Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-04-08
y listers BackWardness No1V Prevents Irish Freedom


munition for Redmond's opponents.
They now desire To take the case of
Ireland "over the head" OF the British
parliament, and demand representa-
tion at the peace conference. Germany
and Austria, they believe, will support
the Irish claim for representation if
for no higher motive than TO em-
barrass Britain, while hopes are eX-
pressed that the United States will be
friendly, and that the English people
themselves when they get used to the
idea will not object TO the same con
ference that is to decide the fate OF
Bohemia and the TZecho SloVaks con-
sidering the desires of the Irish.
All parties in England, the Irish
Nationalists most of all, denounce TINS
scheme as utterly impracticable, and
as most dangerous for Ireland her,
self. Redmond's argument is that TO
press for representation at the peace
conference, however harmless in
theory, can have no other result than
TO bring the Irish people into an
tagonism against the empire during
the life and death struggle now in
progress. and wreck or indefinitely
postpone the realization of the hopes
of ireland. Even the dominion gov
ernmonts, tho now friendly towards
home rule, would IN all probability
resist washing the empires dirty
linen" as an Irish NJ i. expressed the
issue TO me, with hostile peace dele
gates sitting in judgment on the
process.
Redmond l. Losing.
But the propaganda among the
Irish is making progress. When Count
HlunKett. father of one of the Dublin
rebels executed last summer was
elected to parliament from North
Roscommon by an overwhelming ma
jority over the Redmond candidate.
the Nationalists saw that immediate
measures must be taken 10 stem the
tide of revolt against Redmond's lead
ership, and by accusing Lloyd George
of bad faith and denoUncing the pre-
tensions of Ulster To a separation
which he appeared willing to con-
cede a few months ago, John Red
monG has shown that he is alive TO
tho danger.
II is impossible to learn whether
any revolutionary agitation persists in
Ireland. The Irish Republican brother
hood, q revival Of the old Fenian or
ganziatIon, is said to regard even the
policy of Count Plunkett's friends as
far too mild, and the arrests and
deportation of a number of Gaelic
leaguers recently might be commented
upon but for the government an
nounccment that a discussion of these
cases would not be in the public inter
est. But even the Dublin revolt, meas
ured by the number of people i'm it,
was trifling affair and another ris-
ing as large is not regarded as posi-
BILE by my Irish as well as English in
G., Of hp
Fein movement NDw as always are
directed towards n peaceful separa-
zion of all Ireland from the United
Kingdom and the refusa. of Count
Plunkett to take his seat in parlia-
ment shows that he remains faithful
to the tenets of the party. In accept
ing the freedom of the city of XII
kenny, Count Piunkett is reported by
the London press today as having re,
marked. 1--WE are calling Into exist
ence an organization of Irishmen from
representative public bodies, and of
representative men, that will deny the
right of England to any control of
Ireland. The organization will frame
the claim of Ireland to representation
of the country"
Economic conditions in Ireland are
favorable to discomfort in the large
towns and political apathy in the pros
porous countryside. Irish farmers
have never been so well off in the
whole history of the country, for their
produce commands prices twice as
high as before the war, and since they
eat now as always what they grow
themselves, the rise in the cost of
living doeS not greatly affect them.
Lack of Factory Work.
But in Dublin, Cork, and to lesser
extent in the smaller towns, great dis
tress exists because the rise in food
has not been accompanied. as in
England, Scotland and industrial Bel
fast, by the establishment of great
muniton industries which employ the
laboring classes at higher wages than
they ever made before. The Sim
Feiners make political capital out of
the fact that Irish townsmen are not
given the same opportunity to make
money as the urban dwellers in Eng
land but the truth seems to be that
munitions are made where they can
be made more quickly, and Ireland
lacked before the war the industrial
plants which could be converted to