Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-10-07
PROGRESSIVE IRISH LAND
LAWS.

progressive ldHd laws or recent years
have greatly improved the condition of
Ireland. But the new Irish land bill
which has just passed the House Of
Commons is far more progressive than
any heretofore enacted. The provisions
Of the proposed law and some of it's
probable results are stated in the fol-
lowing article from the Springfield
Republican:
Land legislation for Ireland has
reached an extreme point in the meas
ure just passed by the House Of Com
mons and whichthe House Of Lords will
subject to few notifications. Under it's
provisions, a landlord unwilling to sell
to tenants may be forced to through a
process equivalent to condemnation
proceedings. The Wyndham act Of
1903 provided for q system Of voluntary
sale and purchase, the state lOaning the
tenant the necessary purchase money,
but in many cases landlords have refus-
ed to come to terms in regard to prices
for land The Irish cOngested districts
board and the estate commissioners will
now have compulsory powers of buying
and distributing land they see fit.
''The courts will fix the value of the
land in those proceedings and the re-
Iuctant landlord must accept the judi
ciaI estimate of what his property is
worth. The tenant purchaser then
comes into possession, with Only the
obligation to repay the government its
long term loan. In other particulars,
the landlord gets little consideration, as
may be seen in the case of demesne
lands, or those ancestral acres which he
has reserved for his own use and upon
which his home is generally located.
Under the Wyndham act these lands
were specially reserved, but now they
will be subject to compulsory sale like
the lands hitherto rented to the tenan
try.
Sc If this legislation does not completely
kill Irish landlordism, what is left of it
will probably not be worth serious at
tention by those who are studying the
time has come, too, when the moral eff
feet of the long series of Irish lands acts
since 1881 is being felt in the discussion
Of agrarian and taxation questions in
England. 1t seems singular that, with
both the great parties now virtually
committed to radical land purchase
laws for Ireland-laws which are aim
ed at the very existence of landlOrdism
there should be such an uprOar over
the present budgets clauses taxing the
unearned increment of urban land val
ues; but this very uprOar may be due to
the fear of the landed gentry in Great
Britain lest the fate Of the landlords in
Ireland is reserved also for themselves,
That there is land question in Eng
land and Wales is evident from the fact
that 1900 persons own more than half of
all the soil and that nearly 10000, 900 of
the inhabitants own no land whatever.
Those wise and good statesmen who,
through progressive land laws, are MAX
ing the Irish people nation of small
freeholders, are making a distressed
country happy. And the whole world
rejoices.
The Democrat sees in the regenera-
tion of Ireland, through the compulsory
sale of land, lesson for thoughtful
students of one of the present great
questions in this country, namely: the
conservation of the water powers to
the general welfare. Some great law
yers are telling the people that the
question must be determined by prece
dent upon precedent. But what prece
dent can be found for the compulsory
sale of private property, not for public
use but for private. use which promotes
the public welfare. That, in fact, is
what the new Irish landbill is in a
nutshell. This mas been brought about
by public opinion. And all the world
over men are more and more taking and
accepting we'll settled public opinion as
common law.
If Il remedy can be found for the
evils of oppressive landlordism in Ire
land surely way can be found to
prevent private monopoly of the great
natural resources in America.