American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1914-04-02

OuDlln, lrelanQ.-fOVerty anu ulb-
tress and squalor and hunger is still
present in the slums of some of the
larger cities of Ireland. But yer the
richer rural parts of Ireland has come
intelligent organized industry and en-
thusiastic energy which make 1t 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 a new cap
or the wife a clean apron, meant a
raise in rent. 1t was to the advant-
age of the tenant farmer to seem more
miserable than he was. The system
put a premium on squalor and ragged
ness and slovenly farming. No one
could safely whitewash his cottage or
plant a tree or cultivate a flower. Now
all is changed. Three hundred thou
sand farmer tenants are now purchas-
ing their holdings under a benefcent
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 "a
per cent. upon the value of the little
farm as interest and less than one-half
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.
Pluakett Teaches Cooperation.
There can be no doubt that rural
Ireland is making a business success of
I farming. But it is not doing its bust
ness in a business-like way because of
any spontaneous impulse on the part
of the Irish farmer. It is rather be-
cause businesslike Irishmen went
about organizing the business pro.
cedure of rural enterprises in a most
business-like way. The leader of these
b~usiness-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
slrcmbination in industries. He did not
IL = -.IAtlfA. 49, rrrhr~AnffAnn
: Nor did he believe that relief would
: come through legislation or through
state aid in any form. As Father Fin
lay. professor of econimics in the Ma
tional University of Dublin, says: "Tht
n farmers best he held to be
themselves, and in their W intelli
gence, self-reliance and mutual trust
and these resources it was his pur
pose to develop
He Encounters Difficulties.
4 There seemed to be most exceTen
reasons why he could not succeed. The
Irish people we're dispirited and dis
III couraged. They were suspicious anC
III afraid of all new movements. ST
Horace Plunkett himself belonged t.
IN he despised landlord class, with which
t the people had been long in constan
II conflict.
As Father Finlay says: In religion
VI he was a Protestant and his appea
NJ would be to a people predominant,
HI Catholic in a country where religion
IL antagonisms prevade every sphere o
social life. In politics-so far as h
IN was a politician-he vas a Unionisl
Ih and those whom be proposed to infu
IF ence we're Nationalist by a vast ma
I jority. keenly suspicious of any polio.
is which threatened to divert the min
of the nation from the political aim
IE on which it was ~passionately bent"
is It is not surprising, therefore, that
Ia was only after more than a year @
strenuous efforts and after more tina
H fifty public meetings had been held
Is than in 1889 a body of Limerick farm
IL lers finally consented to establish a CO
IL lucrative creamery. It was again owe
II a wear before a second one followe
IL suit. BY the end Of 1891, however
liz seventeen creameries were at worl
and at the end of 1898 thirty had bee
TX organized. Thereafter the co-operativ
IL societies were organized more rapidly
Ik Now cooperation and good bushes
method prevail throughout Irelan'
There are $50 cooperative 81
cieties upon the island. With an al
gregate paid up share capital OF aoot
A million dollars their annual tu-n-ove
Is twelve million dollarS