The Irish standard., 1904-12-31
Must Be Great Causes for Repeated Famines
in Fertile Country and an Indus
trious People.
The Old Excuses Which England Used to
Make For Irish Misery Have All Been
Disposed of Long Ago.

The resolutions adopted last week
by the Irish Parliamentary delegation
are the formal announcement to the
world that the Irish people are once
more in the trough of the sea, saws
a writer in the Irish World. The
periodical misery attendant on the
alien rule Of England has fallen upon
the people with the failure Of the DO
tato crop in the West, and with the
great diminution of employment of
1rishmcn rs haryesters in Great
Britain and in the North. The resolu-
tions very rightly indict the British
government for this fresh calamity,
but fail, 1 think, to show fully the
connection Of its acts with the suffer
ings Of the people.
That somebody bust be responsible
for the perennial poverty and repeat
cd famines of a country naturally
fertile and occupied by an industrious
and law-abiding people, lord Durferin
pointed out thirty years ago. The Eng
lish used to lay the blame partly on
their Maker and partly on the Irish
| The law of population, they said, was
ut work to produce in Ireland the
misery which must finally crush the
human race through numbers incrcas-
| ing more rapidly than food can bc in
creased to meet the demand for susie
nance. 1t is no longer possible to
nllcgc this excuse for the failures in
ireland. The country is now under
populated, having less thnn half the
people it had sixty years ago 1t is
producing food in even bad years
enough to feed at least twice it's popu
lation, and yet it's people are likely
to die of hunger, while every vessel
that leaves an Irish port is loaded to
til" g,lnwalc with food.
That the Irish are responsible for
the poverty of their country is dis
proved by the record they have made
in every country to which they have
been driven by the wrctchcdness of
their native land. They have done
more than any other race to build up
America in prosperity and wcl-bcing.
They have contributed as heavily TO
the same results i'm Canada Australia
ANA other British colonies They -four
| iSh everywhere but at home. EsS5loy-
crs tell me they find no such workers
among any OF the recent immigrants
into America, with the possible cxccp-
ton OF the Germans. The truth is
that employment at good wages is a
| luxury to which the Irislman had no
access at home and has very little as
yet. lie throws his heart into such
work when he gifts it, and proves that,
if he be idle at home, it still is as in
Swift's time, "becnusc he has nothing
to do"
Emigration was the old English rem
edy for the Irish trouble. But emigra-
tlon is selcctivc process, which works
heavily against the country from
which it takes place. 1t necessarily
picks out the strong, efficient and hope
ful elements of the population, and
leaves at home those who have less
energy, and especially the old and very
young. 1t diminishes the number of
effective workers, but increases the
number of those who are dependent
upon the lAbors of others. It has thus
done nothing for Ireland but increase
the general poverty, taking from the
country it's most valuable possession
men and women who had in them the
best capacity for work.
The latest English remedy has been
the Introduction Of cooperative meth
DDS among the Irish farmers through
the labors Of Horace Ilunket. This
has done some good by saving them
the profits taken by the mddlemcn of
trade, and enabling them to put their
products on the London market with
out his costly intervention Also the
popular banks lately established has
made it possible for them to get capital
OIL far easier terms than in any other
country in which the English language
is spoken. But all those are matters