Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1914-03-19

Dublin, Ireland.-Poverty and dis
tress and sQualor and hunger is still
present in the slums Of some OF the
larger cities of Ireland. But over the
richer rural parts OF Ireland has come
intelligent organized industry and en-
thusiastic energy which make it as
rich and prosperous as the richest
portions Of the great middle west In
America. Rural Ireland is unquestion'
ably a regenerate Ireland. The process
Of regeneration is progressing. Pros
perity is crowding out poverty and In
vading even those regions which have
heretofore been considered the natural
strongholds Of poverty.
How Prosperity Came to ireland.
There are several contributing
causes for this changed condition. The
land tenure laws have done wonders.
Under old conditions the slightest In
dication of prosperity upon the part
Of the tenant, If it were only new cap
or the wife q clean apron. meant a
raise In rent. It was to the advant-
age Of the tenant farmer to seem more
miserable than he was. The system
put q premium on squalor and ragged
ness and slovenly farming. No one
could safely whitewash his cottage or
plant tree or cultivate flower. Now
all is changed. Three hundred thou
sand farmer tenants are now purchas'
ing their holdings under a beneficent
law, which permits the purchase OF the
land without the advance payment Of
a cent The only obligation upon the
purchaser Is that he pay annually 2%
per cent. upon the value Of the little
farm as interest and less than one-hah
per cent as an installment upon the
principal. Under this law the entire
tenant class are acquiring their homes
by the annual payment Of sums aggre-
eating considerably less than the for
mer rent.
Plunkett Teaches Cooperation.
There can be no doubt that rural
Ireland is making business success Of
farming. But 1t is not doing its bust
ness in business-like way because Of
any spontaneous impulse on the part
Of the Irish farmer. 1t is rather be.
cause business-like Irishmen went
about organizing the business pro-
cedure of rural enterprises in most
business-like way. The leader Of these
business-like Irishmen is Sir Horace
Plunkett. To him Ireland owes more
than it will ever realize. From the
first his propaganda was educational.
His proposition was that the Irish
farmer must be taught the efficacy Of
in industries. He did not
believe in subsidies or subventions.
Nor did he believe that relief would
come through legislation or through
state aid in any form. AS Father Fin
ay, professor Of econimics in the Ma
.ional University of Dublin, says: "The
'armers' best resources he held to be
and in their own intelli-
yence, self-reliance and mutual trust,
md these resources 1t was his pur-
Jose to develop"
He Encounters Difficulties.
There seemed to be most excellent
'easons why he could not succeed. The
IRISH people were dispirited and dis
outraged. They were suspicious and
Ifraid of all new movements. Sir
Horace Plunkett himself belonged to
he despised landlord class, with which |
he people had been long in constant
onflict.
As Father Finlay says: 'Tn religion |
10 was q Protestant and his appeal
would be to a people predominantly |
,atholic in q country where religious
prevade every sphere Of
ocial life. In polidcs-so far as he
1as a politician-he was a Unionist,
nd those whom he proposed to inhu-
nee were Nationallsts by q vast ma
ority, Eeenly suspicious Of any policy
hitch threatened to divert the mind
the nation from the political aims
n which II was passionately bent"
II is not surprising. therefore, that It
as only after more than a year Of
trenuous efforts and after more than
fly public meetings had been held,
nan in 1888 o body Of Limerick farm
rs finally consented to establish q Co
Derative creamery. It was again over
year before q second one followed
aft BY the end Of 1891, however,
sventeen creSmeries were at work.
i'd at the end Of 1888 thirty had been
RANKED. Thereafter the cooperative
,cieties were organized more rapidly.
Now cooperation and good business
ethod prevail throughout Ireland.
here are $50 cooperative 20
aties upon the island. With an as
-uEats paid up share capital Of about
million dollars their annual turnover
twelve million dollars u