The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-01-07
within a week by starvation.

Ireland is naturally q rich country
and it is only systematic robbery and
bad government which have reduced
the population to the dire condition Of
poverty, which obliges the majority to
depend almost entirely on the potato
for food. These potato famines occur
with terrible regularity every ten years
or so, and anyone who has been
through one and seen, as have seen,
the awful suffering Of the peasantry,
can not think without anguish what
the next winter will be in Connemara,
North Mayo, parts of Clare and Kerry,
and the other affected districts in Ire
land.
What makes the present situation
more alarming and the prospects of
the people darker than in previous fam
inc years is that for two years in Ire
land the harvests have been below
the average and the great depression
in trade, the outcome of the Boer war
and the high taxation which prevails
all over England, is felt keenly in Ire
land.
Thousands of unemployed throng our
towns; the warehouses are crowded
and the charitable institutions over
whelmed. The credit which the shop
keepers always give to the country peo-
pie, and which often tides them over
trying periods, is already exhausted by
the two previous bad years we have
passed.
Owing to the general depression and
to the large numbers Of soldiers re-
turned from South Africa, who are
seeking work, the harvesters who mi
crate in thousands every summer to
England to earn money to pay the rent
and who return generally with $25 or
$50 in their pockets, have returned this
year penniless.
I spoke to some of those who had
landed in Dublin, and who, with their
small bundles in their hands, were
waiting in crowd at the Broadstairs
railroad station for the train to take
them to the west. They said they had
never had such bad season and spoke
with hopeless dread, which was pain
full to hear, of the coming winter, and
how they and their families at home,
on the western seacoast, would live
through it,
1t is not charity that these starving
peasants ask for. They are mostly too
proud to ask charity, and, in other fam
inc years, have known families, when
everything they had was sold for food
and nothing remained, shut themselves
in their little cabins to await death
sooner than ask for charity. But they
ask for work, which in any self-gov
erned country would be given them
for there is crying need of public
! works throughout the west Of Ireland
works which would not only help the
people over the present distress, but
save them from future famines by de
veloping the resources of the country
The fishing industry is going to rui1
for want Of proper piers and deficiency
Of harbors and railways for the quicl
carriage of fish. They want money ad
vanced to them on easy terms to bu!
fresh seed for next years sowing.
I These wants it is the duty of th.
English government to supply out o
the millions it robs Ireland Of annu
ally. But only by the utmost pressure
will the English government be mad,
to do it's duty.
! England is trying to win the goo'
will of America just now She is crav
ing for an alliance with the great re
|public Of the west She is trying t
jweaken the Indignation which burn
in the heart Of every American of Irisl
ldescent. YES, Of every American VIII
believes in liberty and justice whe1
he thinks Of Ireland, trodden dow
under cruel and senseless despotisn
! England will not be insensible,
think, to the opinion of the America
press and Of the people. It is with thi
hope that I write now to tell throug