The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-25

Skeptic may we'll smile-it is we'll tina
the parliamentary, party is alive
If only TO stir the sluggish imagination
Of the rather stolid British electorate.
= The English sense of justice is a very
rudimentary affair as applied to ths
Irish demands. The same delicate an(
: robust sense which sends a Curzon t.
work out India's problems and does not
hesitate to send those even closer tC
the throne to tranquilize Canada is
huslred and evaporate when there is
question of economic or religious OIL
social readjustment in Ireland.
Piecemeal legislation will not affect
ANY permanent advancement. Local
government bills will simply clog any
comprehensive plans designed to bring
about living conditions in Ireland. The
greatest need OF Ireland is practical
economy, for that would insure atten-
ton to local needs and a more robust
feeling of independence in reference to
business activity.
/ Observers are at a point of agree
ment that the Irish temperament can
not expand and do it's most efficient
work until it is spurred by an impulse
which will drag it out of the old ruts.
| If the farmers subsistence is a bare
half-inch above the poverty line how
lean you expect a fertile country like
| Ireland to blossom as the rose? Our
American farmers, using every modern
appliance and the most advanced sci
entific methods of cultivation, would
soon abandon the farm and strike for
the Canadian Rockies-where men still
see the rainbow of hope-if the fruits
of their labor were not guaranteed.
Ireland needs schools of scientific
farming; she needs technical schools;
she needs men equipped with the pow
er to use Ireland's abundant water
power in manufactures. Why could
not Ireland supply one-third, at least,
of the shoe markets of the world? She
has the untitled water power that
would make Rhode Granddaughter by
little streams-seem ingloriously insig-
nificant There is not stimulus. That
is all.
An 1rish-American worker in a shoe
factory in Lynn can earn $3.50 or-at
the best seasons and in a moving mar
ket-$4 day. He hears his associates
talk shoes and their making. the little
secrets of the craft, the results of care
full acquired technical knowledge. 1t
is the atmosphere that makes the man.
His mind absorbs, sponge-like, the best
in the things around him.
Put him back in Ireland He stag
mates. He is beset by harassments.
Local needs are ignored. He would be-
come mere mute inglorious Milton
Home rule would break through the
case Of custom. The air of Ireland
would sing the song of a miraculously |
new industrial development For the |
first time since the days of that su-
preme courtezan of history, Elizabeth |
the 1rishman would take bis place a !
free man among his fellows
'1an
Canada, South Africa and Australia
have found it natural to express in
their own way would do a work of rev.
dictionary cleansing in Ireland. Such q
small degree of progressive political
liberty would not be ideal
1t would fall far short of what Irish
men in every cline demand 1t would.
however, be an entering wedge which
s something substantial forming a
oint departure for wider growth of the
national ideal.
The condition of Ireland today is dis
leartening. Wages are high because
he population has dwindled to a mere
;hadowgraph of its ancient greatness.
The movements to restore the ancient
arts and crafts to the people have
brought forth some important mani
estations, but they will languish until
NNNpCiililS VI Tie HdIlOildl conscious
less takes place, along normal lines.
Kathleen in Hollihan, Ireland as the
and of heartbreak and sorrow, hast
brought forth a harvest of tears. But
massive art requires the sunny levels,
90. You can't have national art that
S made up only of shadows
Sir Horace Plunkett has done a great
cal of good with his system of model
Aries and his program of practical
gricultural reform. At least his in
entions have been excellent
Lace weaving has been demonstrated
commercial possibility and the allied
rts have had a large market opened
Or them in these United States.
But these are fragmentary results. !
hey have been brought about by =.
lethods that We're rather haphazari
han touching the deepest roots of the
ncient life of the Irish people They 6
ave all, it is true, been aspects of the :
ational genius. Still they have been :
My aspects, not the results of far !
eaching reorganization of Irish life :
long lines Of national freedom. 7
What Ireland needs is a supreme ma
onal Voice. overlooking all monotones
nd soft light, in which the genius and
over of a great people would find ex- :
ression
They have been voices,-Repubnc, \
oston. :