Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-17
THE OUTLOOK IS HOPEFUL.
New Irish Land Bill May Bring Peace.
What a Waterbury Citizen Said After Visit to Ireland-Stirring Speeches Made at To-day's Session in Dublin.


 Visit to Ireland-Stirring Speeches
 Made at To-day's Session in Dublin.
 Eager for peace, but ready for war in case the English wish to con- tinue," was the way the Irish nation al convention which convened in Duo- lin yesterday viewed the present. sit uation between themselves and their neighbors across the channel over the great land bill now before the house of commons. It wasn't a bad way of putting it. It showed that they are willing to forget the past with it's seven centuries of misrule and be friends with the English peo- ple provided the other fellows meet them half way, and it also conveyed a very strong hint that. long and bit ter as the struggle was they had no notion of throwing up the sponge and suing for peace on other but an equit- able adjustment of this vexed land question which has kept Ireland and England at war in the past when as matter of fact they ought to have been friends. But if both sides get onto common ground now and con- clude to give the arch disturber, the absentee landlord, ticket of leave forever, Irishmen and their friends the world over will be glad of it and the English will profit by 1t just as much as the Irish Of course, 1t is not to be supposed that the settlement of the land question Is all that the Irish people desire, but if they are wise, and there is no good reason to question their Judgment, they will ac- ceDt whatever there is in this bill that is beneficial and the rest will come as matter of course.
 Some years ago r. B. Rice, one of Waterbury's prominent citizens, made q tour through Ireland and on his re- turn home he remarked to repre- sentative of this paper that if the Irish got half show there would not | be more eontented and prosperous people in the world. He wasn't sur- prised that they had trouble with the government now and then: what he wondered at was that there was any peace there at all. He couldn't un- derstand what the government meant by permitting a few land owners to convert almost all the valuable land into pleasure grounds and turning the rightful owners Into the streets To be sure, what MT Rice saw ana com plained of was nothing new i'll that country, but 1t took the ruling classes i'll England and Ireland a long time to realize the Injustice of the situa- finn hryy Alo people finally got hearing and once rhe government commenced to send | investigation commissions over there 1t was plain from the start that the landlords were bound to get into trouble sooner or later, for the meth. 1 od they had of dealing with, the peo. l pie was of their own making and hay. Ing control of the courts they ruled with an iron rod. and, right or wrong the man who ran afoul of them was branded as a criminal and made to ] suHer. A gleam of hope rose over the country several years ago when q change was made in the appoint ment of the Judiciary which gave the | people the assurance that the land. ioru wasn't 1t, and that a tenant far | liier Who had a grievance would moi nave his case aired before his land. lord or one of his appointees. After tnls, instead of seeking redress by re. sortlng to acts of violence they com menced to state their cases in tht courts and through the press. and il l this way the light was turned onto their taskmasters and from that time on the justice of their claims com menced to be recognized and men who prior to that could see nothinl but laWlessness among the Irish be gan to feel that there were two side, to the question. Why, until the pas few years half the people in the civil fzed world thought there was nothin. back of the trouble in Ireland but al effort on the part of Catholics to ge rhe upper hand of their Protestan nelghbors, and it required a good dea Of speechmaking and writing on tn part of Protestants to prove that i was not religious issue and that th
 Catholic landlord was not one jo, better than anybody else. Th, speeches and writings of Parnell ant men of his class and Gladstone's ar raignment of the governments polio, toWardS Ireland are now bearins fruit and men who could nor SC things as O'Connell did when h sought to make peace between Eng land and Ireland have had their eve opened and appear quite ready t
 lend helping hand in making amend for the misdeeds of the past.
 The working people of Enelan
 mean to be fair, but the system O misrepresentation of Irish characte was so thorough that it foo, long time to disabuse tber of the notion that the landIor
 was not in error, and while many O them always felt that there was some thing wrong, they were not stron, enough to compel the aristocracy f agree to have the whole matter in vestigated and the why and where fore of the discontent laid bofore in public But they triumphed in th end and it goes without saving tha the landlord has not profited bv in expose.
 Of course it is too soon for friend of the Irish cause to commence ceA
 bratinG the victory of the tenant owe the landlord The whole matter ma | end in a lot of ta1I< as Othar thin O