The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-21
THE LIBERALS
 AND HOME RULE.

points with absolute certainty: 1, that the American money would again prevent free elections in Ireland, and 2, that the resulting Irish misrepre- sentation would command the decfd ing vote in the British House of Com mins without any improved prospects for national home rule in Ireland. May ask for a portion of your space. in order to explain the main reasons operative at present to produce this result?
 As the immediate result of one par ticular Irish party having 100000 American dollars to spend in support of its candidates, there have been on- Ireland, out of a total of 103 parlia- mentary seats. It is practically inn possible for private gentlemen with only private purses to compete against nominee candidates whose ex- penses are paid, and the expenses of by miscellaneous collections of mon- ey throughout the United States of America. In such a case I, for ex- ample, might stand to lose $10,000. the machine, could squander with a light heart out of American bounty.
 Let it be observed that the Amerf- can money is not raised to enable Irish constituencies to pay the expen- ses of electing the candidate of their free choice, but solely the candidate nominated by one particular party. while the candidates of all other Irish parties must fight unaided against that American assistance. During the past thirty years it is call culated that not much less than ST. 000,000 have been sent from Amer lea to prevent freedom of election, and to force one particular kind of candidates upon the Irish constituen- cieS.
 AS a result, you see in the British House of. Commons a body of mem bers from Ireland, whose American dollars have swamped all Irish oppoz sition. who can indeed upset the Lib eral government by their deciding vote and who, so far, are the mas ters of the Liberal party; but whose domination-the sources of which aer thoroughly understood in England is even more odious to most Liberals than to all Conservatives; with the inevitable consequence that the best intelligence of Liberal leaders of opin- ion is naturally devoted to the doug ble task of CD utilizing in the pres ent that Irish preponderance, and (2) destroying it in the future. The dou- ble means to that double end are CD getting the Irish aid to secure perma- nently Liberal predominance in the British Legislature, and CD getting the Irish aid to secure the removal of the Irish vote from the British Leg
  where these partisan Irishmen may do harm to their own country with out further power to, decide the fate of British governments at Westmin- ster. A real national Parliament in Ireland is far, far more cordially de- tested by the British Liberals than by the Ulster Orangemen.
 can tell, I believe exactly, the steps by which the Liberals intend to reduce the Irish contingent to harm lessness.
 By carrying the abolition of the ve- to of the House of Lords, the Liber- als sweep away the main obstacle to a number of measures intended to make Liberalism supreme in Eug- land Among these, there are, in the first place, the following:
 The abolition of plural voting. This is calculated to take 100000 property qualification votes from the Tories, immensely increasing the chances of Liberal success at future elections. After the abolition of plural voting will come payment of members and election expenses by the state. This will severely injure both the Tories and MT. Redmonds> party, because 1t will enable numbers of candidates Supported either by the Tory election funds or the American dollars.
 MT. Redmond's party dares not op- pose any of the foregoing measures; ana even IT the Liberals were to De thrown out after these successes, they could await near future of trlum- phant return to office. But" cries MT. Redmond, "in the next session, in 1912, we shall get a home-rule "bill." Certainly he may be offered what the Asquith ministry may pleas: to call a home-rule bill, but which will be merely ca parish council for Ireland" affording the requisite pre- text for removing the domination of the Irish members from Westminster but giving Ireland a mere subordinate pseudo-local Legislature for non-na- tional affairs.
 Any measure granting national self-government to Ireland would now be as hotly rejected by the leading Liberals as by all the Conservatives; and it will be too late for MT. Red mond to try to bargain with the Con servatives. The abolition of the power of the House of Lords will make the masters of the English pop ular constituencies absolute masters of the Parliament at Westminster. MT. Redmond will never again be able 70 order any British party "to toe the line"
 Personally, I am convinced, as I have ever been, that the only way to national self-government in Ireland is through the conciliation and conn- dence of the Conservative and Pro- testa mt classes in the Irish population. With that conciliation and consent we could have home rule within six months. Without that invaluable aI- nance, the American dollars can