The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-28
LETTERS TO EDITOR
In Reply to MT. Craig

In Reply to MT. Craig
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Had l not already sent my reply to MT. Joshua F'ranklin's letter to your office. an
 other letter from me would not have been | necessary, for. with some slight modi- fications and addenda, that letter would
 also be a reply to MT. Craig's last epistle in todays Age-IIerald. I could have, I will not say, killed two birds with one stone' since to say so would scarcely be dignified or edifying but I could have at least saved infiicting myself upon you again, and asking for the courtesy of your space, as I must needs do now As l said. my reply to Mir Franklin prs ctically answers MT. Craig's conten-
 tion that the Irish people are loyal to the empire. l admit, regretfully, indeed,
 that some of the Irish people are loyal but I contend that there are some, a
 minority, if you will but by no means a
 minority to be. disregarded or brushed l aside. as of no account, who are not loyal and who are very far indeed from seeing eye to eye with Mir John Redmond and the other Irish members who are promi- nent In recruiting work. When I speak of the Irish people, I have in mind not alone the people still in the old land, but the millions of the sea-divided Gael in every land under heaven. These, surely,
 as the main supporters of national move ments of the past and present century.
 have a right to express their views in a
 matter of great importance to Ireland. That many of the Irish people at home of whom we get little news that is not censored are chafing under the leadership | of the recruiters is evidenced among other things, by the recent Kings county election, the first contested election for a
 member of Parliament in Ireland since
 the home rule bill was signed by King George. MT. Redmond put forward as q candidate MT. P. F. Adams and, speak ing at Turam the Sunday before the elec- tion, telling the people that Graham, the candidate in opposition, had nouted his leadership and repudiated the parliament
 tary party, he said, T call upon the elec- tors of Kings county to crush through the ballot box this act of insubordna- tion." Did they? Not at all MT. Gra- ham headed the polls. It is safe to say
 
 followed by other Irish counties when the opportunity is afforded The spokes- man of the Irish in this country is Joseph Mclaughlin, supreme president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians He. in no
 measured terms. repudietes the present recruiting campaign He says, '"rhe work of Ireland cannot be done by she'd ding Irish blood under the English flag in cause which does not concern either the honor or the safety Of Ireland or her people at home or abroad"
 The Southern Cross of Buenos Aires gives the views of the n-American Celts in these words: Ireland would be false to her history and to every consld- eration of honor, good faith and self interest, if she sent her children to die in foreign battlefelds fighting the battles of the stranger" The same sentiments were expressed at Santiago, the capital of Chili, by mass meeting of the Irish society of that city, that gathered near the famous equestrian statue of OHig- gins. Similar sentiments were expressed by Irish colonists. citizens and societies that met in Cuba. Mexico, Porto Rico and the cities of Rio Janeiro. Bahia, San Paulo and Callaio. Oh, no. the Irish race in Ireland and all over the earth is not loyal to England and the British empire A word with regard to the present con
 dition of Ireland. She is no longer 'the
 most distressful country" Land acts, for
 which we must thank the land league
 founded by Michael Davit and controlled
 by the greatest leader since O'Connells 8
 day, Parnell, have wonderfully benefited
 Ireland even within my own memory.
 The people now have "a firm grip on the
 homesteads" These concessions were
 wrung from a hostile Parliament, and
 were, after all, but the restoring of plum
 dered rights, the repeating of unjust leg7 islation.
 With regard to the home rule bill
 hope MT. Craig will read my reply to
 MT. Franklin. have stated there my
 views of the measure and of the method
 of giving the measure. Permit me to
 make this addendum that the bill Is moro
 surprising in what it estops Ireland from
 doing than from any great measure of legislative relief whereby nation is
 made healthy and enduring in the eco
 homie sense. With regard to the reten-
 tion of 42 Irish members m the Imperial
 Parliament, that really is nothing to be
 grateful for, since. after all, the principal
 power over Ireland is still invested in
 the British House of Commons. Ireland
 at present has few manufactures, and
 there does not seem much hope of an
 industrial revival under an act which ex-
 pressly prohibits Ireland from having any
 control whatever over foreign trade, trea-
 son, quarantine, navigation, lighthouses,
 coinage, legal tender. trade marks, pat
 ent rights police. banks or merchant ship
 ping. Professor Ellis Thompson of Penn
 sylvania, one of the most noted of Amer ican political economists. says: They (the
 people who say that Ireland should, in
 gratitude, help England the present
 crisis) do not seem to be aware that any
 self governing colony of the empire. not
 excepting the Boers, who were fighting
 Great Britain so recently, enjoys far
 more home rule than the new legislation
 will secure Ireland. They all have in
 their hands the fiscal legislation which
 enables them to secure the prosperity of their people by developing their industry.
 Ireland is denied this most strictly, and
 is left dependent upon the fruits of her agriculture, with the certainty of famine
 whenever the crops fail''
 The overrepresentation of Ireland in the