The Raymer enterprise., 1914-02-19

lnniskeen, 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 a COM
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
a temperance reformer. In fact he is
the community leader. His school
house Is a social center for to it the
people go for cooperative association
meetings, for temperance lectures, and
for public gatherings of all sorts.
We have been to County Donegal
and have seen what the cooperative
enterprises centered at Dunglow have
done for 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 desolate combination of peet
bog and rocky hillside.
We have stopped here to see the re-
suits of cooperation when planted in
a more fertile productive soil, for this
portion Of County Louth would com.
pare fayorably with the richest
stretches Of our own middle western
states.
The Average Irish Farmer.
Anxious to find the average small
farmer who 10 a member of the coop.
eratiye society and willing to talk
about its affairs, we were directed to
Edward Meeghan. who operated a
farm out two Irish miles from the vii.
lage. As we walked out to Meeghan's
place the consciousness was forced
upon US that in this section Ireland is
far from being starving Ireland" The
fields are carefully cultivated-culti,
waited as they seldom are in the states.
The hedges and walls are well kept
The heavy crops indicate a high de-
gree of fertility. Each cottage gives
evidence of prosperity and self-respect.
ing pride. Upon the faces of those
whom we meet we see nothing to indi
cate that the local Irish are poverty
stricken or despairing. We find Meeg
han on 40-acre farm of which he Is
evidently and justly proud. The fer
tile fields, the stacks of rich grain, the
high grade live stock, all demonstrate
that it is possible to make money
hereabouts and that there is promis
ing future in the local agricultural sit
uation.
Buying Farms for Less Than Rent.
Meeghan himself, vigorous fellow
full of enthusiasm and hopefulness, ex
plains that his father prior to his
death had bought the land under the
imperial land tenure act providing fol-
an arbitrated value as between land
lord and tenant. The value once fixeo
the government pays for the land. and
then permits the tenant who becomes
a purchaser to repay the purchase price
in sixty odd years, each year keeping
up the interest at two and three
: fourths per cent. and paying in addi
tion small installment upon the
principal. He tells how his father paid
as rent alone. Is pounds per year
while he himself in buying the farm Is
now paying. including both interest
and annual installments on principa
only IA pounds per year. Quite nat
urally he has keen appreciation o.
the land tenure laws which enabled
him gradually to obtain the farm by
the payment of less money each yeal
than originally went for rent alone.
This is not to him the important
thing, however. His father had pre-
viously been tenant. A new thatcl
on the barn. a new slate on the roof
or new shed for the COW, could no
be obtained in any way from the land
lord. II must be contributed by ths
Prevented Improvements.
tenant. who knew that within thirt,
days thereafter he might be put off ths
place. The natural result was to pre-
vent all repairs and all permanent i'm
provements. In this entire region W,
have not been able to discover a sin
gle fruit tree that had b95h planted
prior to the acquisition Of the land b.
the tenant purchasers. IN fact ther,
are no mature fruit trees here. Wher,