The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-09-24

shopkeepers in the little towns, al
classes of the population, freely elect
ed by the votes Of the people; and to
day it is admitted-admitted in the
house of commons even by the repre-
sentatives of the unionist government
admitted by the spokesman of al
public opinion i'll England, that these
county affairs are better, more stead
lily, more economically governed and
with less corruption than when they
were in the hands of little rings OF
the ascendancy class.
''These county councils are winning
home rule. (ApplauseD Believe me,
the day that act was passed the knell
was sounded of the continuation of
ascendancy government in national as
we'll as in local affairs.
"First of all, these county councils
are training our people in the art of
government.
mo word that I could possibly
speak could cNaggerate the Importance
of that great concession won for Ire
land. And when am told that parlia-
mentary movements are useless and
that men should fold their arms and
wait for the coming of the day when
Irish reforms can be won by the
sword. my answer is this: If we had
followed that policy, local government
IN, 1,n II
won, and the Irish people would be
fleeing today from the shores of Ire
land far more rapidly than they are
fleeing at this moment.
"Now let me come nearer to the
present. When l entered the house of
commons the tenant farmers of Ireland
were absolute slaves. Every landlord
in Ireland could evict any tenant that
he chose. 1t was not Il question of the
payment of rent at all. On the disAil
prevail of the color of the hair of a ten
ants child the landlord had the power
of condemning to absolute death the
whole family. Remember what evic-
ton in Ireland meant. In England, if
man is evicted from farm, he can
go into one of the big towns, bring his
family with him and get employment
in some Of the great factories, but in
Ireland, the Ireland that we have
known, owing to the action of the
English parliament, there is but one
industry, the land. The land is the
life. of the Irish peasant and of his
wife and of his children; and the man
who had the absolute power, the man
who had the power to evict, was a
man who possessed the absolute power
of life and of death. And we know how
that power was used.
'That was the state Of things when
the parliamentary, movement COM
menced. and what happened? Why,
owing largely to the aid we got in
America, we raised such u land war in
Ireland that the continuance Of the
system became impossible. First Of
all, we took away from the, landlord
his right of capricious eviction. Then
we took away his right of fixing rents,
because manifestly to take away the
right of capricious eviction would be
of no use if you still left the power to
the landlord to capriciously raise the
rent.
1--WE forced through the English par
lament a grand land act which had
the rents Of Ireland fixed periodically
every fifteen years by government ar
bitration. And by that act alone we
took off the backs of the tenant farm
ers Of Ireland $20,OOO,0OO year.
But we did not stop there. The
Land League had for its principle The
land for the people. The abolition Of
landlordsm.' We did not want re-
duction of rent; we wanted the aboli-
ton Of rent. We did not want simply
restrictions on landlords; we wanted
the abolition of landlordism.
"And the movement went on. First
Of all we succeeded in getting a small
tentative measure passed through par
lament to enable small number Of
tenant farmers to purchase their hold
ings. Then we went on step by step,
until at length last year we passed
through the British parliament and
into law, a measure which started out
by declaring that landlordism as an
institution should cease to exist in Ire
land at all, that the only settlement
of the land question possible was by
making the farmers owners Of the
land, and it then went on to provide n
sum Of money of $5GO,00O,O00 to en-
able the transaction to be carried out.
"Tllinl1 for moment what that
means! Take for illustration the case
of a farmer who was paying, we will
say, $500 a year when we started on
our movement. He was subject to evic-
ton at any moment His rent could
be raised at any moment. We first of
all took away the right to evict him.
Then we reduced his rent from 500
to $50, and now we have come along
and have passed an act which by
means of money provided by the Brit
ish parliament enables him to become
the owner Of his land. At what cost
you will ask. Not at the cost Of one