Putnam patriot., 1910-03-18
IreIsnd's Struggles snd Hopes.
AHusDH.p YEARS BATTLE !
BY JOHN E. REDMOND.
ISuni,er.vIii1

In isa6 Gnstave Dc Beaumont de- seribed the condition Of Inc Irish Peo- pie a. worse than that of the Indian in his forests or the negro In his chains. Even today the standard of comfort Is lower among a large section of the fish people than among any similar class in the world.
 Since the Act of Union over one and . half million of the people pefished o' famine, and al least four millions have been swept of the land by enforced emigration. The destruction of Irish industries by the British Parliament threw the people back upon the land AS their only means of subsistanee.
 The Catholic Relief Act, of 11a, caused the anduftls--men for the most paft aliens in eteed, in race, and in caste, ,to the people--to subdivide their lands. so AS to obtain the vote for IN many as possible of the forty -sehilling ifeehoiders. The agricultural prosper- ity resulting from high prices obtained during The Napoleonie warsstimulated the grow th of the products oi the po- pulalion, which increased from about s4a .uoo .uuo before the Union, to s82, ,boo,- 0oo in isl5.
 There was fierce competition for the soil, and rents rose in consequences, while wages fell With the end of the war, prices wen, down, and wages sank still lower. The tenants could not pay and eviction followed default, as crime and coercion followed eviction. The trail of landlordism ean he traced In blood. With the disfranchisement of the fotiy-shilling freeholders, tn is2s, the last reason flor their maintenance hy the landlords vanished, and they were swept away remorseiessiy in the great clearance. Every appeal made for justice for the tenants, from the Union down to isfo, was rejected by Parliament The report of the Devon Commission, in ls4a, might AS well have been se much paper.
 The Encountered estate Act, of is4a, wronsed both landlords and tenants, while the Dessy Act, of lseo, was prae- tically imperative,
 Then came the Gladstone Act of is'o, compelled by tenianisn, an act which utterly failed in it's purpose. Yet Mt' Gladstone thought that act settled the Irish land question, whereas Il had only set the machinery ot reform tn motion. With the Land League. found e,i by Michael pavitt, and the Irish party, led by Mir rarnell, came the be ginning of the end ot Irish lsndleriism. In "black 1T" the people pefished almost without protest. In '7s they
 determined uos to tie without struc~ gle,
 The objects of the Land League were two.feld-ta bring about reduction of raek, rents and Ia facilitate iand paf- chase hy the tenant eecnpiess. But !, how wete the demands ot the people metg tarst. oN huekShot and ecercton; then hy hslting act, passsd in siesi- anec ef all the wsfnlnes ei the Irish members, as to tls inesieauacs. One day coercion bill. followed hs fmf- ther act. Brute force and charlatan eS~ penment. Nislng ~iih one smother for supremacy. Finally fFe>h awaken ing to \ eonseloasness of petil and, ss a matter of eoarse, \ new Coereien Acg, and then another Land Hill.
 Ina, ls the history of Inc land ques- tson do~ n 10 the present day. Bus the Land Acts, with all their shcrs comines