The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-12-09
TEMPERANCE AND
IRISH ECONOMICS
Vast Progress Made in Cause of
Total Abstinence Since Days
of Father Mathew
Furnishing Employment For the
People the Easiest Means of
Curbing Intemperance.
Home Rule With its Opportunities
and Responsibilities Will be
Boon to the Cause.
Right Rev. DR.. Kelly, Bishop of Ross,

Right Rev. DR.. Kelly, Bishop of Ross,
and one Of the most astute financiers
in Ireland, delivered a lecture not long
ago at Longford on the subject of
Temperance and Irish Economics. DR..
Kelly said that the solution of the
drink problem in Ireland was largely
a matter Of providing proper employ
ment for the people. 1t is an easy
matter to keep people sober when they
are engaged in profitable work. He
urged the young men to take an in
terest in the affairs of their country,
to become acquainted with it's poll
tics and it's financial questions, adding:
LAS matters look at the present
time, this country will be called on be-
fore very long to rule itself and man
age it's own affairs, and we shall want
all the young men of the country, and
all the old men, too, and if the women
are able to give a helping hand, all the
better. We expect that every man will
be able to take an intelligent view of
the management of the country's af-
fairs. They will all be voters, and it
is by these votes the Government will
be made that will have to do the busi-
ness of the country"
He went on to show that while Ire
land had made vast and rapid strides
in the direction of temperance, the
battle for the cause for which Father
Matthew strove so nobly was not yet
| won. They were fighting, he said, an
insidious enemy and it would i'll be-
come them to feel that the fight was
over when the victory was only half
won.
and raising up of the people Of the
country has taken a long time; the
process has gone on since 1929, and is
going on at the present moment, and
! is not fully completed. Those living
I in happier times now could hardly
realize the condition of the population
Of Ireland in these days after the pass
ing of the Emancipation Act. A Royal
Commission was appointed in 1888 to
inquire into the conditions of the peo-
pie of Ireland, and on that Commits
sion served the Catholic and Protest
ant Archbishops of Dublin-Dr. Mur-
ray and DR.. Whately-two we'll known
names (applause). They found that
the number of agricultural laborers in
Ireland, in comparison with the num-
ber of acres of land under tillage, was
/ two and a half times as great as the
number of laborers in England, COM
| pared with the number Of acres of land
requiring their labor there. And at
] that time the laborers in England were
paid partly in outdoor relief. The Roy
al Commission found that the wages
of a laborer varied from Cd to Is a
! day when working, or SID was the
average wages of a laborer, and then
| he was employed only 80 weeks out Of
the So; and spreading his earnings over
the So weeks Of the year, the average
was between Is and 2s Cd week.
! There were in Ireland at that time g.
3S5,OOO persons in chronic state Of
distress. ....
| In 1900 public opinion was aroused
to the danger that threatened the
country, and the Irish Bishops adopted
resolution demanding the reduction
of the number of licenses, and the alb
stention from granting new licenses.
Then an Act was passed, having been
introduced by Mr.. Clancy, M. p, for
North Dublin, which laid down that
no new license should be granted for
a period Of five years, and that was
renewed in 1907, and is at present the
law of the land. There was some re-
duction of the number Of public
houses in consequence, but there are
still vastly too great a number. He
recommended as solution of the diff
Guilty the extinguishing of licenses
where the owner dies and there is no
male member Of his family to carry
on the trade, and also in cases where
houses were not properly conducted
This, he said, would be no hardship on
anybody, and it was often good thing