The Irish standard., 1906-10-27

as ever of the same opinions, recalled
the days when he sent thousands of
dollars every week through the Irish
World to sustain the National cause,
and has promised now again to open
his columns to the subscription list.
John F. Finerty also gave several
thrilling addresses, full Of his usual
fire and not little of his well-known
intransigence. A Protestant clergy
man, Rev. Mr.. Kane, announced amid
cheers that he had been associated
with James Stephens; and Father
Toner fresh from his voyage across
the Atlantic, to vote at the East Ty-
rome election, received a warm well
come.
The resolutions have already ap-
peared. One only I need notice. 1t is
that which declares emphatically
for a united, independent. pledge
bound purity, and which repudiates any
man who gets into the House of Com
mons as Nationalist except on these
conditions. On this point of a united
pledge bound party, America is con-
vinced and vehement, might even
say, a bitter unit.
The election of Michael j. Ryan was
the demand of all America, after it
was known that Finerty did not want
to stand again. The one difficulty was
Ryan himself, a barrister with huge
practice, the father of seven children,
a man who throws every ounce of his
body and every throb of his soul into
anything he undertakes, he shrank
from the tremendous labor and re.
sponsibility of the presidency.
I was present at the private confer
ence which actually took place during
the sitting Of the Convention and I
rarely have seen more moving or
dramatic scene than that in which
these sons of Ireland gathered around
this great man of their race, begging
him to be their leader. Ryan resisted,
prayed I'd be spared the terrible bur-
den, with tears literally in his eyes;
but the stern call of men who knew
what his presidency meant to the or
ganizaticn refused to consider any,
thing but the cause of Ireland, and,
unable t.: resist, broken down in heart
by the appeal to his heart, rather
than to his intellect, he finally yield
ed. -,
Within less than half an hour the
persistence of his friends was justified
and his own presidency received a
startling justification. With gavel in
his hand made of wood from the BIRTH
place and the final resting place of
Michael Davitt, those wonderful eyes
of his, burning with passionate though
restrained appeal, fixing with flash
every single individual in the room,
Ryan began the call for subscriptions.
The committee on resolutions al.
ready had fixed the amount of the
subscription 10 be raised in twelve
months at 10000. Literally within
thirty minutes of Ryan's election, un-
der the inspiration of his dominating
personality, the 10000 limit was
reached. In a few minutes more and
it was e11,ooo. Still another few min
utes and it was $4,000 called out.
Then there swept over the assembly
one of those high gusts of ardent, in
toxicating, and infectious passion
which will come at great historical
moments, and Darcy Scott, Of Cana
da, was one of several that rose si-
multaneously to move that the resolu-
tion of the committee be amended and
that the limit be raised from 100000
to 100000. The motion was carried
amid wild enthusiasm, and then the
roll call Of subscriptions recommended,
pausing for a moment like a confia-
grafton and then bursting into new
flame under the impulse of Ryan's
personality and appeal.
Finally the assembly had promised
by individual subscriptions, and sub
scriptions from the association they
represented, very nearly $4,000 or
s15,0O0 had been raised. Within an
hour three quarters of the entire
amount promised to be raised within
twelve months was clearly in sight.
I saw then, what every hour since
has confirmed, that we are at the be-
ginning of the greatest movement in
| America in twenty-five years, that IL
is prairie fire which will spread
and grow, and that now the war chest
need give Redmond and his colleagues
no further trouble till the war flag
is furled.
| Atlantic City, a pleasure resort,
without any organization, gave $4,000
or e400. Boston promised $4,000 at
the Convention. She has already
| iood NOVA tho, Tint .-S ~ -