The San Francisco call., 1910-02-13

cattle; thousands upon thousands of
people starving in the bogs and stony
hillsides and even then paying such
rentals to the same absentee landlords
that the poor, wretched souls remained
ever on the brink of starvation, always
in the shadow of suffering. The people
starve on one seventh of the land, and
that the meanest to be found; the cattle
grow fat on the other siX-sevenths,
which is degenerating year by year into
wild meadow land"
This was the life of the Irish tenant.
slave, that he was, and nothing else.
And here is the almost incredible
fact" the author writes: Until 80 years
ago all the labor of the tenant, though
he spent lifetime in making his farm,
gave him absolutely no interest in
the property. The fences he erected,
the roads he made, the buildings he put
up-aA were the property of the land
lord. That was the law. And at any
time, with or without cause, rent paid
or unpaid, that tenant could be evicted
from his home at the whim of the land
lord, and the work of his lifetime
passed automatically into the owner
ship of the landlord. Can the mind
conceive of a system more monstrous,
more absurd?"
YOKE ON A PROUD PEOPLE
What was to be expected from such
persecution as this, such a yoke set
upon a noble and inherently proud
race of people? Nothing could be ex-
pected but hatred and unrest. And
hatred and unrest there were and are;
hatred expressed in rebellion: unrest
in that sad feature of Ireland's story,
unequaled in the history of any other
l'nation-wholesale emigration. Death,
by starvation, by want and by disease
upspringing from want; and emigra-
tion-millions of driven Wretches eX-
lied from their native land-have
played their black part in Ireland S
story. What a frightful record it isn'
Sutherland exclaims.
OF the 100000 people who inha bited
ireland a little more than so years ago
more than half have disappeared
Think of this, all in the brief span of
a mans life-all in the memory of men
still young, rs there a country" the
author asks, "on the face of the globe
where white people make their homes
in which conditions of such dismal
poverty can be found? The land de-
caying. the people dying or eXpatri-
ating themselves, priyation and hunger
their constant companions, famine an
ever present specter-this is civiliza-
tion within a days journey Of the
worlds greatest capital"'
SOLVING THE PROBLEM
With the source of the trouble estab-
lished-the land, the loss of it, the alb
solute need of it-and his own observa-
tions of the fruits of that trouble re-
corded, the author closes his chronicle
of his first visit to Ireland. After
seven years he returns In the mean
time the problem is beginning to be
solved the solution ic
enough-land ownership. That, and
that alone, and absolute, viii finally
solve the Irish problem. Term rent
ais, scheduled by land commission
Chat knows nothing about its busi-
ness) the reselling of bankrupt es-
tateS to speculatorS-a mere change of
masters for the Irishman; not to speak
of coercion and persecution-all these
solutions failed, and more than failed
merely aggravating Ireland's deep cut
wounds
Land ownership is the one and only
solution and it is being applied. Now,
the Irish tenant, instead of paying $50
year rent to a landlord, pays $35 a
year to the government for the same
land, occupying it as it's owner. and
every cent of his payment applying to
the ultimate purchase of the property.
What changei Something to live for
something to work fori And what
pathos in the exclamation of that buoy
ant hearted farmer who tells Suther-
land that now he and his neighbors
under the new regime ARE as happy as
choir of angelsi'
GREAT CHANGE IN PROGRESS
THE whole face of the land is
changing, and the spirit of the people
with it." John Dillon told Sutherland.
keIreland has made more progress dur
ing the last 10 years than during the
previous 200 years. That is a strong
statement" the author replies but he
substantiates Dillon.
1t was a striking phrase-a
little too striking, it might seem,
to be strictly accurate / know
now that the statement was liter
ally true / know, because l have
seen. | know. because l have trav-
eled for days and DAYS over the
countryside which | traversed
peace and plenty where then I saw
misery and despair. The face of
the land has, indeed, been changed.
for there are happy homes and
/ gardens where cattle grazed and
Industry and contentment where
hopeless poverty held its CHASTITY
sway. Needless to say the work
is not yet done. for the vast prob
lem covers an area of millions of
acres and the lives of half a mill
lion human beings But the start
has been made, and the work of a
few short years has lifted thou
the long fight has been recognized. !