The Irish standard., 1911-05-20
IRELAND SURELY
GAINING GROUND
Increased Bank Deposits Proof
People Are Better off Than
of Yore.
The West is Still Alive and Contains
the Most Moral Population
in World.
Land Act Helps the Small Farmer,
Though it Has Failed to
Stop Emigration.

Winter is over and gone, and in
Ireland we have season which really
deserves the name OF spring, says 20.
B. M.," in his Dublin letter to the
Buffalo Catholic Union and Times.
From natures standpoint the coun-
try is rich beyond compare. But how
is the old land faring in material
prosperity: ! shall attempt this week
to offer partial answer to the ques-
ton. A large number of Americans
are expected to visit Ireland this sum-
mer and to return home in the au-
tumn. The impressions they will
carry back are, no doubt. various. The
old eternal query is, How is old Ire
there real improvement or is there
not? The answer will depend upon
what is meant by Improvement and
upon the point from which the ques-
ton is viewed, upon the class to which
it refers, and also upon the section of
the country considered.
TO the question in general l would
say that the country has improved, If
by Improvement is meant making and
putting BY money. The deposits in
the banks of Ireland show this. These
deposits amount to three times what
they were quarter of a century ago
But the population is, year by year,
becoming less. The young, the strong
and the healthy go. The very young,
the old, and the feeble in body and
mind are left behind.
Population Most Moral in the World.
Those who take the train from Dub
lin to Killarney or Queenstown see
none of the western section of the
country where greatest improvements
have been made. We seldom hear OF
it in the American dispatches, except
when London news agents wish to
is the most Irish part Of Ireland.
1t is today the most Catholic and
Celtic part of Ireland. The Protest
ant population there is hardly large
enough to be counted. 1t is not only
the most moral part of Ireland, but
from statistics the most moral popu-
lation in the Christian world. 1t is
in this province that silent change
for the better is taking place, which
ton.
Historic Facts.
To understand the revolution that
is taking place, one must recall few
facts of history. The first is the
famine of the '40s. There were then
no large grazing tracts in Connaught
1t was entirely populated by a hard
working, but contented peasantry, al
though the tenure of their little hold
ings was at the mercy Of the landlord
Dark as was the first famine year
there were worse to follow when the
famished, fever-stricken peasantry
were hustled out of their little huts
on to the desolate roadway where the
grass was growing green in the cart
track. The despair of the evicted ten
ant was more terrible and infinitely
more cruel than death. Humble a:
were the huts in which they had lived
they had been to them homes witt
long and loving memories, and had af.
forded them some privacy In theil
poverty and solace in their grief. Ir
those years, for dreary miles, the wal
of the helpless evicted tenants rang ur
from the desolate roadside. They dice
in their thousands and others fed the
country to die, perhaps, on the fever
ship The huts which had been theil
homes were razed to the ground
fences were leveled: the countrysid,
was turned into grazing tracts, or IL
a few cases into large farms for i'm
ported tenants who were mean enough
and avaricious enough and inhumar
| enough to accept them for the rent
Land Apportionment.
But to give one or two examples
5000 acres Of the very area from
which the famine stricken tenant
were driven in the fortes. have passe'