The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-18

one of our noblest literary traditions in the manner in which you have pulp lished your thoughts. You begin by quoting Scripture. You preface your verses on Ulster by words from the mysterious oracles of humanity as if you had been inf1amed and inspired by the prophet of God; and you go on to sing of faith in peril and pa triotism betrayed and the danger of death and oppression by those who do murder by night, which things. if one truly feels, he speaks of without con sideration of commerce or what it shall profit him to speak. But you, brother, have withheld your fears for your country and mine until they could yield you a profit in two con- tinents. After all this high speech about the Lord and the hour of na- tionai darkness it shocks me to find this following your verses: Copy righted in the United States of Am erica by Rudyard Kipling." You are not in want. You are the most suc- cessful man of letters of your time, and yet you are. not above making profit out of the perils of your coun- try. You. ape the, lordly speech of the prophets, and you conclude by warning everybody not to reprint your words at their peril. In Ireland ev- cry poet we honor has dedicated his genius to his country without gain, and has given without stint, without any niggardly withholding of his gift, when his nation was in dark and evil days. Not one of our writers when deeply moved about Ireland has tried to sell the gift, of the spirit. !. :. You, brother, hurt me when you de- clare your principles and declare a dividend to yourself out of your pa triotism openly and at the same time. ,e I would not reason with you, but that know there is something truly great and noble in. you. and there have been hours when .the immortal in you secured your immortality; in literature, when you ceased to see life with that hard cinematograph eye of yours and saw with the eyes of the spirit, and power and tenderness and insight, were mixed in magical tales, surely. you were far from the inner most when, for the arst time, think.
 my countrymen.
 : I have lived all my life in Ireland, holding different faith from that held by the majority I know Ire- land as few Irishmen know it, county by county. for I travelled all over Ire- land for years and, Ulster man as I am and proud of the Ulster people, I resent the crowning of Ulster with all the virtues and the dismissal of other Irishmen as thieves and robbers. I resent the cruelty with which you. a stranger, speak of the most lovable and kindly people I know.
 You are not even accurate in your history when you speak of Ulster's traditions and the blood of our fore- fathers split. Over a century ago Ulster was the strong and fast place of rebellion, and it was in Ulster that the volunteers stood beside their cannon and wrung the gift of polit- ical freedom for the Irish Parliament. You are blundering your blame You speak of Irish greed in I know not what connection, unless you speak of the war waged over the land; and yet you ought to know that both parties in England have by act after act con- fessed the absolute justice and right ness of that agitation. Unionist no less than Liberal, and both boast of their share in answering the Irish ap- peal. They are both proud to-day of what they did. They made inquiry into wrong and redressed It. But you, it seems. can only feel sore and an- gry that intolerable conditions impos- ed by your laws were not borne in patience and silence. For what par ty do you speak? When an Irish man has a grievance you smite him. How differently you'd you have writ ten Of Runnymede and the valiant men of England who rebelled when- ever they thought fit. You would have made heroes out of them.
 I am a person whose whole being goes into a blaze at the thought of oppression of faith, and yet I think my Catholic countrymen infinitely more tolerant than those who hold the faith I was born in. am a her. etic judged by their standards. a her. etic who has written and made public his heresies, and I have never suf- fered in friendship or found my her. esies an obstacle in life. I set my knowledge, the knowledge of a life time, against your ignorance, and I say you have used your genius to do Ireland and it's people a wrong. You have intervened in a quarrel of which you do not know the merits like any brawling bully who passes and cnly takes sides to use his strength If there was high court of poetry and those in power jealous of the noble name of poet, and that none should use it save those who were truly knights of the Holy Ghost. they would hack the golden spurs from your heels and turn you out of the court You had the ear of the. world, and you poisoned it with prejudice and ignor- ance. You had the power of song, and you have always used it on be- half of the strong against the weak. You have smitten with all your might at creatures who are frail on earth