Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-07-26
Asquith Declares Home Rule lis
Certain of Passage i'm the
Commons.
Names Are Being Discussed Fer
Chiefs of the New Irish
Government.
EVERYTHING GOING STRAIGHT

Regarding the home rule bill Hon.
L. P. O'Ccnnor cabled Sunday tha.
more Importance was attached to the
speeches IT, the House of Lords
during the home rule debate than
to the rejection of the bill. for it's
rejection had been anticipated for
weeks. The debate was carried on
amid an atmosphere of uninterrupted
somnolence and with a small attend
ance from the public, but what has
Interested and excited the public is
the extraordinary spectacle of the
House OF Lords still talking and act
ing as If the Parliament act had not
become law and as If the situation
remained exactly the same as when
the House of Lords had an
omnipotent voice over the fate of all
Liberal legislation.
Lord Curzon was notable even
among the Peers for his arrogance
OF character, appearance and opin-
ions and pushed this doctrine so far
as to assert that even If another
general election we're to result in
favor of home rule the House of
Lords would still claim the right to
amend it in any way it pleased. This
declaration, the most extreme pro-
nounced for centuries, has become
the watchword of the Liberals
throughout the country. 1t is
placed in "scare heads" over Liberal
articles and figures in caricatures
with CurzoR addressing the House of
Commons as q, black beetle. 1t is
calculated to rouse every popular as
sembly to shouts OIL laughter or
rage.
Similarly in Ulster Carson~ keeps
on repeating threats of civil war and
holds reviews of skeleton battaliond
of his unarmed warriors. It is sig
nificant of the blind fury and the
absence of all power of rational ap-
probation of the political situation
that the Tories have now convinced
themselves that Asquith will funk
in carrying through the home rule
bill, and some Tory prophets even
go to the length of saying that As
quith will retire from office next
February. This extraordinary
Illusion has proved too much for
moderate Unionist organ like the
Birmingham Daily Post, which pub
licly warns its Tory leaders that
Asquith's retirement until he has
put home rule on the statute book is
unthinkable, and that he remains in
flexible in his resolve to succeed in
settling the Irish question where
Gladstone failed.
Asquith, at the private dinner with
the Irish members last week, left no
that rnfnf daalarino fhat
the passage of home rule next year
was as certain as that he was on his
legs addressing them. Another wide
spread rumor, squally ridiculous, is
circulated by some stupid fellows
among the Liberal journalists and
by one Liberal Peer TO the effect
that another general election will
take place before the Irish Parlia-
ment comes into existence, and that
thus the Tories will be given an op-
portunity of preventing it ever meet
ing If they win that election Some
people even add to that story the
additional fable that AsQuith and
Redmond have come to an under
standing on the sitting of the Irish
Parliament. No such understanding
was suggested, discussed or even
thought of. The Irish Parliament
will be brought into existence the
first possible moment after the bill
passes into law. 1t will probably be
a law in June and possibly in May.
and within few days after Redmond
will be made Prime Minister of Ire
land, and six months after the
passage OF the act the Irish Parlia-
ment will be elected and sitting in
Dublin.
Already preliminary arrange
ments are being made with view to
accelerating this change. Irish gov
ernment documents are being studied
and soon will be prepared and all
the necessary proclamations also are
being investigated. The final
method suggested to make the
passage OF the home rule bill i'm
possible will be TO create scenes of
disorder in the House Of Commons
and preventing II from doing any
business whatever. But English
people will not tolerate an attempt
to break up their seven century old
legislature by such Hooliganism. In
short, the Liberal Ministers and the
Irish members are so confident OF
everything going straight as 4
bullet to the allotted end that al
ready names are being discussed for