The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-12-30

= AZ Is not SeneIdlly rellleIllDeTeu lndt
the existence of the Land League from
it's. formation in 1879 to it's suppress
sion by the Gladstone government COW
cred only the short term of two years
and that Mr.. Michael Davitt was only
left ON the scene of the agitation for
fourteen months of that period. He
utilized, however, his brief opportun-
ity for utility with interchangeable en-
ergy throughout the west of Ireland,
and to still more effect in setting in
motion important auxiliary forces in
the United States. The war cry of the
agitators, ireland for the Irish and
the Land for the People," was for the
first part taken from the old O'Con-
3 mel slogan and for the second from the
new evangel of Henry George. The
demand, 1.-The land for the people,
bore three different meanings for as
many differing schools of propaganda
lists. For the mass of the Irish ten
antry, as we'll as for Parnell, 1t meant
the soil into proprietors of their own
holdings by state purchase. For the
small occupiers in the province of Con-
naught, where the movement started,
it signified not merely the purchase of
their existing holdings, too small and
poor to support life, but the restora>
ton to the peoples use Of the enor-
nous tracts of rich grazing lands
from which their fathers had been ex-
tirpated. For Mr.. Davitt the phrase
spelled the naturalization of the
land which was contemplated by
Henry George. Mr.. Davitt's first seri-
Gus conflict of opinion with Parnell
was due to his dissent from the prin-
cipal clause of the original Land
League program. which laid down
twenty years purchase at Griffith s
valuation" as the basis of land pur-
chase. He did not. however, air his
dissent in public. and was content to
hold his own views in reserve. We
are assured by Mr.. O'Brien that to the
Irish tenantry neither then nor after
ward was naturalization of the land
anything but an abstraction. What
they understood and loved in Mr..
often than not he spoke above the
heads of his listeners-but the one
armed Fenian chief, the darling son
OF their old County Mayo. who had
been evicted like themselves, and who
saturated with n hatred of landlordisn
as fierce as their own, now returned
untamed by penal servitude. to a
prosecution OF the old struggle, by new
methods, perhaps, but with the old
/, unconquered men gathering behind
him. They followed and worshiped
the man. without comprehending, OF
indeed needing, the theories which, fol
the rest, whatever they might be, Were
sure to be generous and single mind.
ed" p,a,
Our author, an eye and ear witness
testifies that almost every one of the
twenty or thirty speeches delivered bj
Michael Davitt in ireland before he
was thrust back into penal servitudt
was occupied largely with denuncla-
lions agrarian crime and express
sions of adherence for those forms o
barbaric vengeance into which men ii
the more backward and hunger driver
districts were sometimes betrayed il
their first fury, before any regular or
ganization was formed among them
inspire them with confidence In law
X full and bloodless agitation 1t Is pro
nounced IAN indelible disgrace TO
English government in Ireland tina
the reward of the man who thus spe
cially signalized himself by an inces
tons which some Of his friends, per
heps, considered excessive, to the Iris!
b people to place their trust in thu
democracy of England, should hav'
e been that, after little more than
years exertions upon the Land League
platforms, Mr.. Davitt was suddenly
without trial, and even without tn
III allegation Of new offense, carried
off from Ireland and RENTED to pena
servitude in Portland prison, on a mer'
technical withdrawal of his ticket-of
H leave, to the indescribable anguish an,
h indignation of his fellow countrymen.
a: OF Mr.. T. P. O'Connor we are toll,
that had he in the general election O
1880 gone to Galway as an extrem
# Nationalist 1t is doubtful whether, un
der the corrupt conditions of borough
'*I representation at the time, he coult
#ssss have won the seat He was electe
's s- az an. old and brilliant student of tn
y local Gu GEMS College. Our aNthor
not sure whether Mr.. O'Connor ha,
then even met the Irish leader. Al
that was known or asked in 1880 abou
NJ his politics was that he had lived lonl
SF amid English Radical associations.an
was supposed to be one Of the risin
Nm hopes OF that party. Mr.. OBrien say
"A that "had he used his election to serv
& 4, selfish ambition his way toward
& seat, In the first Liberal Cabinet If no
II; eventually to the highest seat, was as