The Irish standard., 1904-08-20
HOME RULE AGAIN.

HOME RULE AGAIN.
The following editorial on the pres
ent situation in Ireland is taken from
the Dublin Freeman:
The letter which the chairman Of
the Irish party has addressed to the
lord mayor of Cork will, we trust, COM
mand universal approval. He con-
dennis the intrusion on the public Of
barren, personal controversies, at a
time when the demand for united and
energetic action is so urgent. Mr.. Red
mOnd bids the Irish people let the dead
past bury it's dead. and act in the liv-
ing present The land act has, so far,
failed to accomplish the main objects
that We're expected from its passage.
Mr.. Redmond refuses to discuss the
past causes of that failure. The pat
ent facts of the present demand con-
centrated attention and action to the
exclusion of vain controversies con-
corning the past. Mr.. Redmond
realizes that the action of the land
lords is blocking the working of the
land act in the direction which was
most essential. He condemns the re-
fusal of the landlords to facilitate the
breaking up the grass lands, and finds
the sole remedy for their obstruction
in compulsory sale. He calls for q
vigorous agitation to overcome the re-
fusal of the landlords, in defiance of
the terms of the land conference, to
permit the resettlement of the evicted
tenants. Above all, he looks to strong,
united, and determined organization to
defeat the landlords attempt to ex-
tort exorbitant prices by intolerable
pressure. These are plainly the i'm
mediate, practical, urgent necessities
of the situation. They leave no room
for the discussion Of personal griev-
ances, for vague conjectures of what
might have been. The landlords are
active and united. They must be met
by activity and union. They are exact
ing hanging gales; they are filling the
courts with processes to force the ten
ants to extravagant prices; they are
refusing the reinstatement of the
evicted tenants; they are refusing the
subdivision Of the grass lands, which
were the conditions on which alone
the Irish representatives consented to
present them with bonus, to be paid
out of Irish resources. 1t was a big
concession. The savings from reforms
and economies, which might have done
so much for the material prosperity of
Ireland, were mortgaged to induce the
landlords to an equitable settlement
of the land question. 1t was big
price; it must not be paid in vain.
The possibilities of the land act must
be vigorously enforced; the landlords
taught to keep their, side Of the bar
gain. Such work demands undivided
attention for its effective accomplish
ment.
But, Us Mr.. Redmond points out,
there is another and still more
vital reason why barren, controversies
should be avoided, Everything
points," he writes, ito the practical
certainty that we are rapidly ap-
preaching a time when home rule will
once again be the foremost political
question of the day. Would it not
be almost criminal to allow any con-
| troversy now to distract our counsels
or weaken our forces on the eve Of
such an eventuality." On the sub
jects mentioned in Mr.. Redmond's let
ter, there is no room for controversy
amongst Irish Nationalists. The policy
of the hour is to bring extortionate or
obstructive landlords to their senses
and force home rule to the front. This
was the policy of the last great con-
vention, which refused by an over
whelming majority to countenance per-
sonal controversy or to encourage dis
sension. This, we doubt not, will be
the policy of the meeting of the Ma
tional Directory, in which, as Mr.. Red
mond anticipates, the campaigns which
the folly and greed of the landlords
force upon the country will be inaug-
urated. In the planning Of that cam
paign each member has a voice; each
is free to argue his own policy. Its