The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-08-01
LAND BILL=*IS
IRBLAND'S HOPE
VERY CLOSELY RELATED TO THE
GREAT LABOR PROBLEM.
No Real Change Effected in Industrial
Conditions-Cost to England's
Workers,


Workers.
Ireland will not be free" by any
means when the new land bill, which
has passed the house Of commons by
a vote of BIT to 20 becomes law. The
great mass of Irishmen in that Island
| will simply continue to pay rent, as
| they do today, but a. comparatively
few agricu1turalists and others will
will have been given the opportunity
of buying farms.
The agricultural laborers of Ireland
and the artisans of the cities will not
be one whit better off, expect as
spirit of enterprise may induce some
landlords to make improvements or
more thoroughly cultivate their hold
ings.
The Irish land bill compels the own
ers of the land to sell to their ten
ants at price fixed by the court.
This price comes in part out of the
pockets of the workingmen of Eng
land, Scotland and Wales, and in part
form those who are given possession
Ihe British government, in short, ad-
| vances money to satisfy the old land
a.
great victory for the Irish landlord
class; it is no victory for the people Of
Ireland as a whole.
A Waning Empire.
What has brought this great change
IN the attitude of the British Empire
toward Ireland is too long story for
newspaper. Suffice to say, that the
United Kingdom shows weakness, and
that 1t has become necessary to settle
affairs at home if the prestige of this
great empire is to be maintained. So
this sop of Irish landlordism has been
by the conservatives to the malcontents
and they have siezed it with avidity.
AS John Redmond declares the Irish
Nationalist are not completely satisfied
with the bill, and they do not accept
the responsibility for everything in it..
Indeed, in some instances it violates the
! proposals made at the land conference,
but so far as the tenants are
concerned, they have obtained all they
| wanted, and it is satisfactory to remem-
ber that this is obtained with the con-
! sent of the main representatives of the
| landlords. Under the bill practically
every evicted tenant in Ireland may
| be restored.
! So much has been said about the ''op-
preston Of the land laws Of Ireland,
| that many people have thought there
! must be something peculiarly monstrous
about them. aa matter of fact the
fshaxe, been 4 much more mod derateS and
conserved the interests Of tenants much
more equitably than do those of the
| United States or Of almost any other
| civilized country "Rack-renting" is
simply a rent fixed at short intervales
by competition. But land has this pc
! cullarity: it can neither be increased or
decreased in area, so that those holding
| it have been enabled to get, in rent all
that the land would produce over and
above a bare living to the workers.
The same process is taking place daily
| in the United States; only here the
area is so vast that labor has had an
outlet.
Terms Of the New Law.
BY the terms Of the new land law
the farmers of Ireland may become the
purchasers of their farms The tenant
merchant and shopkeeper is enabled to
buy the premises he occupies. The ag-
ricultural landlord is to be supplanted
| by peasant proprietors.
The useless class now living outside
Of Ireland is wiped out through a land
commission created to appraise the val
ue OF the land and fix the selling price.
The tenant desiring to purchase may
borrow through the commission a sum
To
years, with which to effect the pur-
chase:
The sum Of $4,000 900, 900 is advanced
by the British Government to facilitate
the work of the commission, and Irish
security is provided for a credit of
$750.000000. Thus the land commission
is enabled to bring about the transfer
Of the land from the nonresident land
lord to the tiller of the soil.
The Interests Of Labor.
what will occur now, when the new
law goes into effect? The new Irish
landlord will pay in wages only what
laborers in competition between them
selves will consent to work for. That
will depend on the cost of living. The
Irish landlord will keep the unearned
increment for himself, while the old
English or Scotch landlord will live on
the interest of the money he has re-
ceived for his broad acres from the
British Government. And labor will
pay the interest and profit just as be-
fore it paid the rent
The Irish land problem, nor the land
problem of any other country, can nev-
er be permanently settled until II is SET
tied right. This latest makeshift may
TOR time serve to quiea the old Irish
tenant class living on agricultural land
1t cannot benefit very large number
OF Irishmen for any length Of time.
GAINED Their POINT:
s. s: =, J. ~--
Oruanized Labor IN Florida Can