The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-05-05
THE IRISH EXODUS,


1t is the same old story repeated |
again-the same old pathetic tale of
a steadily decaying nation from
which the life-blood is being drained
day after day, year after year and
generation after generation In
other and palmer words, it is the
sad and discouraging story of the
interminable Irish exodus, to which
the lines of the poet, Men may
come and men may go, but l go on
forever may very aptly apply.
We know nothing in the literature
Of statlstics-nothing within the
scope of periodic official reports
that appeals to our sympathies more
than the annual statement of the
registrar general for Ireland, of
which the gradual depopulation of
the country is the ever-paramouut
feature. 1t is saddening reading, in
deed-saddening discouraging, and,
n sense, humiliating. In cold fig
Tres that need no word-painting to
make the more clear their terrible
siSnificance it tells how for fifty
.ong and weary years the Irish peo-
pie have been deserting the land of
! their birth to seek in other lands that
opportunity for a livelihood denied
them in their own. Day after day
within that half century's round
Westward! has been the slogan of
| the Irish race, and year after year
thousands have left the spreading
plains and verdant valleys of Erin
to sail in the track of that setting
sun which their pagan ancestors
worshiped in the days before st.
Patrick taught the Christian faith
to king and bard, to chief and gal
| lowglass.
The latest report of the Irish reg
istrar general, just laid before par
lament, has, if anything, even more
| of pathetic interest than those re-
ports preceding it in recent years.
1t is more retrospective and tells its
tale of wholesale expatriation with
even more brutal frankness than
usual. In the olden days, when
famine had wellnigh decimated the
! land and the coffin ships" of trans
atlantic lines bore their wretched
| freight across the seas, the London
| Times, gloating over the terrible
picture of a rapidly decaying nation,
used the expression, THE Irish are
| going with a vengeance" Though
brutal, this was true then, and, un-
| fortunately, it is almost as true now.
The Irish are going with venge-
ance; and the island which once
| boasted a population of 100000
has now little more than a third
of that population to her credit.
But here is an epitome of the
registrar generals report which
needs no comment, for the figures
given tell their own sad and humili-
ating tale. During the year 1910
N nf iCrr N
! Ireland was 32,923, showing an in
crease of 1888 over the number in
1909. OF those who emigrated, 49,
/ 113 were males and 14,S10 were fe-
males. OF the males 1877 and of
the females 14,720, were natives of
Ireland, the total number of such
emigrants amounting to 32,457,
equivalent at a rate of IA per
thousand of the population of Ire
land, estimated to the middle of
1910, and showing an increase of
1881 as compared with 1909.
The returns, as collected and pub
lished show that the total number of
emigrants-natives of Ireland-who
/ left Irish ports from the 1st of May
1851, when the collection of these
returns commenced), to the end of
December, 1910, amounts in the ag-
gregate to 4,1S7,443, the number of
males being 2,l75,641 and of females
2,011,S02.
1t would appear that the largest
number of emigrants for any year of
the periods S52-1910-wa 190,-
322 in the year 1852, this number
representing rate of 800 per 100
of the population of Ireland, estimat-
ed in the middle of the year; and
hA ,1,,,,
295 Tor 5.3 per 1000 estimated pop
ulation), in the year 1908. Between
the figures for 1852 and 1908 the
six highest numbers were 173, 14S in
1858, affording a rate of 279 per
1000; 140, ,555, or 81 per 1000, in
1854; 117,229 in 1868, with a rate
of 20.5 per 1000, in 1854; 117,229
in 1868, with a rate of 20.5 per
1000; 4,169 in 1864, representing
20.2 per 1000 of the estimated pop
ulation; 10S,724 in 1888, the rate
per 1000 of the population being
PIG, and 101 ,497 in 1865, or 1871
per 1000 of the population; and the
six lowest between the extremes re-
ferred to were 2S,676 equivalent to
Go per 1000 of the population) in
1903; 30,676 equivalent to 10 per
1000 of the population, in 1905; 49,
241 in 1898, the rate per 1000 of the
estimated population being IL; 32,-
457 Cor IA per 1000) in 1910; 49,
535 Cor 7.2 per 10000 in 1897, and
35,344 in 1906, representing a rate
of 81 per 1000 of the estimated
population.
These figures are certainly ap-
palling, yet, strange to say, that so
far as they relate to 1910 they con-
tain the germ of scintilla of hope
for the future, for the number of
emigrants in the year 1910 is below
the average for any of the decennial
periods for which records are avail
able. In the ten years, 1900-1909,
the average was $3.50; in the ten
years, 1S90-1S09, the average num-
ber of emigrants was 44,955; in the
ten years, 1SSO-1S89, the annual
average was 89,491; in the ten years,