The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-07
IRELAND OF TOMORROW
The Country Is Now Governed by a
staff of Bureaucrats. Like Russia.


London. Jan. eff the truth were
told the man in the street is tired Of
ireland, yet the Irish question is very
, interesting when one understands what
is going on behind the scenes. Twenty
years ago Mr.. Gladstone, from noble
motives, according to his supporters,
and from the basest of criminal inten-
! tions, according to his enemies, told
John Bull that the time had come to let
Ireland govern herself. For fifteen
years the quarrel ragged. Mr.. Glad
stone broke his teeth on the knife edge
I of Home Rule, for he could not persuade
| Queen Victoria to give up her hold on
! Irish affairs. and to this day, Ireland,
like India or Russia, is governed by d
staff of bureaucrats, most of whom are
! Protestants and Unionists, although n
per cent. of the Irish people are Catho-
/ lies and Home Rulers.
! These governing bureaucrats in Ire
! land are divided into fOrty-One boards.
/ who SQuander money in a way that
/ daily increases the hostility of the Irish
people against them Since Mr.. Glad
/ stones death Mr.. BalfOur, who really
understands Ireland, placed two great
weapons in the hands of the enemies of
/ Dublin Castle. The first weapon was
/ the loan of $560,0O0,000 to the Irish
farmers to ena BILE them to become Irish
/ landlords by owning their own farms.
/ The second bludgeOn placed in the
hands of the Irish majority is the in
| PRODUCTION of county councils and local
district boards, thus introducing local
government of the same kind as we
4 have in England. This is the state of
things at the end of the year 1905.
4 Six Prominent Men on Irish Question.
/ There are six men, each of them with
an interesting personality, who
! will shortly be much before the pub
/ lie in connection with the Irish ques-
4 ton. John Redmond, the Nationalist
! leader, is a stout, thiekset twentieth
/ century copy of Napoleon. He has
hawks eyes and nose, and is a very
4 determined and polite person. Mr..
! Redmond, however, is in a very diff
/ cult position. He has to find the money
/ to pay the salaries of the Irish Nation
aliSt members who cannot attend par
/ lament unless their expenses are de-
] frayed for them. Most of the money
/ for the salary fund comes from Amer
/ lea, and is contributed by 1rish-Amer-
leans who desire to see ireland ma
tiOn," separated from Great Britain if
necessary, and, We're it possible, by
force. Mr.. Redmond knows that an
Irish rebellion is impossible. 1t is a
rather difficult matter for him to keep
the salary fund down so that it will not
exceed the American contributions, for
/ if he fails to do so it would be impos-
sible to send eighty Home Rulers to
parliament. Mr.. Redmond is thus be-
tween the devil and the deep sea. If
he cries out for separation he alien
ates British sympathy, and if he does
not the flow of Yankee dollars would
cease.
The most powerful person opposed
to Mr.. Redmond is Lord Londonderry.
He has a fine place in the north of
ireland, had been lord lieutenant, and
many people regard him as the actual
lord lieutenant today. The power
/ welded by Lord Londonderry arises
! from the fact that he controls and
speaks for the Orangemen, the land
lords, and the lawyers Lawyers in
/ England are a powerful body. but in
/ Ireland they are even more powerful,
hungry and numerous.
The third parsonage in the Irish
drama is I. w. Russell. lie is a pale
and fervent politician. His enemies call
him a fanatic; his friends an apostle.
He made 400 speeches against Home
Rule, but when he acts with the Ma
Itionalists on such questions as temper
ance and land reform he is denounced
by the Londonderry lawyers as a Fen
ian and a traitor.
The fourth character in the play OF
Irish politics is Lord Dunraven. He Is
a man who has done everything, and
done it fairly well. He has been a war
correspondent. raced for the America
| cup. is d patron of the drama, was
chairman of the sweating commission.
and started the plan for allowing Irish
men to spend Irish taxes in their own
way and not at the command of an
English politician whose ignorance
{ places him at the mercy of forty-one
I boards.
The fifth character is Sir Henry
] Camp bell- Bannerman What will he
do with his majority? is question
which can only be answered when he
knows what that majority. is, It is