The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-08-02

strangers at railway III S
stations and street corners Although NI
often frigid and uncommunicatve to MI M
natives, the policeman is free enough
with strangers, and his information Is Rss
apt to be reliable about the country WV&S8s
generally, for, as he is never kept WS
long at any one place, his local knowl- -WN~NM
edge Is extensive. 1t is true that he [ w I'm
Is apt to be biased against the peas { ~ MA
antry, because, although a peasants wv
son himself, his training and employ ~1N
ment have made the people hate him. "
Tor the common people have no use - INN
for the "peeler," as the constabulary \ NV
are contemptuously called by them ~
Imagine the policemen the natural nrotectors
OF life and property, being hated by the people!
Ihat Is the condition in Ireland yet and has been
so almost from the beginning. That does not
mean that the Irish do not want to have life and
property protected. 1t means that they have so
long seen the policeman identified with the nro
lection of particular kind of life to-wit: the
landlords and bailiff's and particular kind of
property, to-W1t: the landlords property in land
that they overlook his other useful public Sorry
ices 1t is most unfortunate state of things
The policeman has been made the buffer between
the English Government and the Irish people and
the efficient instrument of coercion of the latter
and between the two his lot has not been a hannv
one. When home rule becomes an Accomplished
fact, the Royal Irish Constabulary will be dis
banded. 1t will no longer be necessary tn kaen
The estrangement between the police and the
people is indeed remarkable In the awIess dis
tricts of which there still too many the peonla
who could give information to the police will not
do so. Hence, there is good deal of unpublished
crime in those districts. One of the worst conn
ties in this respect is the county Of Clare the
historic constituency that first elected O'Connell
to Parliament. Here the old wounds of the agra
rian war have never closed up. During my STAY
] saw in one of the papers pastoral letter of
h. MI
ing blood-curdling description of outrages which
continued to be committed with impunity against
life and property in Clare l visited Ennis the
capital of the county told that in one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
3erpetrated on unofending One of the VIC
Tins was an ex-soidier, who acting letter.
carrier and who shot in the highway in open
day Although many people passed his wounded
body the road, not would comfort or re-
Iieve him till the police came several hours after
wards These passers by doubtless felt that If
they gave any help to the victim they might meet
the same fate himself. So helpless has British
law become in the county of Glare.
Saunterng round the narrow streets I fell in
with an old who did not object to converse
ton. He proved to be an ex-policeman This
man did not mnce matters in detailing his views
and experiences. Glare was the most peaceable
county in Ireland" said he, when l Joined the
force but the cursed Land League came upon us,
and since then things have been different Most
of the men you meet on the road are remains or
Ribbonmen and many of them criminals"
told him I thought this too strong a de-
scription of his countrymen He. however stuck
to his opinion. and took me to an elevated spot at
the back of the Court House. from which he
pointed out the scenes of many seventeen
assassinations, all more or less successful, but
for which only one man brought to
justice.
1t is not alone the macontents and the secret
society men that refuse to tell the police what
they know about outrages. Even the relatives of
the injured persons often known to adopt a
similarly uncommunicative attitude. To give in
formation to the police is to be branded
.iuformer" which is the most offensive epithet in
the Irishman's vocabulary, being worse than that
of "hangman" The stigma descends from father
to son, while there is any of the family left to
endure it, My expoliceman friend told me that
he himself had heard Clare mother, whose son
was shot before her eyes, make the avowal that
she would rather see all her lying dead be-
side her than become a hated "informer." She
brought the secret to the grave with her.
asked my friend for his opinion as to why the
force was so unpopular. He laid the blame un-
hesitatingly upon the English Government. The
Government have employed the police almost ex
clushively at evictions and other such unpopular
tasks when they might have employed the regu
lar soldiers or the militia The result is that the