The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1909-12-23
Dbe Jefferson,on
Mr.. Cutler and HIS Open Letter:
ireland and Free Trade
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE NINEl
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE NINE)


before venturing into discussion Of it, he
knows that it q0as the taa1o5qae IN ireland that
forced Sir Robert Peel to open the ports OF
Great Britain to the breadstufs of the outside
world. Previous to that time, the Corn Laws
that is, the high tariff duties given
the landlords of England monopoly In sup
plying the people of Great Britain with food,
and these landlords used the monopoly heart
lessly,-as the trusts are now using their mo-
nopolies in the United States. There came
upon Ireland the potato blight of 1916, and
her people began to perish from sheer starva-
ton. Concerning this famine, the historian,
Justin Mccarthy, in "The History of Our
Own Times, says: "The starving peasants
streamed into the nearest considerable towns
hoping for relief there, and found too often
that there the very sources of charity were
dried up. Many, very many, thus disappoint-
died there. Along the country roads, one met,
everyaOhere, groups Of gauqt, hoUoa0- eyed
qoretches, clothed IN miserable old sachlmg,
and wandering aimazesszy aOith some vague
idea of finding food. Many remained IN their
empty hovezs and took death there aohem 1t
came. In some regions the country seemed
uopeopzed for miles, and q ferv5d national
q0riter declared that the impression made
upon him By the aspect Of the country then
a0as of one silent, east desozation. For the
landlord class there came a friend, the En-
numbered Estate Court; for the small farmer
and peasant class there foated up the Ameri-
can emigrant ship"
Historians calculate that 100000 of the
Irish people died, victims of that famine
which forced the English ministry to open
the ports, and adopt the policy of free trade,
which has ever since been maintained Dur
ing the prolonged and heated debate over Sir
Robert Peels proposition to repeal the Corn
Laws, and to give to the United Kingdom the
benefit of free trade, Lord John Russell, re-
ferring to the pitiable condition of Ireland
said, eve haze made Ireland, i speat 1t de-
hberutezy,--the most degraded and miserable
country I'M the qoorzd' AS that was in 1916,
and had reference to conditions that were al
ready existing before the adoption of free
trade, Mr.. Cutler will be hard man to con-
vince if he doesn't decide that Ireland's pres
ent condition is very much better than it was
at the time Russell referred to, and realize
that free trade had nothing to do whatever
with her backwardness
The whole foreign commerce of the United
Kingdom imports and exports together
was, in 1916, no more than $649,9OOO00;
thirty years later it showed the enormous in
crease to So, JIG, 100000; it is now upwards of
$5,O00,00OO00.
Inasmuch as everybody knows of the won
derful progress which Scotland and England
have made under free trade, it must be quite
evident that Ireland's backwardness is due to
something else. There is no difficulty what
ever in locating the cause of Ireland's failure
to keep step with her two neighbors in the
grand march of industrial and educational de-
velopment. Put one hand on the absentee,
rach-renting English landlord, and the other
upon the Roman Catholic priest, and you haze
got the ta0o cuzprits eoho are guilty Of the long