Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-01
HELPING THE FARMERS.
What Sir Horace Plunkett Has
Done in Ireland.
VALUE OF COOPERATION
He Started the Movement in the
Matter of Creameries.
MANY NOW IN OPERATION
To Which Forty Thousand Farmers
Contribute-Reputation of Irish
Butter Has Been Restored.
MANY NOW IN OPERATION
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
,ial Correspondence Of The Star and the

BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
! DUBLIN, June %. 1903.
| If any one should attempt to distribute
| the credit and honor that are due to
those who have accomplished the good
and promoted the prosperity that ire
land is now enjoying he would find
himself in serious trouble at once. Ri
valries are keen over here. Nowhere else
is partisanship SO pronounced and so in
tolerant. People of different political
theories and policies are seldom willing
to concede honest motives to their oppo-
nents. The leaders Of the national party
insist that all the beneficial legislation
that has been enacted by the British
| parliament has been yielded reluctantly
by the government, not from any inter-
est in the welfare of the Irish people,
but solely to avoid a revolution. But l
am sure that no one will deny that Sir
Horace Plunkett has been one of the
| most active and disnterested and effect
i've agents in bringing about the great
reforms that have been accomplished
here within the last few years. And 1
can use his name without exciting the
| been told that he has more enemies
than any man in Ireland" and have
heard more diverse opinions about him
| than could be expressed about a DR..
Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde. He has done more
| good for Ireland than any man that has
| lived for century,; "He is the greatest
mischief maker in the country; He is
| the busiest man in the country, but
never works for himself: He is the
poorest politician in Ireland; He has
more good ideas than all the rest Of them.
and every thought in his mind is for the
public good.''
Sir Horace Plunkett's Work.
Those are some of the verdicts that his
fellow countrymen have pronounced upon
Sir Horace Plunkett. and 1 suspect there
is more or less truth in all of them. for
he is man Of remarkable qualities,
striking individuality. treless industry.
Indifference to other peoples ideas and
| wishes, regardless Of political policies.
and habit of saying what he thinks
He has recently published a book, en-
titled ireland in the New Century"
| which has provoked bitter determinations
| and aroused new animosities. But the
| sensation it has created would have been
ten times as great If it had been printed
| as originally written. for some of his
devoted friends seized the manuscript and
toned it down before it reached the pub
! Usher. Everybody admits that he has
told the truth about everybody else. but
| the references to themselves are all
wrong. His facts are all straight. but
d-n his opinions said one critic with
| whom / was discussing it. and he has
gone into lot of things that better had
been left alone
| But Sir Horace rushes about like an
| American hustler, carrying out his plans
| for the welfare of the farmers of Ire
! land with intense earnastness. independ-
| ent of public opinion and as confident of
| success as he is of his integrity. He was
| described to me by one of his friends as
the most transparency sincere man in
| the kingdom, thoroughly unself1sh dis
| interested and patriotic, and with a SAN
guine disposition that nothing can dis
| courage" He spends $4,000 a year from
his own pocket In his benevolent work,
| and while he was at the head Of the
agricultural department he turned over
his entire salary to the Irish Agricultu
| raj Organization Eociety, of which he is
the founder and the president.
Of an Old Irish Family.
Sir Horace Plunkett is the son of the
late Lord Dunsany of County Meath-a
very old Irish family descended from
the ancient lords Of the Pale, who have
lived in the same house for seven CEN
turtles, and have had an active part IN
the history of Ireland from the beginning
| of days A famous old Irish book, called
| THE Annals of the Four Masters" says:
! There are many fierce barons i. the
Pale, and the traveller leaving Dublin
must pass between the Baron Killeen
| and the Baron Dunsany." And SIR Hor-
| ace referred to the reputation of his an
| cestors in a speech that he made not long
| ago, as follows
| Il was reared in one of those old cas-
ties of the Pale, almost under the shadow
of the Hill of Tara. where the Plunkett
| family for seven centuries have man
aged to cling to the same house. OF
| course. In the good old days we fought
| for what we considered our right, which
was to treat the inhabitants of the coun-
| try as mere irish and to avail ourselves
| Of their lOng-horned cattle without pay
| ment. 1 have never started new cream
| cry without Il sense of restitution for
| their little irregularities.
| An old chronicle we have in the family
| runs thus: There be in Meath two Lords
| Plunkett. Lord of Kiileen and Lord
| of Dunsany; and SO 1t comes to pass that
whoever can escape being robbed at Dun
sany will he robbed at Killeen, and who
ever can escape being robbed at Killeen
| will be robbed at Dunsany.' This shows
! that our family took an interest in the
tourist traffic in those days. though our
| methods of developing 1t. judged by the
polite standards of today. may appear
somewhat crude. You will notice also
the germ of the cooperative idea The
point of this joke lies in the fact that
| Sir Horace Plunkctt is the originator and
| the most active leader in establishing CO.
| operative societies throughout the island.
| He was educated at Eton and Oxford.
! and when he got his degree went to the
| United States and bought ranch in
| Wyoming. which he still owns, in part
! nership with former Senator Carey of that
| state. He also has larg, interests in Ne
| braska and lived there for more than ten
years. He keeps up his acquaintance by
| annual visits.
Els Soul Stirred With Patriotism.
Sir Horace Plunkett came back from
| America to Ireland with his soul Stirred
| by patriotism and an ambition to do some
| thing to improve the condition of his fell
| low-countrymen. He realized the great
disadvantages under which they were
| laboring in their antiquated methods of
| farming. their rude tools and their igno-
| rance. and in 1894 proceeded to organize a
| nonpoltical movement to improve their
condition by carrying instruction to them
because they would not go anywhere to
| receive it. His enthusiasm and his ac-
I tivities attracted the sympathy and as
| sstance of several other patriotic people,
| including Lord Monteasle and Mr.. r. A.
| Anderson, who was then collecting rents