
mission demanding 81 standard for rent
fixing. not the fair economic value of
the land, but the amount that it would
fetch in the open market. They heal
the landlords clamOrous for Legislation
on those lines. They know the land
hunger is so great that such IL method
would force trent" up to any con
ceivable sum paid by donation from
America and England. And they fal
back on the patient inertia which they
have learnt under six centuries of Eng
lish rule. No hope Of economic sccur
ity in Ireland Is possible till the lant
question receives n final settlement.
Everywhere I have visited, north
south and west, I have been confront
ed with the same facts. Land is farm
ed on the most wasteful methods; di
lapidation and decay are permitted
free triumph; cooperation and meth
DDS of improvement are distrusted be
cause the tenant, reasoning from TIN
experience of centuries, is convinced
will be snatched from him. Only wher,
good security has been attained doe
a different spirit prevail. Comparison
of Wexford with West Meath, Of til,
Dillon with the De Freyne estates, ell
forces conviction that the only posi-
BILE solution is that demanded by s
practically united nation. COmpulsor!
purchase Mt a fair valuation of til,
landlords rights in the tenants hold
ings Is the immediate need Of Ireland
1t is not confiscation, for the peasant!
are willing to pay fair price.
would not eliminate the educated
classes" for the landlords. If the!
wished. could retain their demesne
and ancestral homes. 1t demands F,
larger policy than that continual tinlz
ering with the question which makes
an Irish Land Bill permanent item
in the governments bill Of fare.
would require, also, in addition to
pledge of government credit on a SAT
security, free grant of government
money. But such would be little NOR
than restoration of some of the boot
plundered from Ireland in violation o