The Irish standard., 1906-12-15
Swept Away by Famine, Pestilence, Eviction
and Emigration, the Result Of
England's Misrule.
Every Country but Ireland Prosperous, Says
the London Statist, Leading
British Newspaper.

has not prospered as Switzerland and
ready far too densely peopled, and
contemporaneously even with devas-
tating famines.
Denmark have prospered. AS for In
dia, We have seen an extraordinary
growth Of manufactures and trade
there, contemporaneously with vast
increase Of population in a country
which was supposed to have been al
I'm Ireland, on the contrary" this
most our correspondent can say is that
the Ulster linen trade has "held its
own," and that "in Belfast shipbuilding
has been newly founded. Everywhere
else in Ireland there has been decay"
To the saving bank argument this
economist replies. "The heaping up of
idle deposits is a. symptom of disease
and decay, not OF prosperity. :.
What the growt hin the deposits in
banks clearly proves isa, the
absence Of enterprise, and that, like
boarding in the East, is the result of
generations of missovernment and in-
security"
I'm every country that We have ever
heard of there has been at the worst CT
times saving" The Statist might have
quoted the figures for the last famine
period-'78 to Sin Ireland, whom
these deposits went up by leaps and
bounds, showing that the hoardsrs
have no real connection with the in
dustrial prosperity of the country. The
growing waste OIL Irish government
would itself explain their increase. Taa
statement that there is less unem-
ployed in Ireland than in England the
statist says simply is not true. E7-
erybody can see that for himself who
examines Wilson Fox's report on the
Wages, Earning, and Conditions Of
Employment of Agricultural Labore,s
In the United Kingdom" Agricultural
wages are chosen because Ireland is;
and will long contiue to be, essentially
an agricultural country.
In his report the average rate OF
wages for able-bodied male adults
employed in agriculture in the year
1902, is stated to have been lis sd in
England, It's I'd in Wales, 19s sd in
Scotland, and los Cd in Ireland. Again;
the highest average weekly; earnings
in England were (in the county Of
purham), ;22s I'd; in wales lin G1a-
morgan) 21s Sd; in Scotland Tin Rem
frew and Lanark), 22s Cd; in Ireland
Tin DOWN. 1ss.. once more, the lowest
average weekly earnings in England
were Tin oxfordshire), lis Cd; in
Wales Gn cardiganshire), 15s Sd; in
Scotland Gin shetlands. orkney and
Caithmess), 13s I'd; in ireland Gin
Mayo, IS Sd. And yet in the face Of
these oh1cial figures our correspondent
has the hardihood to tell us that, ex--
cept. in the consested districts, COM
fort, If not prosperity, prevails all over
Ireland. with how much complacency
the rich man can endure the hardships
Of his poorer brethren.
:. The statist is rejoiced at it's .corre-
spondents glowing account Of the pros
perity Of Ulster. It's delight, however,
"is somewhat checked by the fact that
the most he is able to say Of the one
great Irish industry-the linen indust-
ry-is that it holds, it's own" The ship
building IS now and is happily very
successful. But the stattst does not
examine how far the prosperity of
these industries indicates progress IN
Ulster. The growth Of Belfast during
the past sixty-fve years has been
enormous. In 1s41 its population was
only 75,3os, and at the last census it
was s4s,15e. But the population Of
County Antrim was 2sb.se7 IN 1s41. ana
at last census it had fallen to 1ss.os7,
while in the same period the popula-
tion Of Down had fallen from se1.445
to 2o5. 1888, and Armagh from ss2.sSs I, to J,
Las, $50 ~ = Ia I