Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-05-13
HOME RULE BILL
is TO Be PASSED
English House of Commons Will
Act on Important Law
Present Month.
SOME TALK OF COMPROMISE
If Any Changes Are Made They Will
Be Inserted After Measure
Reaches the Lords.

London, England, May 13.-This
month probably will see the passage
through the house of commons of
| three great controversial, measures,
home rule for Ireland; disestablfshment
of the Welsh church and the abolition
of plural voting The first two will
, have been passed for the third time
under the parliament act, and no mat
ter what the house of lords do with
them they will become law. The plural
voting bill still has another time to
pass through the house of commons.
OF course the greatest interest is
taken in the home rule bill. There has
been much talk of compromise and
settlement by consent, but the best in
formed opinion of the country is that
nothing in this direction will be done
in the house of commons, and any set
Element must be reached when the
bill is before the lords.
The nationalists and Ulster union
lists have stated their demands quite
plainly and there seems no room for
compromise between them. The ma
tionalists have agreed to the tempo
rary exclusion. Neither side apparent
ly will recede, although nationalists
have been heard to say that perhaps
there will be a little more concession
TO "save the face of the Ulster lead
ers; but no exclusion" 1t was thought
Mr.. Balfour. who knows his Ireland
we'll, would be the man to find common
ground on which the opposing leaders
could meet but his speech at the Hyde
Park demonstration, in which he spoke
against compromise, has ruled him out
and now it is for the lords to find the
way out, if the question is to be settled
by consent.
Federal System Opposed.
There has been talk of federal sys-
tenn for the whole of the United
kingdom, and it has been suggested |
that Ulster should be excluded from
the home rule bill until this system is |
inaugurated, when she could chose the |
state which she would join. The fed |
eral system, however, has many infiu- !
entail opponents, and as for Ulster it |
raises another difficulty. Many of the
great Belfast merchants do the bulk |
of their business with the people of /
the south and west of Ireland. These |
merchants are opposed to home rule,
but say II home rule must come they |
do not want their province excluded.
The bankers of Belfast take the same
view.
Here is the opinion of a wealthy Bel
fast businessman:
"Sir Edward Carson's demand for
the complete and unconditional exclu-
sion of Ulster need not be taken SER
iously. We all know that the nation
alists would never think of accepting
such a proposal. We know quite as
well that it would be impracticable If
IL possibly could be accepted. No one
can tell better than myself how closely
the interests OF this province are
bound up with those OF the rest of
Ireland. Four commercial travellers
from my house are almost continually
in the south and west. Within the
past week we have received orders for
new seasons goods from Cork, Linn
erick. Clonmel. Roscrea and Sligo.
reaching $4,000. A very slight cur
tailment of such a trade would mean
all the difference between good pro-
Ct and a loss. leading TO bankruptcy.