The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-30
IRELAND FOR THE rRrsH.

It really begins to look now as if the vexing and much-discussed Irish ques- tion'' is n a fair way to be settled on terms which will be both equitable and satisfactory. Much has been said and written of tate about the proposition of MT. Wyndham. in the English Parlia- ment. by which 1t Is proposed to lend to the Irish tenants. in sums ranging from s2,5oo to 5000. according to the size of their holdings, the large amount of s500,- 0oo,too which is to be repaid in annual instalments extending for the term of 6s 1-2 years. In addition to this it is pro- posed to give the landlords a bonus of $50, 600, ito give the landlord something for himself. and thus to induce him to transaction which seeks and is intended to divert ownership of lands from the landlords and place 1t in the hands of those who are now tenants.
 Without assuming a position of parti- sanship, it is fair to say that for centu- ries the people of Ireland have not been justly treated by England or by the Eng fish people. If there was not another scrap of evidence of this fact we would have ample proof in the thousands and millions of Irish men and women who have left the land so endeared to them and become voluntary exiles in America. The Irish people love their gem of the sea-" as Tom Moore calls it. Who has not read the touching Irish Emigrant's Lament" which tells the sad parting of the young man who leaves his Mary be- hind and sets his face towards the prom ised land of America with the hope of making a home for both? One stanza is worth quoting:
 I'm bidding you long farewell,
 My Mary, kind and true.
 But Ill not forget you, darling, In the land I'm going to!
 They say there's bread and work for all And the sun shines always there,
 But I'll not forget old Ireland,
 Were 1t fifty tunes as fair.
 With such feelings as this, and 1t was not confined to the young or the lovers. the Irish people have deported them selves by thousands and millions, sever ing all their home ties, parting from loved ones and from all the dearest asso- ciations of their beings, all for the sake of getting to land where they would have a feeling of freedom and independ- enee. We repeat that if there were no other proof of unjust or unfair treat ment this continued exodus would be suf- ficient.
 Let 1t not be imagined that the Amer ican people object to this immigration. for they welcome 1t. No braver, cheerier, warmer hearted people have yet lived than the Irish. No better immigrants have landed on our shores than they. No more adaptable and industrious citi- zeps are to be found. The Irishman who comes to. us may be poor, and he may be illiterate. but he is not beggar or a dead-beat. He Is ready to set to work as soon as he steadies himself on land. and if he doesn't find a job of one kind he is ready for another. And he is just as ready to fight for his adopted coun- try as he is to fight for himself. From the Revolutionary struggle to this day some of the truest patriots and bravest ! fighters in our armies have been Irish men. In the great war between the States they fought for the section in which their homes lay, and whether 1t
 was Meagher leading Union troops on
 many a hard fought field or a Cleburne dying at the head of his Confederates on the bloody field of Franklin, 1t was al-
 ways the same fighting Irish blood ready
 to be spilled for the county which had given a home to its people.
 | One of the greatest drawbacks to Irish prosperity and peace has been absentee | ism. More than two centuries ago it
 was estimated that one-fourth of the real
 and personal property of the country was owned by abseatees, and that condition regularly grew worse. An investigation
 made in 1872 showed that there were less than 2O,0OO rural land owners in the coun- try, exclusive of those owning small properties in the towns and villages. In 1876 four -ti1ths of the land belonged to
 3750 proprietors, largely absent land lords.
 No people could be happy, prosperous
 or conteEted unde' such conditions. By whatever name we may call It, it was
 practically serfdom. an1 to expect a race
 like the Irish to te satisfied under such
 a state of affairs is to expect the impos-
 sible. It is to remove those conditions
 that the present movement is made. Un-
 der the Gladstone land act of 1881 and
 subsequent legislation r'any tenants have
 purchased their holdings, but nothing so liberal has eve. been offered them as the Wyndham bill. We note that there was
 recently held a meeting of the United
 Irish League at Dublin, and the principle
 of the bill was approved subject to some
 amendments and improvements which are proposed
 | With all the details of the proposed plan we are not familiar. but we earn
 estly hope that Its provisions are just