The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-08-14

I dtiong Of the soil which sustains them
and the climate which surrounds them.
But now about our human beings. II
| shall not go back to the early historic
times in order to draw comparisons
between the then and the now. will
only take what l can remember my
self; and I say without the shadow Of
I a doubt on my mind that the mon. wo-
men, and children Of today in Ire
land are neither SO strong. so active,
| SO enduring, nor so handsome as were
their ancestors Of fifty and sixty years
| ago. To what cause do I attribute
this change? To one, and to one
cause only. To the change of food.
Seventy. eighty years ago the people
| ate their own Irish food; they did not
send the produce Of Ireland to feed
England, and content themselves with
getting oatmeal from Canada, wheat
America, bacon from Chicago and but
ter from God knows where. My friends,
food is the first factor we have to
think of II we want to raise up in this
old land race Of men and women
who will resemble In strength and
beauty and endurance those old people
whose bones, even. now when they are
turned up by the Grave-digger, in our
churchyards put III poor comparison
the measurements Of living men today.
Food, I say, is the first factor-the
food OF our old limestone soil which
builds bone in man and beast alike.
and which no soil that has not limo
in it can ever build. Is it not strange,
ask you, that practical men, when
they are dealing with the strength.
the activity and the endurance Of
horses, are quick to recognise these
underlying sources and causes Of ex-
cellence. and that we in Ireland
should be apparently blind to the APP
plication of those simple and patent
truths to our own race Of beings
content to take our food from over sea
after 1t has been put through hum
dred processes which are more or less
destructive of the life properties that
were originally in it? And in connec-
tion with this food question there Is
another point Of the greatest import
ance. The more you turn the surface
Of Ireland into grass the more readily
do you give wings to your food to fly
away to foreign lands, and the more
steadily are you bound to decrease your
native population. / live in a part Of
Ireland which is chiefly devoted to
grass, and therefore Of necessity to cat
tie. Creameries are now everywhere
to be seen. What are these creameries
really doing? They are sending the
cream and butter to England and lcav-
the people Of Ireland to drink-with
what result? That the consumption
of q slow and subtle poison Is spread
ing year by year amongst us-tea. Ask
your doctor what is 1t that draws your
children's teeth out of their mouths
and ricketts, their bones He will tell
you 1t is scarcity of good milk and guam
tity of bad tea. l sometimes think that
there is a supreme retribution upon
this Empire for her treatment OF
China sixty years ago, when we went
to war with her because she endeavor-
ed to preserve her people from the
evils of opium, which we continued to
force upon her. No doubt we poisoned
some millions of Cinnamon by insisting
upon the introduction Of that drug.
China is now paying back the poison
with compound interest to us in the
n teapot. was lately told Of a small
!. store at a cross roads in Ireland where
the annual quantity Of tea sold had
!, reached the enormous weight Of five
tons.
) Is there nobody among US to take up
this question of questions-the peo-
) ple's food and drink, the peoples
{ strength and stamina-a question
{ which is of far greater Importance to
t Ireland than all the other matters OF
education, law, land or language, with
Il which, we are now so literally deluged
in the press, the platform and the