New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-31
IRELAND'S DEFAMERS.
How Sham Patriots Here Misrepre
sent the Conditions.

TO the Editor Of The Tribune.
| Sir: For your editorial entitled Irish
Babies Week" you deserve the gratitude Of
every sclf-respecting Irishman the world
over.
/ Il is the manifest and most generous &C
acknowledgement have ever come across Of the
/ TACT that there is, after all, such a thing
as an Irish nation comparable with other ma
tons in sanity, in a sense Of public decency
and in racial pride
To all Of these qualities the respective &C
Invites Of the "pinchbeck patriots" forever
looking backward and the promoters Of beg
eng expeditions. however beneyolently con-
ccived, are equally eXasperating and humili-
ating.
OF the "pinchbecls" two things can safely
| be predicted: First, that not one Of them
knows anything of Ireland outside Of the
parish which has the distinction Of being his
birthplace, if, indeed, he happens to be a
native son; second, that not one of them has
an interest to the extent Of siXpenny bit
in land, strand. property, industry or business
of any kind in that country.
Their activities furnish an illuminating
index to their potency as friends Of Irish
freedom It is, indeed an inspiring exhibit
ton Of sagacity to identify the cause of Ire
land with cause that has become a stencil
IN American nostrils.
/ Ordinarily their antics provoke an indul-
gent smile from the average intelligent Amer
lean, but they live so much in the clouds that
they cannot realize how ridiculous they seem
10 him.
/ It is probably TOO much to expect them to
realize that they now excite his contempt.
These are the men who would dictate to
educated Ireland, and whose poor deluded
followers do not hesitate TO apply the epithet
Of traitor" to a gentleman born and bred,
the statesmanlke Irish leader, man at whom
our meanest enemies cannot laugh, whose
sane policy has won the good will Of the
American press and public and the support
of the masses of the British people.
One is loath 10 criticise phlanthropic
money-raising movements. but ! don't know
OF anything that has initiated so seriously
against the social Advancement OF the Irish
in America and the trade and industrial de-
lyelopment OF ireland, especially in the matter
Of tourist traffic. as the periodical and abso-
!ltely stupid and misleading outcry about
Irish poverty, squalor, misery and persecu-
ton. If it ever had a foundation in fact.
/ IL is to-day and has been for years, so
far as the country as a whole is concerned, a
fiction Of the most absurd kind.
Excepting one or two spots, such As are
to be found in any country, conditions
throughout ireland to-day are better than
/ they are in any other part Of the United
Kingdom, especially in the matter of housing
ard land tenure. II anybody doubts this let
him look up the findings of the commission
which investigated town and country cond-
ticus in England a short time before the out
break OF the present
In land reform ireland il years ahead Of
both England and Scotland The town ten
ants Of ireland enjoy rights which in this
country would probably be considered dan
ccrously socialistic Education in Ireland is
free and universal The children are taught
the religion they profess, and the government
pays for II. Each primary school is under
he management Of one man, highly edu-
Gated man, usually a priest or minister, and
not under a board composed Of uneducated
men who couldn't tell whether Tom Moore
MAS poet or an army general.
The Dublin training colleges for teachers
are in many respects the finest and most ef-
hcient institutions Of their kind in the world
I he soundness Of the old national school cur
riculum was proyerbial among sound thinking
people. but ! understand that some Of its
soundness has given way to fairy lore falals
crs and busybodies, a. if our grip on the
things which keep a nation a living physical
reality were not already feeble enough.
The average Irish policeman is incompara-
bly, better educated and higher type Of
man than many Of the political "leadcrs"
whom the American Irish send to the houses
OF legislature. In an Irish court Of justice
a beggsr and lord on a footing. Is this
true in New York? 1t certainly is not true
In Philadelphia.
Yes. there is poverty in the Irish cities.
hut there is also much wealth. These things
IRE relative. Glasgow s rich and splendid
city. next 10 London the richest and best
managed and most progressive city in the
empire. Yet fifteen minutes walk through
It's principal thoroughfares. night or day, will
reveal such sights apd scenes of poverty and
degradation as almost to make one despair OF
human nature.
Now, who would think Of judging the Scot
fish people or tho citizens of Glasgow, with
their many sterling qualities, especially their