The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-26

It was an amusing situation which was promised in the suggestion that the
 Northeast Corner" should be reserved from the opel atons of the home rule bill when 1t becomes law. Next to John Red mond, the most active and most powerful member of the Irish party is Joseph Dew lin. MT. DeVlin represents West Belfast in the house of commons. He was born in the ineart Of this constituency and put 1t ill the nationalist column by defeating | member of l3alfour's cabinet MT Dew lin carries the votes of West Belfast in his pocket. He is admired and respected by many of the hitterest Orangemen who are voters in the division. He was cred
 ted by the LonGon Times with showing himself 'the most gifted political stage manager of the, age because of his mas terly direction of the Dublin convention. And with a unionist reservation barring the Northeast Corner out of nome rule. MT Devlin would be sidetracked from the new parliament, for he could not be spared from the nationalist leadership in West Belfast. The defeat of Thomas Sex ton in his urine showed how naturally st1 ong a unionist constituency this is. The
 little Douglas of the Irish party holds 1t wholly and solely through force of his personality, and it is tribute to a loyal son and an indefatigabie worRer His father and mother were born in poverty and their boy had little schooling to help him along Tn life. He worked first as d printers oevil and the Parnell crisis found him a poorly paid clerk in a wine
 merchants office. but the short period close to the type stick had given him voracious love of reading and learning. Night and day the lad studied wherever an opportunity presented itself until his mind was well stored with useful litera- ture and then he tried his voice on the platform. A vacancy occurred in the sec ,ats, 1,; cf ha Irol society, of which he was an active mem- Der. He was elected, rushed into politics like a hound keen after hot scent; made hin self a power in the nationalist party within a brief few years MT Devlin has visited the United States on several oc- customs and is well liked there His is dron short figure and face which be- speaks a love of fun and good fight
 His voice Is mellow and resonant, and it is the voice of the man who is most likely to dominate the first Irish parliament since the days of Henry Grattan That is why the segregation of Ulster was deemed the political joke of the session.
 Census returns show tnat even within Great Britain the migration of Irish peo- pie from ihe 'old sod" is steadily les sening. The Irish born population of Dundee, in Scotland. is s39s. being 1885 less than in 1901. The Irish born women in the city are twice as numerous as the Irish horn men. Twenty-seven only of the Irish speak Gaelic. The number of Gaelic speakers in the city has fallen from 7sO to 6lS. In view of the greater propor- tion of Irisn born women in the city, it
 is interesting to aote that the number of females in Dundee who are working in the industries is 35o00 as compared with 47cOo men. Two-thlrds of the women who are | occupied are working at the hemp. jute acf Irp. trpo orl< at tha ! flax and linen industry, and 12oo at dress making