Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-12
ELECTION Of S|NN FE|NER
Of POLITICAL GRAVITY
Folly Of Government in Retaining
From Dealing With Revolution
airy Talk Discussed.

LONDON. July 1.-THE election of
Edward De Valera as member Of par
hament for East Clare, the third Sim
Feiner to be returned to parliament of
late. is treated as an event of great DO
litical consequence by the morning pa
pers. which devote considerable space
to the victory. The tendency of the
unfonist press, rejecting their advices
from Belfast and Dublin, is to empha-
size what it always contended = the
folly of the government in liberating
Sim Fem prisoners and refraining from
dealing with revolutionary talk and acts
as such would be dealt with in Eng
land. These papers regard the situa-
ton as graveiy threatening, for they
see nothing in the Sim Fem movement
but rebellion.
The liberal press also is alarmed, but
rather for the position Of the official
nationalist party and for the prospect
for the establishment of constitutional
home rule. One opinion seems common
among all parties. namely, that the
prospects of the convention in Ireland
to consider home rule are seriously i'm
paired. IL not entirely doomed. Another
view is that the election is an irrepara-
Bile disaster for the Irish nationalist
party, which. many Irish people COM
plain. held the country for years in the
dead hand Of rigid machine policy.
the Sim Fem movement is regard
ed in the same quarter as an express
sion of discomfort and vehement re-
sentiment of long course of admins
trative folly, indicating a lack OF con-
hdence with present parliamentary
methods rather than a revolutionary
tendency, and in this respect resem-
bling state of mind which often
leads Prussfan electors. who themselves
are not at all socialists. to support So
clalist candidates at the polls.
The Telegraph's parliamentary re-
porter says all the Irish sections of the
mousse OF commons regard the result as
virtually death blow to the national
list party-the end of constitutional
agitation and the beginning of repub-
Hcanism. 1t is declared that no nation
aiist seat outside of Dublin is now safe
Timothy Healy, NJ. p. frankly graft
ned. says the English people are mis-
taken about the Sim Feiners. They
are not rabid extremists, but devoted
idealists.
The local correspondent at Ennis
quotes Prof De Valera as saying he
does not intend to take his seat in the
house of commons.
Commenting on the East Clare cleo
ton OF {. Sim Feiner to parliament. the
irish Independent says:
Five out of every six electors who
supported the victor did so out of sheer
disgust for the cringing. crawling pol
icy of the Irish party and the blunder-
ing tactics OF its leaders"
The Irish Times considers that East
Clare voted for a program of reyolu-
ton The Sim Fem policy so far has
developed on destruction and bitterness
pregnant with menace to the peace Of
Ireland. yet this policy triumphed over
the memory of a devoted soldier (Maj.
William Redmond) and swept the ma
tionaiists out of a seat held without op-
position for twenty years. says this
newspaper.
The Dublin Express says the victory
is the most portentous thing in mod
ern Irish political history. TT is clear"
the paper says, that the nationaIists
can do little at convention but record
their pious opinions"