The Irish standard., 1902-07-19
One is Rev. DR.. Walter M'Donald, Prefect of
the Dunboyne Establishment,
Maynooth College.
The Other is His Eminence Cardinal Moran.
the Archbishop of Sydney
New South Wales.

plined, sober, thrifty? How did he
get the money to pay his passage?
Did he earn it himself or help his
family to save it working hard and
spending little? If he is that kind
of man 1 cannot but think that he
will do better in America than he
can hope tc do at home, with no more
prospect but that of an unskilled la
borer at ten or twelve shillings week.
But if. as unhappily occurs too often,
the intending emigrant has laid by
nothing. and comes from family
where nothing has been laid by: above
all. if he is not habituated to pass the
public houses without going in to have
his fun with the Jolly fellows there
assembled, I would advise him to fit
himself fer emigration before he leaves
Ireland. Let him go to work here
even though the wages are small. It
is much easier to discipline oneself at
home than in the un-Catholic and
even materialistic atmosphere of Eng
lish and American cities. And if, as
a result of two or three years of work
and scant pay in Ireland he has ac-
quired the self-control and thrift and
good sense of the German, possibly
also some little Of the "stake" which
the latter is wont to take with him
across the ocean, his time will not have
been thrown away, and he may get
n different advice if he should come
to ask for it in his reformed condi-
tion. In his present state-wth the
habits he has formed-I do not think
any prudent priest could advise him
to leave Ireland. If, however, as is
not unlikely to happen, he will set off
without delay, I would advise him
strongly to resist the attractions of
higher wages and city life, to go out
to the great agricultural region in the
centre or west of the United States
or in Canada, and to continue the
mode of life in which he has been
trained so far. What I have said an
plies to girls as well as to men, with
an importanL modification. Our coun-
try girls areas a rule, more thrifty than
their mothers. and. therefore, better
prepared to emigrate and settle down
in cities. They are much in demand
as servants. and if an irish girl is
fairly good looking. neat, and anxious
to learn her business and push herself
on. with good health she can in few
years make herself a comfortable posi-
ton. 1t is of the greatest importance
she should have been reared in habits
of neatness, order, and cleanliness;
from this point of view it is almost
impossible to over-estimate the econ
cmic loss that dirt and slovenliness
have caused and are causing to the
Irish peasantry. A girl reared in
a dirty, ill-kept home, by an untidy
slattern of a mother cannot be ex-
pected to make good servant, or have
any desire to profit by the advantages
thrown in her way. 1 need not refer
to the necessity Of making sure Of the
character Of the people who propose
to take an emigrant girl into their
household. This is 50 important that
she should be slow to depend on the
advice of any friends she may have
in the place. Too often it happens
that these do not recognize the i'm
portance of this matter. Let her con-
suit the priest or the sisters, and if
on her arrival in New York she knows
no one and has no safe place to go,
let her make out the agent Of the
Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary,
who will take care of her and procure
for her situation in which she will
be safe. My study of this phase Of the
emigration question has convinced me
that there are two main reasons why
so many Irish emig1ants have failed
in America: they have little skill in
labor, and they lack moral discipline.
The two defects act on and intensity
each other. Thus, if we ask how it
comes that SO many of our emigrants
take no trade with them to their new
home, the answer will be that in many