New-York tribune., 1918-01-27
piritual Will to Victory Becomes Greatest War Fore

be done with such Scotsman err.n. =.
change the subject. These Lahar;..-
are caught in dogmatic kink and c.,,.
get free.
But the great mass of labor in En-
land is sound enough. Only it will No.
be fed up with what may charac.er;z.
without offence, as the CUSTOM.
triotic hot air which pours forth fra~
the usual war aims orator. II v,. =
such labor meeting that Mfr IL,
George addressed tho recent sn..ss
which attracted such attention in ,ou.
country. / understand that the po,..
were disappointed at his reference. -
absence of rcfcrence) to their
The British Prime Minister vas ~.
dealing with world-vgii aud;.,.
but with certain specific sect;o. :,
the British proletariat. President wr
son, on the other hand, spoke to tn. ..
tire human race. And, if NAV b. ~.
mittcd to remark upon that u.te,.n..
he set forth the cause Of fbe A,,;.-
the only terms which British labor u;,,
accept. For some months II has 49,
clear that Mr.. Lloyd George would h..a
to make up his mind whether b;s oon
ernment was to drift TO "the Ripbty .,
"thc Left; whether it would denona
for support on Conservative or r;h...,
reinforcemcnts.
The resignation of Sir Edward r,x
son may be taken as an imnort.,.
symptom that the trend is in
gressiye rather than a reactiona,v i;
recton. 1t means that the sn;r;,u.,
factor, on which I have laid stress :.
telling against the mere coupt;n~ -
rifles and dollars. For this Irish hns;
ncss is admitted by all parties in w.
land to be really serious. must d.
clare candidly that, in materia, 70.
spects, Ireland has been deprived q.
most Of her grievances. Her apricu)s-
ure has never been so prosperous
She receives high prices for her prod.
ice and her farmers pay no excess
profits tax. She has never had to suh.
nit to conscriptior, and Great Britain
guarantees the loans on her land pur.
chase scheme, paying also her old ACE
pensions and rebuilding her Dublin
streets.
But life is more than meat and
drink, and the soul of Ireland can never
be doped with doles nor silenccd by
threats. When definite news comes 10
hand as to the urshot of the Irish Con-
vention l may have something to say
in comment upon it.
The Irish Question
A Case in Point
In the meantime I would only re-
mark that the Irish question, by very
virtue of its sentimentalism. illus
trates my thesis that wherever vou
turn your eyes over this wide field Of
rapid and angry human evolution YOU
will find that the spiritual factor-the
unseen imponderable - challenges at
tention. The British dominions are in
tercsted in the fate of Ireland. am
told that one-third of the American
army and one-half the American navy
are Catholic. If that is the fact, or
approximately so. then Ireland also in
terests the United States Of America:
The relations between Great Britain
and America are happily improving.
Old animosities are merged in a COM
mon sympathy with France. But those
relations can never be as cordial and
as mutually helpful as they ought to
be, unless and until the resources Of
British craftsmanship, including the
right Of compuls;on for the extremists
Of Ulster, are available for the cxtcn-
sion Of national autonomy to the one
English speaking country whicl, is al
present denied that inalienable right.