The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-02-07
A TALE Of BITTER IRISH WRONGS
BY HUGH SUTHERLAND.

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an an me, an I have. to leave half the
year an work in a turin land-Eng-
land mind veto get the money we
need"
The big man turned and looked over
the disolate country. The; winter dusk
was falling swiftly and the outlines of
the hills were indistinct, but We could
still see the empty land and feel its
rugged unkindness: Yet the mans
voice: was very tender: as he spoke.
Twenty miles on he said, there's
a. bit of cabin and bit Of land In
that cabin I was born and on that land
my father worked. Is it like, now, that
Id leave it to live in England or any
where else? Man, have We got home
It's rough place at the best and not
all the muscles I've got can dig a Twin
| out Of it. But, God be good to me, I
| love it, SIR
I learned much more at other times
from men and writings concerning this
yearly migration of the workers, but
the great truth of it lay in the simple
words of this rugged toiler. They love
their land, these Irish! With a depth
we may not measure. with a.. fervency
we cannot feel, they love the land they
have never owned, the land which they
have found so cruel
Years ago I saw an actor-the vener-
able Joseph :Murphy-in one of his
Irish plays. He sang a song of Ireland:
*"Tis handful of earth.
From the land of my birth,
From the grave where my dear mother
lies."
It seemed pathos to me and 1 wond-
cred at the tumultuous applause which
greeted the simple lines. I do not
wonder now.
But I started to write about naigra-
ton, the great unna tural tide of travel
that sweeps toward England and Scot
land in the spring and flows back again
in the late fall. If there were no other
condition arguing the poverty induced
by the present land system surely this
would be conclusive.
According to the returns compiled by
the board of trade, 24,49s persons nil
grated from Connaught alone this year.
It is estimated that they brought back
average earnings Of $3.50, or total of
1862 That amounts to 271z per cent
Of the entire rent Of the province and
has to be earned outside Of the country.
There are 31,S73 families in Connaught
whose holdings are worth less that $40
year. Therefore nearly every one Of
these families had to send a member
to England to. earn the necessaries Of
life for the winter.
One Priest in Donegal reported a few
years ago that out of 1000 persons in
the parish 1000 had to spend several
months of each year away form home.
some went to the more prosperous coun-
ties in the east of Ireland the greater
number to England. From the district
Of Baltimore, Kerry. the priest reported
200 to 300 girls left in the middle of
March and did not return until Deem
Der I.
Perhaps the worst feature of the
system Is that it does not spare the
Women nor even 18th e. chi ldre MA spec
ial correspondent of. the Lond don Times
reported that the migrants included
practically every man, boy and girl
able to work.
There is rare human interest in the
testimony Of one f1fteen-year-old girl,
given before a royal commission.
Asked to describe her experiences, said
! she arrived IN Paisley, Scotland, and
found an Scent lodging for the night.
Next morning she started on a tramp
through the country. After working
for eight days on farms near by she
~
she obtained employment for a month
digging potatoes, sleeping In an out
building. With seven others from he1
| own district she went into Perthchire
and worked in the potatoe fields TO,
five weeks more. Another girl, eigh-
teen years old, testified that she had
gone to Scotland for four. successive
years and her sixteen year-old sister
had been there twice.
An assistant commissioner on the
royal commission on labor reported
that he knew of two girls, one clever
years old, the other thirteen, who had
travelled all through England workir
as farm laborers. Every year 10000
Irish girls must face this terrible ex-
perience.
/ have mentioned in the merest out.
line some of the conditions which face
these devoted people. AS to cause,
quote a commission which sat more
than twenty years ago. It treated this
| migration exhaustively and said it wa.
due "G) to the extreme smallness o.
many of the land holdings, and ca tt
the over-crowding population in dis.
tricts Of. poor land. where the occu.
! pants often depend for livelihood
upon employment during a portion O,
the year in q reat Britain"
Now for some eloquent figures con.
corning the migration in this year 1902
From Mayo county 1888 men went
to England and Scotland: They rep.
resented thirty six per cent Of the adult
male population engaged In agricul.
ture. These figures from, some of thu