The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-11-28

The following letter has been ad-
dressed by Mr.. William O'Brien, NJ.
F., to the Rev. Father O'Flynn, presi-
dent of the Cork United Irish League:
Mallow Cottage, Westport, Co. Mayo,
November 4, 1908,
My Dear Father O'Flynn. am
deeply distressed that my first COM
munication to you in your new and
honorable office at the head of the
Cork City League must be one that
know will be to you of disagrecable
character. In my late speeches to my
constituents | Indicated as plainly us
| could, without touching upon mat
tcrs too painful for words, that it was
the steady confidence of the masses Of
the people alone which enabled the
majority Of the Irish party to save
the Land Bill from destruction in the
House of Commons. found it my
duty to warn the country emphatical-
ly that their confidence would be still
more necessary during the next few
months II all the plans the National
directory had formed for the safe
working of the net were not to be of
set purpose defeated. The course Of
events since has only too well justi-
fled the warning. The power for good
of any Irish movement can only be
preserved so long as the representa-
tives of the people in Parliament or
out of it will consent to be bound by
one principle of discipline. 1t is that
there should be the fullest liberty Of
discussion and suggestion before any
course of action is resolved upon, but
that the decision once come to by the
competent national authority should
he loyalty adhered to, and not made
the subject Of subsequent public con.
trOversy and discord. 1t was the vi0-
brought the Irish party in the last
Parliament to be the synonym Of help
lcssness and the contempt of their
foes.
Under the constitution of the
United Irish League, the National
Directory is the body dcputed by the
national convention to settle all mat
tcrs of national policy within the coun-
try with sovereign authority. In
the exercise Of that authority the ma
tional directory. at meeting duly con-
vencd, at which the leader of the
Irish party and the president of the
United Irish League presided, and Mt
which there was the fullest liberty
of discussion, unanimously agreed to
recommend Il certain policy to the
country, as in their opinion the wis
est, for the purpose of extracting the
largest possible benefit for the Irish
tcnantry from the new act, and at the
same time bringing to n happy frui-
ton the blessings which % successful
land settlement would involve for the
regeneration Of the country and the
TcIIloN'I OI iHc l;lSL ODStHCIcS 10 uOIle
rule. From the day that policy was
promulgated to this hour the only
daily paper in the Irish capitol which
processes to support national unity has
devoted itself with an energy unpre-
cedrnted in its history to flout and de-
feat the policy of the national direc-
tory and to make it the subject of
daily public condemnation and conten-
tiOn in its columns. The plea that the
Frccman's quarrel with the policy of
the national directory is confined to
a difference Of opinion, as between
lbs. in the { and SIS. in the in the
tenants demands will deceive nobody
who has attentively studied it's COL
umns since the sitting of the land
conference. The directory laid down
no exact figure to represent the sub
stantial equivalent of Aslbourne bar
gains. They would gladly have left
the common sense of the country to
decide for itself, according to the in
Vulnerable local contingencies. whrth-
er a demand of lbs. in the OF Ss.
in the on the part of the 100000 first
term and non-judicial tenants was the
more sensible method of coming to