The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-01-31
HORACE PLUNKErT.

HORACE PLUNKETT.
Criticism Of His Recent Address In
New York.
Writing to the New York Times with
reference to a speech delivered by
Horace Plunkett, Mr.. j. M. Wall says:
The Right Hon. Horace Plunkett,
one time representative in Parliament
of South Dublin, in his speech before
the League for Political Education, in
Berkeley Lyceum, was picturesque at
least, in all fairness be it said, but he
certainly was not convincing. The
grabbed waywardness of suffering
speech, believed by some to add weight
and dignity to what is said, and much
affected by members of the House of
Commons, made him picturesque.
Had that been all, nobody would find
fault, I'm sure. Rut when Mr.. Plum
ket told his audience all about the
cooperative creamerics, and loan
banks, and agricultural societies he
had started in Ireland, leaving it to be
inferred that nothing further was
wanted, the critical resentment of one
ut least, of those who heard him was
mt that moment provoked. How many
came away from that meeting feeling
that all this clamor is ovcrlrawn, and
that the Irish question. after all, is Il
phrochial question merely?
Mr.. Plunkett'S plan sounds we'll I'M
til, as they say in Ireland. YOU hit
il IL kick, and then it sounds ill. In
applying his plaster TO the wound
and ii isn't such Il bad plaster. mind
YOU. il it be distinction in ulElcllcry
at which he aim>--tle right honorable
gentleman ignores the fact that in IL
few years, unless something he done
to stop emigration. there will bc few.
if amy. people lrit in the country parts
of Ireland to avail OF either crp;,lnrrirs
or loan banks. In what sense, then.
may his methods he deemed ctlica-
cious? They are rflicaciouS for the
consolidation of English power and tho
destruction of li;sll Nationality.
MIR. Plunkrtt must we'll know that no
Englisliman above all. no EngliShman
wearing an Irish maSk-wll ever he
suffered to compass this sinister de
sign under the gusc of philanthropy.
If the salvation of Ireland is to he
achieved. it must be through her
friends, rot through her enemies. MIR.
Plnictt is Il pronounced political enc
my of Ireland, and, therefore,, deserves
no more tho confidence of lriShmen
than does Ralfour himself. Does he
suppose that Ireland has carried ON
her fight for freedom for half Il thou
sand years to Ike silenced now in the
opening years Of the twentieth century
by IL higher price for butter and eggs :?
Hers has been one long night of I'm.
broken sacrifice; but there fingers
even yet, exhausted and cnfeeblcd
though she be, that ineXtinguishablc
spark of faith which is the sure har-
binger of ultimate triumph! AS IL
Tory member of the English parlia-
ment, Mr.. Plunkett has approved by
his voice and his vote the unnatural
conditions in Ireland for which Eng
land today is in the main responsible
The constant drain of emigration, un-
eXampled in the history of any other
country, shows that Ireland is dying,
not by inches, but by yards. That Mr.
Plunkctts tinkering scheme can, there
fore, be of any serious permanent ben
eft is discounted in advance. There
are now $4,000 fewer people in Ire
land than when he began thirteen
years ago, starting those creameries
and things; and there are 100000 less
than when his friends of the same
political stripe as he began sixty years
ago to install standing army Of 49,
600 peelers, and made to dot the land
in all directions a network of 1875 poor
houses-''advance agents Of prosper
ity," as you might say.
England's methods of amelioration-
and they crop up in varying DISCUSSES.
too, let it be understood-are quite
familiar to Irishmen, but they are not
any the more acceptable on that oc-
count. -Four millions Of people lost
to Ireland in sixty years, and no at
tempt to check the outflow, which
continues unabated.
Paley, in his Moral and Political
Philosophy" says that "the decay Of
population is the greatest evil that n
State can suffer- How is it that
Englishmen, and even well-meaning
English-Irishmen like Mr.. Plunkett,
are normal on every subject save that
of Ireland?
The answer is plain-and there can
be but one answer. They are insin-