Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-20

American, Philadelphia.)
REVIEWED ny DAVID G. BAILIIE
DwO pictures of Ireland are before
me. One is the work of Sydney
Il Brooks in the North American
Review. Why George Harvey should
have put Brooks on the witness stahd
| in a case in which bias would Vitlate
| testimony and phrase mastery Woulu
fail to disguise prejudice is unguess-
/ able Mr.. Harvey's apology Tor Broohs
! is supplied in the identification fore
word with which he tags REVIEW
| writer's:
Sydney Brooks is an English jour
nalist who has ALREADY contributed
| a number of articles to the Review on
a variety Of subjects. He visited Ire
| land recently and spent A NUMBER
| OF MONTHS in observing on the spot
| existing conditions in that country
| He is an authority upon subjects re-
! lating to England's administration IN
India and in Ireland"
Why should the North American Re
| view invite us to accept lNSTRUC-
TION from such a source? The fac
ulty of writing from his point of view
| l grant Mr.. Brooks. That he is an
AUTHORITY 1 doubt, because ms
/ conclusions and comments differ from
those in the second picture, which is
the work of a mastery American re-
porter with a Scottish name, Hugh
! Sutherland. We may accept his au-
! thority, as far as accurate Journalism
may have authority; and the more es-
! pecially as Sutherland's testimony IS
backed by photographs. We should
dispute Brooks authority. although We
may willingly accept his testimony
| (for what it is worth) as an example
of the English method of observing
and reporting upon a Celtic race at
which the average Engltshman may
glover until his eyes pop, without de-
irving suggestion or inspiration, far
| less authority.
Impossible Feat
It is impossible to compare things
| that are different. Equally impossible
is it to receive from an English jour
nalist" an informed, understanding or
| discerning paper on Ireland ana
Irish affairs, because if it were possi-
BILE for any English journalist" with
an Indian experience to report and in
terpret Ireland Alright, THERE
WOULD BE NO IRISH QUESTION.
The Review makes a mistake when
it couples suggestively the administra-
tion of India with that of Ireland, and
| l am inclined to think Irishmen and all
fellow Celts who are beginning to take
a belatedly revived interest in racial
unity will resent the inference that be-
cause an English journalist may be
an authority on alien and subJugated
Hindus, he is an equal authority upon
the Hibernian Celts. Why couple Celt
with Hindu, George B. Mcclellan Har-
vey, you with the Celtic name and
Celtic manner? Surely you have never
felt HINDUISM.
Sydney Brooks says the Irish are in
| capable of self government! The old,
, old twaddlel Not fit to govern Ire
| land, but by a miracle that takes place
on the transatlantic passage, fit to
| take an intelligent and powerful In
| terest in the government of the United
| States.
Nay, more: Brooks says they are IN
| CAPABLE of pursuing an Independent
| economic existence! Lest we be sus-
pected of distorting the gentleman's
| phrases for our purposes, let us quote
some of them in their entirety:
The Babbling Brooks
"At present, as I have before insisted,
| the Irish are lamentably ill-equipped
for competitive agricultural existence.
| Taken as a whole, the Irish peasants
have neither the technical skill nor
the education nor the capital nor the
| business experience adequate to their
new responsibilities"
| Now, we may accept much or little
of this as a judgment, but in one re-
spect and aspect 1t must be accepted.
1t is an Englishmans belief con-
cerning the Irish; a safeguarding as
pect which George Harvey does not
keep sufficiently before the public
when he deVotes, without notes or
warnings, page after page of his Re-
view to a gentleman who, to what we
/ l1aua already u1Otpd adds.
Large numbers of the Irish farm
ers are in debt to the local government;
nearly all have been more or less de-
moralized by long years of agrarian
agitation" (our witness, mark you,
blames the agitation for demoraliza-
ton; blames for consequences resent
ment against a condition, and not the
provocative condition itself! How En-
glishD
'They have been demoralized by the
habit of leaning on others and by the
lassitude and hopelessness that brood
over rural Ireland; they have forgotten
what little they or their fathers ever
knew about tillage; even as stock
raisers, with every advantage of soil
and climate in their favor, they fall
miserably below the standards of Ar
gentina and America; and the
DREARY SLOVENLINESS OF THEIR
MODE OF LIFE Is THE DESPAIR
OF MORAL SOCIAL REFORMERS."
(Let us remember this phrase when we
call Hugh Sutherland to the witness
stand).
"Yet these are the men who have
the future Of Ireland in their hands
and who represent the ultimate secur-
ity for the repayment of the loan of
81 900 900, 900 advanced or about to be
advanced by the British treasury to
enable them to become the sole owners
Of their holdings.
Race lnsuIted
''There is a two-fold danger In such
a situation The first danger is that
just as in the past there have been
campaigns against the payment of
| rents to landlords, so in the future
there may be campaigns against the
! payment of the annuities to the state"
That this Is a gratuitous insult to
| one OF the thriftiest and most honest
races on earth is practically admitted
by the laundering Brooks, almost in
| the next sentence: 1T is TRUE
THAT EXPERIENCE so FAR DOES
! NOT MAKE THE RISK APPEAR
! VERY FORMIDABLE. Some 10000
Irish peasants (sic) purchased their
| holdings by the aid of public credit
before the act of 1903 was dreamed of.
IN VERY FEW INSTANCES HAS
| THERE BEEN A FAILURE TO PAY
! THE INSTALLMENTS OF THE
PURCHASE MONEY PUNCTU-
ALLY"
Not only are the Celts honest, but if
7 may use the word they are notori-
ously honest. Their governmental ideas
from the first have been patrlarchal;
their social ideas fraternal. Patriarchy
and fraternalism produced the clan sys-
al, Z