The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-27

] Ill give you an example. COMPRISING
/ parts of this and other unions there is
great property called the Dillon es-
tate, owned until a few years ago by
Lord Dillon, and before him by his
ancestors. There are ninety three
thousand acres in this one estate Now
listen. Arthur Young. the famous Eng
lisA traveller and writer. visited this
district one hundred years ago He
described the Dillon property, ard said
the annual rental derived by the own
er was twenty-five thousand dollars.
Mark you. now. Lord Dillon never
visited his estate He never turned
his hand to improve it. He never erect
ed a farm building or built a fence or
dug drain. He simply lived in Eng
land, while his agents and bailiffs col
lected the rents from the tenants here
And in 1897 the rent-roll amounted to
one hundred and thirty thousand dol
lars a year. In eighty years the i'll
come OF the landlord had increased to
five times the original amount. He had
done absolutely nothing. The tenants
had done everything. And as fast as
they drained and reclaimed the land
and built houses and fences, just SO
fast was the rent raised on them. They
made the improvements and paid for
them; and when at any time, whether
through crop failure or sickness or
sheer inability to pay, ten tenants
! could not meet the demands Of the
agents they were evicted, othec tenants
| replaced them at increased rents, and
the profit of all their labor was seized
by the landlord. 1t was by this system
that the people have gradually been
! forced to take the miserable patches
| you saw to-day, while within a short
distance there are thousands of acres
! look Theodore's hand which he held out
of good land devoted to cattle grazing,
Il have mentioned the Dillon estate
! because it serves as an example of
what can be done. The congested dis
! tricts board was able to arrange the
! purchase of this great tract in March,
1899. The price paid was fourteen hun
bred and fifty thousand dollars. We
have spent more than one hundred
thousand dollars for drainage, fencing,
rOadmaking, the Improvement Of
houses and Outbuildings, and will spend
| forty thousand dollars more. What is
the result? The land has gone back to
the people. The twenty-five hundred
/ tenants and their families are gradual
| ly being made owners of the farms
| they work Hovels are disappearing,
and stone houses, with slate roofs, are
taking their place. Thte annual pay
ments of the tenants amount to only
two-thirds of what they paid for rent,
yet in a term of years they will own
the land absolutely. You understand,
of course, that this land was not
! bought by the government and present.
| ed to the people. They must pay for
every acre of it. But the payments
are so arranged as not TO be burden
some, and before each thrifty tenant
there is something to work for, the GER
tainty that he or his children will even
tually own his little farm.
1.-THE difference between that estate
| and those adjoining, which are still
| held by landlords, tells the whole story
A member of Parliament went among
the Dillon estate tenants recently, and
asked them how they were doing
( Why, bless you, sir said one farmer.
| we're as happy as a choir Of angels.
And on the very adjoining estates you
will find scores of holdings from which
! the unfortunate tenants have been
evicted within the last six months; you
will find those who remain paying fifty
! per cent. more for rent than these pay
| for purchase, and you will find those
| estates the very hotbed of agitation,
with the police exercising the oppres-
sive coercion laws to the extreme limit
of severity. This contrast is inevitable
1t cannot be expected that tenants who
see their neignbors treated with justice
and humanity. while they themselves
are still ground down and oppressed
will not be disconnected. In this i'm
mediate vicinity, as [ have said, there
| is no good land available. The con-
gested districts board is devoting it's
energies to charging the small hold
| ings where possible; to assisting the
most deserving tenants, and to encour-
aging improvements. But the only
remery for the whole intolerable sys-
tenn is he abolition of dual ownership
| of the land. Landlordism, as Ireland
knows it, is an anachronism. The peo-
pie who occupy the land, and farm it
and improve it, must be made the own
ers of it."
"How about the political agency
which is working for this REFORM I
! asked. Are you in favor of the united
Irish league?" "In favor if it," cried
Father O'Hara My dear man, I am
heart and soul with it, and so is every
good priest in Ireland from the highest
to the lowest. I tell my people so, too.
L say to them: The united Irish
league is fighting for you. You must
: fight with it. The best way for you to
fight is to give money, and you ought
to do it because every one of you will
benefit by it's work. Before you pay
your rent before you buy your clothes,
before you pay your priest, give your
shilling to the united Irish league
Besides the devotion of the people,
Father O'Hara has erected other
monuments here. There is great
church, fit to grace any square in Phil
adelphit, and convent school, built of
stone and heated with steam. These in
a district where poverty is as inevita-
bic as rent. II have to thank America
for these" he said THE church cost
twenty five thousand dollars, and the
school half as much more, and most Of
it came from your country. Hundreds
Of man c111 yOIIT1cr woman