The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-11-11
HOME RULE THE
LOGICAL SOLUTION
Next Session to be Market, by Intro
ductiOn of Measure for Irish
Self-Government.
In Favoring Home Rule the Govern
ment is Acting in Pursuance
of its Pledges.
Prime Minister Asquith Sees Much
Merit in Lloyd-George In
Surance Bill.

Prime Minister Asquith addressed
meeting Of the East Fife Liberal AS
sociation not long ago and took oc-
casion to reiterate the statements he
has made regarding his position on
the Home Rule question. The In
surance bill, he said, was only step
in the social policy in which the pres
ent Government sought 10 make itself
and it's followers responsible, the first
step having been taken when the Old
Age Pensions Bill was passed. The
first part of the Insurance Bill pro-
vided against sickness and invalidity;
the second part, in respect to unem-
ployment, was experimental, and not
necessarily final. If it were placed on
the Statute Book after the satisfac
tory adjustment of details, the country
would say this Government, this Par
lament, had not lived in vain. 1t
was worth while to make great ef-
fort, not only in time and labor, but
in conciliation and concession, to Sc
cure something like smooth passage
for gig ntic reform of the kind.
Otherwise there would be no chance
of the bill passing into law within the
year. 1t was intended to propose the
ALLEGATION Of Parliamentary time for
its consideration during the sitting
opening on Tuesday. He believed that
: in the proposal they would have the
sympathy of the vast mass of the peo-
pie outside the House Of Commons.
The ALLEGATION proposed would be
very generous one, which would Sc
cure ample opportunity for every point
of Importance. Mr.. Lloyd George had
already arranged with the most for
midable Of the Bills critics, and met
their objections, and when it had
passed through an adequate ordeal of
Parliamentary discussion it would,
] they believed, be a workmanlike meas
lure, redounding to the credit Of the
Parliament that passed it, and CAL
culated to improve the condition of
the whole laboring classes.
The Home Rule Bill.
If he looked beyond the close of the
present session to next year they
would then proceed to introduce meas
ures into Parliament dealing, amongst
other things, with Self-Government
for Ireland and Disestablishment in
Wales. 1t was a favorite Tory argu-
men that the Government was trying
| to pass Home Rule by a trick. He re-
called his own speeches on the SUBJ
ject of Home Rule to show that there
was no foundation for the suggestion
In the Albert Hall, two years, ago,
he said, and he now repeated 1.-THE
Parliament Bill was but means to
an end, and that end was the passing
into law of over-delayed arrears Of
Liberal legislation. Among them he
gave prominen ent radical change, In
the government Of Ireland upon the
lines of what was commonly called
Home Rule-a change which, he said,
must consist in giving to Ireland, in
regard to purely Irish affairs, not a
shadow or simulacrum of power and
responsibility, but full Self-Govern-
men. What became of all this talk
about trickery? On the contrary, in
introducing the measure the Govern
ment would be acting in strict fulfil
ment of pledges openly and deliber-
Iately given, and interpreted in the
same sense by the leaders of both
parties of the State, and accepted and
ratified by the celebrates both in re-
gard to Irish Self-Government and
Welsh Disestablishment. The Gov
Iernment were not animated, as some
of their opponents seemed to think,
by lust for destruction. They were
acting in strict pursuance of one of
the Oldest, most rational and we'll
founded Liberal principles-that in
stitutions exist for the people, and
not the people for institutions, and
when an institution, political or &c.
clesiastical, was repugnant to the
ideas Of the vast majority of the
p .ople for which 1t existed, the insti.
tuition stood self-condemned. But, he
lsaid, he would be just-not only just,
but generous-in handling it. In the