The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-07-25

N1 from the policeman, M%##@
1Ay III who is to be not MMS%ss####
~ far off, having in M&#M##*#*####
tSD1 these days little to do 6WSS##$s
@V except to scrutinize B(#x*%#NA
strangers at railway %2x###$##
stations and street corners. Although w $a#Ss&aSSH
often frigid and uncommuncative to W\H#S
natives the policeman is free enough l.
with strangers, and his information is WVI62
apt to be reliable about the country W|a&E3
generally, for, he is never kept W@
long at any place. his local knowl ~W>NW
edge is extensive. 1t is true that he W IN
is apt to be biased against the peas ( ~ AM
antry, because, although PEASANTS { "
himself his training and employ 1N
ment have made the people hate him. { ~
for the common people have no use 80 M
for the "peeler,' the constabulary \ MTH
are contemptuously called by them.
Imagine the policemen, the natural protectors
oil life and property, being hated by the people!
That 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 that they have so
long seen the policeman identified with the pro-
lection of particular kind of life to-wit: the
landlords and bailiffs, and a particular kind Of
property, to-wit: the landlords property in land
that they overlook his other useful public sery-
ices 1t is a 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 hapnv
one. When home rule becomes an ACCOMPLISHED
fact the Royal Irish Constabuary will be dis
banded 1t will no longer be necessary to keep
an English garrison" in Ireland.
The estrangement between the police and the
people is indeed remarkable In the lawless dis
tr1cts OF which there still too many the people
who could give information to the police will not
DO So Hence, there is a good deal of unpublished
crime IN those districts. One of the worst coun-
ic <ho
historic constituency that first elected O'Connell
to Parliament. Here the old wounds of the agra
rlan"w war have never closed up. During my stay
! saw In one of the papers a pastoral letter of
the Most Rev. Dr. Fogarty Bishop of Killaoe, CIV
ing bloodcurdling description of outrages which
continued to be committed with impunity against
life and property In Glare. l visited Ennis the
capital of the count was told that in one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
perpetrated on unoffending men. One of the VIC
tins was an ex-soldier, who was acting letter
carrier, and who shot in the highway in open
day. Although many people passed his wounded
body on the road, not would comfort or re.
eve 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 fell in
with an old man who did not object to converse
tion. He proved to be an ex-policeman. This
man did not mince matters in detailing his views
and experiences. "Clare was the most peaceable
county in Ireland" said he, when l Joined the
force, but the cursed Land League came upon u.s.
and since then things have been different Most
OF the men you meet on the road are Fenians or
Ribbonmen, and many of them are criminals"
told him l thought this too strong a de-
scrlption of his countrymen. He, however, stuck
to his opinion, and took me to elevated spot al
tho back of the Court House, from which he
pointed out the scenes of many as seventeen
assassnatons all more or less successful but
for which only brought to
justice.
society that refuse to tell the police what
they know about outrages. Even the relatives of
the injured persons often known to adopt a
similarly uncommuncative attitude. To give in
formation to the police is to be branded as an
''nformer" which is the most offensive epithet in
the Irishmans 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 ex-polceman friend told me that
he himself had heard a Glare mother, whose son
was shot before her eyes make the avowal that
she would rather see all her sons lying dead be-
side h"r 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 I'M
hesita tinsy upon the English Government. The
Government have employed the police almost ex-
clushVely at evictions and other such unpopular
tasks when they might have employed the regu.
!4v n1jers or the militia. The result is that the