Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1914-05-15

quinn and HIS PuptlS AT HI
Inniskeen, County Louth, Ireland
In America we are trying In more or
less conscious effort to make the
schoolhouse the educational and social
center and the school master CON-
munity leader. In Ireland without any
set purpose this result Is already Sc
cured. At Inniskeen. in county Louth,
for example, John Quinn, the school
master, is the big man. By virtue OF
his natural qualities and by reason OF
his secretarial position in the co-opera-
tive association he is the farmers
banker, their business manager and
adviser, their agricultural expert, and
temperance reformer. In fact he Is
the community leader. His school
house Is a social center for to 1t the
people go for cooperative association
meetings, for temperance lectures, and
tor public gatherings Of all sorts.
We have been to County Donegal
and have seen what the cooperative
enterprises centered at Dunglow have
done for a region which Is naturally
unproductive. Under the leadership
Of Paddy Gallagher, a native business
genius, cooperation has brought com.
fort, relative prosperity and hopeful.
ness to community which was previ.
ously a desolate combination Of peel
bog and rocky hillside.
We have stopped here to see the re
suits Of cooperation when planted II
. more fertile productive soil, for thii
portion Of County Louth would com
pare favorably with the richest
stretches of our own middle western
states.
The Average Irish Farmer.
Anxious to find the average SINAI
farmer who is a member Of the COOP
erative society and willing to tall
about it's affairs, we were directed II
Edward Meeghan, who operated
farm out two Irish miles from the vii
lage. As we walked out to Meeghan'
place the consciousness was force'
upon us that in this section Ireland 4
tar from being Starving Ireland" Tn
fields are carefully cultivated-cultl
waited a. they seldom are in the states
Tho hedges and walls are we'll kept
i. The heavy crops indicate q high Dc
gree Of fertility. Each cottage give
evidence Of prosperity and self-respec'
Ing pride. Upon the faces of thos
, whom we meet we see nothing to ind
| cate that the local Irish are povert
1 stricken or despairing We find Meet
han on a 40-acre farm Of which he
evidently and justly proud. The fe
A tile fields, the stacks Of rich grain, tn
3 high grade live stock, all demonstrat
1 that 1t n possible to make none
hereabouts and that there Is promi
ing future in the local agricultural d
Q uation.
h Buying Farms for Less Than Rent
Meeghan himself, Q vigorous fellov
. full of enthusiasm and hopefulness. o
plains that his father prior to b
death had bought the land under tt
imperial land tenure act providing 4
an arbitrated value as between Ian
: lord and tenant. The value once hxs
! the government pays for the land. ar
then permits the tenant who become
q purchaser to repay the purchase pri'
In sixty odd years, each year keepil
up the interest at two and thre
, fourths per cent. and paying In adj
ton . small installment upon Il
principal. He tells how his father pal
az rent alone, IS pounds per ye>
while he himself in buying the farm
now paying. including both intere
and annual installments on princdy
only II pounds per year. Quite nj
urally he has a keen appreciation
the land tenure laws which enabl
him gradually to obtain the farm
the payment Of less money each ye
than originally went for rent alone.
This Is not to him the imports
thing, however. His father had p
viougly been q tenant. A new that
ON the barn, new slate on the 70
or . new shed for the COW, could I
be obtained in any way from the lal
RI lord. It must be contributed by
Cd Prevented improvements.
tenant, who knew that within THU
u days thereafter he might be put of
be place. The natural result was to p
vent al repairs and all permanent
1T provsments. In this entire region
~ have not been able to discover q I
IN gle fruit tree that had been plan
prior to the acquisition of the land
ug the tsnant purchasers. In fact tn
"a. are 10 mature fruit trees here. VIII