The Irish standard., 1907-01-26
NAN AND The land
John Sharp Williams, the Bril-
liant Minority Leader
In Congress, Speaks on Horne
Rule For: Ireland.

man and the land, said the Hon. John
Sharp Williams. recently, in an adj
dress on the Irish question. All the
rest are "prunes and prunella" Incl
dents and outgrowths of one or the
other, or both. This is true of thoughts,
sentiments and laws, as well as. Of ma
terial products poem, song, phil
osophy or a potato-all outgrowths of
the man or the land. Man is the oper-
ator, the land is the fulcrum. All
wealth even is the result of human la
Dor or human thought-which in in
tellectual labor-profitably directed to
the growth, finishing, transformation
or transportation of, the products Of
the soil-wlether from farm, mine or
forest. Nature s..-.;-.rc~ t''e raw ma
terial, man brings it to the shape, tex
ture or place which makes it valuable
in exchange.
:. Hence the greatest of all curses in
any country is that the ownership and
duty Of improving the soil should be
vested in aliens to the soil or absentee
landlords-that the man Ito the manor
born" and the soil should be divorced,
while the former still remains with a
physical foot planted on the latter. 1t
is true that In all countries there have
been conquests and land confiscations
and that the conquerors have largely
dispossessed the conquerer. But in all
countries except Erin mutual assilnila-
ton Of populations has followed, a
new generation has grown up which
was neither the one nor the other, but
both. ...,.... =. -.
In Ireland there has never been any
mutual assimilation-the two currents
the Teuton, whether Norman or Sax
on, and the Celt--are as distinct as the
currents OF the White Nile and the
Blue Nile which remain apart though
flowing between the same banks. Here
the landlords have been absentees ana
aliens and have remained SO; the chill
dren of the soil have been landless and
are still nearly altogether so. Mutual
hatred has prevented mutual assimi-
lation. -r00
The legislation thus far had to en-
able Irish to reacquire the Irish soil
is good, but much more in the same
direction must follow, if love is to take
the place of hate, content Of discomfort,
and if loyalty to a common empire is
to be substituted for aspiration for
entire independence. There must be a
total abolition of landlordism in the
offensive sense which history has made
familiar to Ireland. This then is one
object of the Land League. True it is
and always will be, as great Irishman
has said, that 1.-THE only means Of win
ming the liberty Of the country is to
protect the homes OF. the people,
Moreover, / only speak the voice OF
history when / say in the kindliest
spirit to the English, as to all peoples,
that the only way to build stable or
to maintain united emperor repub-
lie either, for that matter--is to build
it in the hearts of the people and not
on their necks, and that'tle only. way
to reach their hearts is by permitting
them to govern themselves.
THUS Home Rule is the second object
Of 1.-The League. AS Bourlsc Cochran
once in effect said: THE: people must
possess the soil on which and: the gpy-
ernanent under which they live. and
then, and then alone. the Irish ques-
ton will be settled, and, like all other
settled problems; will cease to. exist.
All things else are only paliatives. I'm
til there is as little government in
Great Britain of Ireland by England
as there is today government in the
United States of Maryland by New
York, there will remain an Irish uues-
ton.
Commons: You cannot get rid OF the
Irish. question. Nothing that Volt can
do, either. by the way OF force eli The
one side or concession OH The ether, can
relieve you from the, necessary conse-
quences OF maintaining in Ireland a
system Of government opposed to the
will of the governed These ,conse-
quences are chronic unrest and discon-
tent in Ireland, and chronic disturbance
here in the Imperial Parliament
Nor must self government come by
grace, but as a right inherent in all
people on their own soil; not liberty
by charter as under the Bourbons or
a Gar, but self-government as a. Cod
given right. not a man-granted favor
inherent, not conferred. What is Civ
en- by grace oil a Monday may be with
drawn BY lack of grace. on. a Tuesday.
All development is a growth in self