The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-22
THE ULSTER VIEW
(continued From Page Nine)

(COntinued From Page Nine)
 rational recreation of any kind, such as is the right of every child.
 Child labor has place, apparently, in any consideration of the Irish ques- ton in Ireland. There is no thought in Dublin, for example, of complaint that Befast's prosperity is maintained in great part by boy and girl labor; for Dublin itself has made no special prog ress in helpful and humane service to the younger generation. Dublin has it's slums, and they no credit to that city. welfare worker appeared be- fore the editors there, and gave a de- scription of life among the poor in the Irish capital that somewhat disturbed them. He wanted their help to get a meagre $5000 out of the imperial govern ment to carry on uplift work among the numerous ignorant boys and young men of Dublin. Hundreds of them, he said, could not read even the headlines of the papers they sold in the streets
 STATUS OF HOME RULE
 The present status of home rule in Ire land is that the British Parliament, un- der the premiership of MT. Asquith, passed a bill giving the Irish a certain measure of autonomy, with home leg islative body, having certain limited pow CTS over taxation. The objections of Ulster were vehement, not to say vio- lent, and it was then arranged to eX- clude six counties of that province But it was settlement that did not settle anything, and finally MT. Lloyd George, not then premier, to whom had been referred the problem for solution, devised the brilliant project of an Irish conven- ton, which was to determine for itself just what Ireland wanted. The inau- guration of home rule was indefinitely postponed, pending action by the ,1iaI y,IaIc that the government would accept any adjustment the convention was able to make. It was entirely safe promise, whatever the convention did or failed to do. For it is true that England is sick of the Irish question, and will agree to anything that bids fair to get it out of the way.
 The convention in which Ulster, with some reluctance, agreed to participate, started out with high expectations. But after eight long months of deliberation and disagreement, it ended fruitlessy. Its chief political result seems to have been to precipitate the nationalist Qrish) party in hopeless wreck. The leader was the late John Redmond who was a mem- Der of the convention. It appears to be clear that MT. Redmond sought earnestly and hopefully to find some way to recon cile all conflicting interests and factions. His temper was so reasonable and his
 
 gate publicly paid tribute to him, say ing: T am convinced that he had an honest and genuine intention of holding out the olive branch, and submitting such moderate demands as might have Justified the Ulster delegates consulting their constituents regarding them" This was great concession for any Ulsterite to make.
 REDMOND'S AGREEMENT
 MT. Redmond entered into an arrange ment with Lord Middleton and his party to promote a plan of Irish autonomy, with government having control of excise and other sources of revenue, but not of customs. The Ulster delegates had made it plain that under no circumstan- ces and for no consideration, would they have anything to do with proposals which involved establishment of an Irish parliament, with plenary authority over customs and excise.
 Nevertheless, the Redmond Middleton coalition appeared to be in majority, and the prospect of an agreement on their proposition was suspicious. But the radicals, under Bishop McDonnell very able prelate, got busy during recess of the convention and converted minor ity into a majority by their appeals to the country, and the Redmond Middle ton plan was defeated Lord Middleton then joined Bishop Mcdonnell in a pro- poSal to set up an independent parlia- ment in Ireland with the single reserva- tion that the question of customs and excise should be held in abeyance till after war. This was the official action of the convention, by a very narrow ma jority. But in fact the delegates departed with the thoughts and ideas as fixed and diverse as when they entered; and no one now assumes that the slightest at tcntion will be paid by Parliament to it's action.
 At the shipbuilding plant of Workman. Clark & Co, Ltd number of workers had been assembled to give the editors their views of home rule or Irish inde- pendence. It was an interesting perform ance. Each of the men, representing the various unionize Jtrades in the esta ablsh- ment, gave evidence of his implacable opposition to separate government for Ireland. One of them made a set address, distinguished by certain rough elo- quence, that made distinct impression on his hearers The men declared they were contented with their lot and had no political grievances which could be adjusted by Dublin. They believed that Irish government meant the death of in- dustry in Belfast, for it would precipi- tate an era of onerous taxation and spe- cial discrimination against Ulster. Capi-