The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-17
EvIcTED IRISH TENANTS.
Many Residing in United states Have Started a Movement to Re-
 claim Their Old Farms.

Boston Globe. 5.-.
 Perhaps the most novel feature of the 1 Irish question which has ever presented l itself to the people of America is the movement now on foot in various parts of the United States among the people ! who were evicted from their former | homes in Ireland in the course of the | land struggle of the last twenty five years, to get back their former places
 and return to the old country to live. ! The passage of the new Irish Land Act has proved that there are hundreds of such people scattered all over America ! most of whom are anxious to secure re- insta atement in their old homes Some de, sire 1t as a matter of poctical. justice and tor the satisfaction they would feel at re- Eprningp to the homes from which they were driven Futhlessly forth by Irish landlordisna. S' F Others believe that under the altered conditions of affairs life in the old coun. | try would be more pleasant for them 1 than that which they have been expe-
 rtencing here. Others still think they
 arc entitled to some compensation for the
 loss of their property in Ireland, and re- instatements to their farms being the only means of securing 1t, they are desir-
 oua of trying that method.
 The ney Land Act empowers the newly formed Land Commission to take meas
 urea for the reinstatement of people thus evicted where the eviction has taken place since August, 1878. or the beginning of the Land League agitation. This can only be done, however, in cases where the landlords property is put up for sale un- der the act. But the national leaders
 believe that within a few years the en-
 tire land of Ireland will have been thus disposed by the landlords.
 The Land Commission is authorized by the act to advance to the evicted tenants money for the purchase of their former holdings with the consent of the present occupier where the land Is occupied, and provide compensation for those who now occupy it. Where the land is still on the landlords hands the process of re- instatement will be much simpler.
 In practically every instance where negotiations have been going on for the purchase of their holdings by the Irish farmers since the passage of the act they have demanded wherever evlctions had taken place on their landlords property that the evicted tenants must be restored to their former holdings before any nur- chase is effected. Some of the land lords at the outset held out against this proposition, but as In the case of the Knight of Glin, son-tR-law of Lord Dun raven. they later on acccded to the de- mand of the tenants.
 The officials of the United Irish League of America and the officers of its branches all over the country have for several months past been actively engaged in bringing the cases of these evicted tenants to the attention of the organization fin Ireland, and since the Land B!ll went into operation on November l, to the tteption of the Land Commission itself, with the promise of excellent results.
 The United Irish League in Ireland has taken steps to secure the best legal assist ance in behalf of all the evicted tenants as part of the program of the National Organzation. Should the movement toward reinstatement prove a success it will not be the least of the revolutionary steps which have been taken in regard to the Irish land question as a result of the movement inaugurated by the Land League and carried on today by the United Irish League.
 Some fifty cases have already been brought before the Land Commission by the officials of the United Irish League of America. and of that number about one half of those affected are at present resi- dents of Massachusetts. particularly in the vicinity of Boston.