The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1914-04-20
By JAMES CREELMAN.


parliament ponderously. debates her
fate in gray old London, the miracle
OF spring is upon Ireland.
The larks are warbling in tho
bright air, the thrushes singing In
hedges. the blackbirds swarming In
the green fields. plowboys whistling
In the brown burrows, and yellow
gorse and dandelions sprinkle the
lovely landscape everywhere.
1t Ia a transformed Ireland that Is
getting ready for the political and
! social sacrament Of self-government,
an Ireland lifted in one generation
from wretched, helpless, rack-rented
tenants and mud novels to peasant
proprietors and comfortable modern
dwellings,.
The imperial treasury loaned $780,
100000 to effect this wonderful change,
to be paid back in two generations
in small yearly installments.
While the party leaders fight over
homo rule in London, the unionists,
eager to overthrow the liberal gov
eminent and restore the lost power
Of the lords, and the armed Prot
estants Of Ulster, waiting, red-eyed,
to rise against the authority of an
Irish parliament, have moved
from county to county in search Of
the present reason for home rule.
Why Want Home Ruler
The nationalist farmers and field
laborers admit the prosperous state
Of Ireland under the new conditions.
but insist that the laws that brought
about the change were wrung from
the British parliament by the Irish
people themselves against the COM
bined opposition Of the English and
Ulster tories, who yielded only when
the great rough democracy Of Eng
land began to support the Irish de-
mand for home rule.
The tremendous success Of the
land laws. for which the nationalists
struggled so long. Is the answer to
the claim Of the armed Protestants
of Ulster that the Irish Catholic ma
jority is unfit to rule.
It is an extraordinary thing to see
here and now what has been done
for this robbed and prosecuted peo-
pie since Parnell began his unfor-
gettable war for justice in 1880.
Tho fact that the struggle was
supported by millions of dollars
sent from the United States adds an
additional thrill to the interest Of
an American at dramatic time
like this, when the Irish are pre-
pairing to come into their own again.
At this very hour, with the light
nings and thunders of party politics
filling the British sky. and the Ul-
ster Protestants doing what Robert
Emmett was hanged for, I find tho
mass of the Irish people still burn
ing with the memory Of their an
cestors, the proud Irish kings,
princes, chiefs and clans who owned
all the land Of Ireland and were
dispossessed by force.
On the farms and the roads, In the
villages and cities the story is the
same.
Historic Consciousness.
It is impossible to understand why
Ireland wants home rule today-with
the land question practically settled
and the imperial treasury containing
more than 80, oo0, 900 a year toward
her public expenses-without realiz-
ing the common historic conscious
The political and social pride of the
Celtic majority cannot be satisfied by
alien English benefactions.
1t is true that since the beginning
of the land fight in 1850. $4,000 ten
ant farmers have become proprietors
of their farms under the various land
laws. BEFORE they held their tenan-
cies at the will Of the landlords. who
could evict them at their pleasure
and confiscate the Improvements.
It is also true that more than So
oOO modern farm laborers' cottages
have been built with money advanced
out of the public treasury.
The old crown-appointed grand
Jury system has been abolished and
the Irish people now have control OF
ments through their own elected
county councils.
The beneficial effects of these
changes can be seen wherever you
go today. W
Two-thirds of all the rented lands
of Ireland have already been trans
ferred from the landlords to peasant
more than a third of the whole popu-
lation Of the country. who were pay
ing rent. are now owners OF the soil
they live on.
Mud Huts Disappear.
As I travel through the country
district 1 find 1t easy to pick out the
farms of the proprietors from those
of the tenants. The spirit OF i'm
provement inspired by a sense of
ownership is unmistakable. The pro-
pr1etcrs' farms are kept in better
condition than those of the tenants.
The pitiful old mud huts, with
earthen floors, are almost all some.
There were 10000 OF thase. for in
stance. with only one room and one
window each. housing $1,000 persons.
General Gordon declared that they
were worse than the habitations OF
sayaSes.
In the place OF these miserable,
degrading and death-breeding shell
tiers there are now more than 1000
well-built, neat, roomy modern cot
takes, each with an acre or half
acre of ground for gardening. No
laborers in the world
are SO well housed as the Irish.
children, pigs and chickens
all living in one filthy. suffocating
room is n thing of the shameful
past.
tally out OF sympathy with the
common people, used to tax small
heavily and lavish money
on the roads connected with the
great private estates of the land
lords, and left the ordinary country
highways in a frightful condition.
The elected Irish county councils
have made the rich landlords pay
their share and have built UP the
farmers roads.
This scene of agricultural pros
perity- through which I have been
mnyfnC Is the result of the Irish