The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-04
BOURKE COCHRAN
 PLEADS FOR IRISH Speaks to Audience of 5000
 People in Chicago IRELAND ONCE PROSPEROUS Now It Is the Only Country In Which People Neither Own Land Nor :
 Control Government
 Over Them.
IRELAND ONCE PROSPEROUS

Chicago, June 3.-A meeting of the 1rish-Americans of Chicago at the Au- ditorium tonight to protest against the ceercien laws in force Tn nine counties in Ireland. was porhars the largest demon stration of It's kind ever neld in this city.
 Bourke Cochran was the principal speaker and when he began his address about S.000 persons Jcintd in the applause that greeted. him. Crowds thronged the avenues outside, being disappointed in being unable 10 gain admission.
 MT. Cochran said in part:
 Coercion as applied to the Irish people is the exclusion of that people from the exercise and enjoyment of civilized gov ernment. It Is the suspension of the or dinary law and 1t m means the government of the people by extraordinary law. Now in Ireland the government accuses an Irishman of some act which 1t may con slider opposition of a criticism of public measures He is tried, not before any impartial court, but before removable magistrates-magistrates removable by the government itself-so the accuser and the judge practically are appointed by the same forces. Similarly every other elementary law of human kind has been denied the Irish.
 Do Not Own Land.
 Ireland is the only country in which the people own neither the land upon which they live, nor control the govern ment under which they live The Irish question arises from the demand of the Irish to control both their people and their land, while the English government T 1o,,Eo k1,a .tohk a,,A 1oa A1 ao the demand. It is a dual question alien ownership of the land and alien owner ship of the government; these are the Irish grievances. The difference is in every other country the settlers have settled upon the soil of which they had control, they have intermarried with the people from that intermarriage new gov ernments were evolved but in Ireland the owners of the soil never lived on 1t and never saw 1t; but obtain and retain ownership of a sort of confiscation. This alone is enough to destroy Irish property.
 Formerly Prosperous.
 up to the middle of the seventeenth century Ireland led the world in the ship ping and raising of cattle, horses and other live stock, and in woolen manufac- ture Up to this period the owners of the soil lived on 1t, and in good time became more Irish than the Irish themselves, but In William HTS time the land was given over to England and the English. The original owners were allowed to come back and settle on the lands, but only as tenants. The result was to destroy their occupation of exporting live stock and in due time the only occupation open for the Irish was agriculture. This they pur- sued, and with only slight encourage ment and under mary restrictions. For instance, if a man improved the soil his rent was raised; if he refused to pay rent he was evicted Thus it was in every | other instance"
 MT. Cochran contended that the Irish have fully shown their industrial ca- | pacity. In conclusion he pleaded for American support for the Irish cause