Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1910-12-03
Bitter Personal Attacks Used
by Both sides i'm the
Conflict.
Irish May Gain and Redmond
Remain Master of the
Situation.
YANKEE CASH CUTS FIGURE


cables the American press that the
coming election is marked not merely
by the rapidity of action but also by
the violence of the language used In
the campaign. AS one Tory journal
remarks, one sIeech Wy Lloyd-George
alone would in the olden times have
involved dozen duels, and as the
days go on this violence increases.
American dollars still hold the stage
as the chief point in controversy. The
Tories watch every transmission
from the Irisb-American League with
feverish curiosity and record them
with scare head articles. The Lib
erals retort in kind, and the Duke of
Marlborough and other husbands of
American heiresses are yelled at as
pocketing the American dollars
Similarly Canada has entered into
the fray, and the subscriptions and
speeches of Sir Wilsrid Laurier and
other Canadians are quoted by the
Liberals against the cry of "Ameri-
can dictation and American dollars"
1t emerges from all this that, though
the veto of the House of Lords really
Is the chief battle-ground in this cleo
ton, home rule occupies the first
place in most of the peoples minds.
The Tories, who were flirting with
Federal home rule three weeks ago,
have turned double somersault and
now denounce it with the old
ferocity. The Liberals reply by once
more pledging themselves to home
rule, and the Irish leaders in their
manifest base their support to the
Liberals on the certainty of home
rule following the destruction of the
House of Lords veto. The flank
move of the House Of Lords in pro-
posing their own reformation has not
produced much effect. All of the
Liberals clearly see that the so-called
reformation Is merely a dodge and
means the perpetual ascendency of
the House of Lords under a new
name and a new disguise. The pro-
posal to give the House of Lords the
right to send all such big questions
as home rule to a referendum means
an indefinite postponement of home
rule, and thus it would be with any
other great Liberal reform.
AS the election campaign proceeds
the leaders are more uncertain as to
the result, but on the whole the
Liberal party is in high spirits. Lon
don presents the chief danger to
them, largely because as the election
will take place under the old regis
ter OF voters many votes will thereby
be impossible to trace, but even in
London the Liberal spirit runs high
and the meetings are crowded and
enthusiastic and the feeling against
the Peers runs high. No uncertainty
Ia felt about the other parts of the
country.
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Scotland
and Wales show no sign whatever Of
changing the complexion of the last
election. At the worst the Tories
can not do more than reduce the
Liberal forces by ten or fifteen votes.
and that would still leave an ade-
quate majority to destroy the House
of Lords veto and pass the home
rule bill, but 1t is possible the Lib
erals may add a small number to
their majority. On the whole, the
safest prophecy can make is that
the election will leave the parties
pretty much as they stand now, and
that means a Liberal victory and a
Liberal power to carry through their
whole policy in Ireland. The same
prophecy applies to Redmond, who
will not lose any seat, and O'Brien
probably will retain most of his seats
In the small corner of Ireland occu-
pied by Cork. All of O'Brien's at
tacks on other constituencies outside
this small region will fail. The Ma
tionalists may gain one or two seats
In Ulster, with seventy-two votes,
and Redmond will remain master OF
the situation.
The campaign is singular in
stance of the ironies of political war
fare. For it is battle which no
body wanted, which everybody now
regrets, and most of all the people
who brought 1t on. Balfour had
been too weakened by the hotheads
In his own party to dare do the thing
which he himself thought right. In
addition to the fact that the hotheads
and the Orangemen and all kinds OF
irreconcileables are once more pre-
dominant behind him, Balfour no
longer has the physical strength to
put up good fight against his
enemies and critics in his own party.
His judgment is one way, but his
heroic efforts to keep his party to-
gether goes In another direction.