Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1914-05-15

lnnlSheen, county LOuIn, lreldnu.-
In America we are trying in a 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
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
for public gatherings of all sorts.
We have been to County Donegal
and have seen what the cooperative
enterprises conferred at Dunglow have
done for a region which is naturally
unproductive. Under the leadership
Of Paddy Gallagher, native business
genius, cooperation has brought COM
fort, relative prosperity and hopeful
ness to a community which was previ-
ously a desolate combination of peet
bog and rocky hillside.
We have stopped here to see the re-
suits of cooperation when planted in
more fertile productive soil, for this
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 small
farmer who is a member Of the coop
erative 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 1t is possible to make money
hereabouts and that there is a 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 hi
death had bought the land under thu
imperial land tenure act providing TO
an arbitrated value as between land
lord and tenant The value once fixe'
the government pays for the land, ant
then permits the tenant who become
purchaser to repay the purchase pric
in sixty odd years, each year keeping
up the interest at two and three
fourths per cent. and paying in add
ton a small installment upon thu
principal He tells how his father paid
as rent alone, IS pounds per yeaI
while he himself In buying the farm |
now paying. including both interes
and annual installments on princips
only IA pounds per year. Quite ma
urally he has a keen appreciation G
the land tenure laws which enable
him gradually to obtain the farm b
the payment Of less money each yea
than originally went for rent alone
This is not to him the importar
thing, however. His father had pr
viously been a tenant. A new thatc
on the barn, new slate on the roo
j. OF a new shed for the COW, could nc
be obtained in any way from the LAM
lord II must be contributed by tn
Prevented Improvements.
tenant, who knew that within thirt
days thereafter he might be put of th
place. The natural result was to pr
vent all repairs and all permanent IN
= provements. In this entire region v
have not been able to discover q 81
= gle fruit tree that had been plante
> prior to the acquisition of the land
TIE tenant purchasers. In fact thel
IN fr1t{f fraas hara Vha,