The San Francisco call., 1909-07-29

buying land outside a congested dis
trict and moving on to il families from
such districts, while it was unable to
give any help to families equally as
purchased These defects are remedied
in the bill now pending. If it shall
pass, the board will be able to operate
in any part of a county in which con-
gested districts are scheduled.
few figures will show the enor-
nous extent of the task which con-
fronted the board. The 429 congested
districts have a total area of 3,626,3S1
acres, more than one-sixth of the total
area of Ireland, with population Gin
1900 of 505.723, more than one-ninth
the total population, and an annual
ratable valuation of about $2,SS5,000,
which is only one twenty-sevent of
the total valuation of Ireland.
1t viii be observed that the popula-
tion in these districts is not dense, and
that the word 'congested'' is in reality
a misnomer. The term WAS accidentally
applied. but has become official. 1t
simply means exceptionally poor. The
average annual valuation of lands in
these districts is S4 cents per acre,
while the average for all Ireland is
$3.50. Hence the trouble, as the royal
commission on congestion found, is not
scarcity of land, but a scarcity
in these districts of any but the
poorest land. Taking the total area,
there is an average of about seven
acres per head, but since the greater
portion must be excluded as rocky hill
side or untillable bog, it will be seen
that there is actually a sort of conges
tion, and that the poorer parts of these
districts are, in fact, agricultural
'1slums.''
IMPOSSIBLE CONDITIONS OF LIFE
Now, Ireland is predominantly an
agricultural country, but this condition
is most marked in the congested dis
tricts. There nine-tenths of the popu-
lation subsist, or attempt to, upon agrf-
cultural holdings as against four-sev-
enths in the whole country. The i'm
possible conditions of life may be un-
derstood when it is stated that the
minimum annual valuation of a holding
capable of supporting a family is $50,
while the average in the congested dis
tricts is $50. as against $40 for the
whole of ireland. No less than 74,413,
or seven eighths. of the holdings are
under the danger point of $50, while
1913, or more than one-half of the
s4,954 holdings, have an annual value
of under $40 This explains the start
ling fact that thousands of families in
these districts have been kept alive
from year to year only through the re-
mittances from relatives in America,
and through the annual migration of
the stronger members tc England and
Scotland as agricultural laborers.
Dark as was the score against Brit
ish misrule for 800 years, it must be
said that Great Britain made honest, II
misguided efforts, during the last quar-
ter of the. nineteenth century, to pay
some part of the gigantic debt. In that
period $40, ,000, 900 was spent for the re-
lief of chronic poverty in Ireland, and
s15,000,000 more in plans to improve
means of transportation. But these
measures We're futile to reach the deep
seated trouble. The CHASTITY evolution
of centuries could not be remedied by
such means; it required an economic
revolution to undo the gigantic wrongs
of history That revolution began with
the establishment of the principle of
land purchase-making the tenants the
owners of their lands-and the move
ment goes resistlessly onward. For
the solution of the specially acute prob
lem of the west we have the congested
districts board, whose astounding
achievements In four counties l have
Inspected in part and shall describe in
succeeding letters.