The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-02

fCo1 VhOl 9lutuuusVuV. W NtS aNei0Aa -
the English authorities in closing the
ports against Irish cattle on account
of imaginary outbreaks of foot and
mouth disease. In at least two recent
cases where the ports were closed 1T
was found after a week or 10 days
that the diagnosis of the English ex-
perts was wrong.
Now the English department of ag-
rlculture has taken the extraordinary
step of ordering that Irish cattle at
all times shall be quarantined for IL
hours before being allowed to land in
England This will mean untold loss
to Irish shippers, as they. of course,
will have to pay the cost of detention
and in many cases, because of missing
fairs and markets. it will mean a de-
lay of six or seven days.
Good, however. promises to come out
of evil, for the Irish shippers have
turned their eyes to other markets and
this week a shipload of cattle left Dub
lin for Germany. Prices are high in
Germany and Austria and even after
paying the heavy duty charged, Irish
shippers will be able to obtain better
prices than they have been getting in
England. Breeders and shippers all
over Ireland are watching for the re :
suit of this experimental shipment with
keen interest and IL the cattle arrive
in good condition and sell well the
English farmers will probably be re-
lieved of Irish competition. Incidental
ly, the English people will have to
pay more for their beef.
This is not tha first limo that jeal-
Gus English rivals have tried to kill
an Irish industry. but it is surprising
that the attempt should be made by
the liberal government which poses as
the enthusiastic friend of Ireland. In
the old days the attempts were almost
invariably successful and industry after
industry was throttled by the strong
hand of Britain. In the eighteenth CEN
turyf Dean Swift who advised his
countrymen ITO burn everything from
England except her GOALS wrote:
= THE convenieney of ports and mar
bors, which nature bestows so literally
in this kingdom, is of no more use to
us than a beautiful prospect to a man
shut up in a dungeon"
Even the cattle trade. which is now
being attacked, was throttled once be-
fore. In the middle of the seventeenth
century English landowners began to
complain that the rivalry of Irish cat
tie in their markets lowered English
rents and in 1865 the cattle act was
passed which provided that all cattle,
sheep, swine, beef, pork and bacon i1n-
ported from Ireland, except in times
of necessity, should be forfeited as a
public nuisance. This proved a two
edged sword, for the price of beef in
England rose at once and the English
exports to IrelandYfeil from $1,000,000
in 1868 to 100000 in .1675,
The Irish landowners. shut out from
their biggest market. took to wool
growing and manufacturing. The Eng
lish manufacturers took alarm at this
and parliament begged King William
of Orange ito enjoin his servants in
Ireland to use their utmost diligence
for the discoura ging of the wooden
manufactures The Irish parliament,
which was then entirely under the
thumb of the executive, but a heavy
export duty on Irish woolens and not
content with that. in 1889 prohibited
the export of woolen goods to any
country whatsoever.
At one time or another cotton spin
ming, iron working, glass making and
fish curing We're prohibited by law in
Ireland in the interest of the English
competitors. An attempt was even
made to prohibit fishing on the Irish
coast except by boats built and manned
by Englishmen, but the difficulties of
carrying out this policy were too great
and it was abandoned. As the fish could
not be cured for export it did not much
matter however.
Luckily. the historian, describing this
policy, said:
SIT became abundantly evident to all
reasonable men that England pos
sessed both the power and the will to
crush every form of Irish industry as
soon as it became sufficiently pros
porous to compete in any degree with
her own manufacturers"
There is no doubt that this policy by
England toward Ireland was largely
responsible for the loss of her Amer
ican colonies. Thousands of the most
enterprising of Irishmen, seeing no
chance at home, emigrated to America
and there became the bitterest enemies
of England and took a leading part in
the war of Independence.
listers boast that she Is the only
section of Ireland with industrial abil-
ity is founded on the prosperity of the
linen trade and the only reason that
England allowed the linen trade to
prosper was that she had no linen trade
of her own to suffer from Irish COM
petition. 1t had narrow escape at
one time, however, for the English
woolen merchants protested that it
was injuring the trade of their best
customers. the Dutch, and they feared
that If Irish linen drove the Dutch
goods out of the English market. the
Hollanders would cease buying Eng
lish woolens This was about the end
of the eighteenth century. when the
united Irishmen were a force to be
reckoned with in the north and Eng
land decided that 1t was not safe to
throttle listers industry.
The present attack on tho cattle
trade shows that although her methods
have changed, England's spirit re-
mains the same.