The Irish standard., 1908-06-20


ward to a day when the transatlantic
trade would be monopolized by Dub
lin and Cork steamships; and when
made in Ireland" would supplant the
once widely seen made in Germany"
But now comes the meeting of the
"Statistical and Social Inquiry Society
Of Ireland" and the moral of it is
Put not your trust in public speak,
ers" Mr.. A. w. Samuels presided;
and, says the report, "there was a
SMALL attendance" Evidently we have
not much taste for facts. In the
course of his speech he said emphati-
cally and "there was no evidence at
all of an Industrial revival in ireland.
On the contrary, the evidence proved
that the industrial conditions in Ire
land were passing through such crit
ical and unfavorable time that it was
matter Of very serious consequence
for them all. 1t was no time for fool
ing about Irish Industrial Develop
ment, or for indulging their native
propensity for unthinking talk. The
one broad feature Of Ireland's econ
omy was that what they produced
they did not consume, and what they
consumed they did not produce. They
were not self-contained. 1t was not
the competition of the old established
and well capitalized Industries of Eng
land that killed the nascent indus
tries of Ireland; it was the chilling,
inveterate and unreasoning determine
tion Of the Irish people themselves
that they would not buy an article
that was made in Ireland. But the
Irish people were prejudiced against
themselves. They were ignorant Of
industrial matters. and quite unable
to Judge the quality Of manufactured
articles. All they felt certain about
was that If the article was foreign
made it was probably good article,
but If it was made in Ireland, then
it was sure to be an inferior, appren-
tice- made sort Of rubbish, which no.
body but fool would think Of buy
ing. What was the origin Of this
overmastering hallucination in the
minds of the Irish people? It had no
foundation in fact. The plain, SIM
Pile truth about 1rish-made goods was
that they were the best of their kind
in the world. Why, therefore. was
there this psychological twist in the
mind Of the Irish people, this inveter-
ate instinct that they would not buy
ton of the false doctrine which was
preached by the apostles Of the Irish
Industrial Development movement,
this doctrine that there was a patriotic
duty imposed upon Irishmen to con-
tribute to the support Of Irish indus
tries by purchasing 1rish-rpade goods
in preference to imported foreign
goods. This doctrine was based on an
economic fallacy. AS an exped-
1CINI " lOVlVO 4IlSu IuuUSIly IL Ildu
had long trial. and it had not been
success. The doctrine that goods
were to be bought because they were
Irish, not because they were the goods
you needed, and the best value for
the money paid-and that without this
the manufacture Of the goods must
perish-was one that not only dam
aged the home market for the really
excellent things made in Ireland, it
also cut at the root Of their self-re-
lance. 1t had made the Irish people
prejudiced against themselves, it had
taught the Irish people to instructive
ly distrust things as bad value, merely
because they were Irish made. The
paralysis to industry in Ireland pro-
duced from this cause was perpetu-
ated by every repetition of the propa-
ganda, and its effects were accumu-
lative"
Mr.. samuers theory about the pol
icy Of the Irish 1relandsrs may not bs