New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-23
Ireland Needs American Capital
By Arthur Gleason

the textile and pottery industries nave
withered.
Rut not only have through import rates
into Ireland for many years been reia'i'eiy
lower than the Irish internal rates, Out ais"
through rates from abroad to BRUSH por's
and interior centres have been on lower
scale than the export rates from Ireland As
tho result of this, not only has lrish ihous-
try been stranged but Irish agriculture mas
been crippled. Even Ireland's one best m
dustry-livestock expanded only about 10
nor cont in twenty years, and the cattle
trade employs comparatively little labor'
Winter dairying would be stimulated oy
nroner railway facilities. II Goals came 10
Newcastle from Cologne there would De
nromnt action. But Danish butter came into
Limerick. one Of the principal centres OF
the Irish butter trade. Irish butter is not
TO be had throughout the year in quantity
enough for home consumption. though ell
matte and agricultural conditions OF lreiano
are more favorable for winter dairying than
those of Denmark Better methods OF pro-
duction and reduction Of railway rates, en-
couraging farmers to go in for winter dairy
ing are both needed.
Just as ireland has been importing 1000
when she could produce it so she has been
making large imports in coal when she mas
extensive coal fields. Here, as in agriculture,
railway facilities are needed. The required
additional capital for opening certain of them
IN will be forthcoming when the requisite
railway communication is provided. This IS
true of the Cas.lecomer and the Arigna coal
fields Four miles OF railway will release
the Arigna mines.
While / was in Ireland the Irish railways
hy tho British Government.
No policy has yet been announced. broad
state policy in tillage, fertilizer, seeds, ma
chinery and a unified and extended railway
system will bring prosperity to Ireland. IL
that government subsidy carries with it the
power over Irish taxation, the Irish people
will probably reject the policy. In that
event Ireland herself will have to find the
money for raising her major industry-agri-
culture-to a new level. In either case the
time has come for a momentous decision, on
which rests the welfare OF the next fifty
years.
American Money Needed
1t is high time that Americans accustom
their minds to the real elements in the Irish
problem, and give over brainstorms and heat
waves on the dead issues which lie buried
with No-Papacy, Laissez Fare, Womans
Sphere and the rest of the nineteenth CEN
tury truck The question for Americans is
precisely this Will American money take
hold Of large-unit agriculture and industrial
plans for Irish reconstruction? An indus
trious and attractive labor population, bound
to US by every tie of spiritual sympathy,
endeared by long-standng friendship, akin in
temperament, quick-witted, charming, humor-
Gus, imaginative, is waiting for financial aid
in order to work out its national life.
Their coal mines are idle for lack of capital.
Their peat boys, their river beds, require
skilled and not too costly treatment. Their
! villages need light railways There is need
of factory system for chemical fertilizer,
for agricultural implements. There is need
of capital for the extension Of one of the
most promising cooperative movements in
the world-a movement which is already
successful and no longer experimental, but
which must remain static unless it receives
fresh momentum. Irish industries, lam
gushing for several generations, are waiting
for the touch OF money to spring back into
activity.
What appeal could come closer to the
American? For what are we waiting? Do
we mean business when we talk about the
wrongs and the rights of Ireland? Or have
we used Ireland as a convenient brick to heave
at the head of the English? And, now Eng
land is awakened are we going to let our
sympathy for Ireland cool down?