Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-09-23
IRISH MAY VOLUNTEER
FOR SERVICE EVENTUALLY
Catholic Bishops Who Fought Con.
scriptiop May Swing Support
to Government.
REASONS FOR OPPOSITION
Writer Thinks 1t Was Desperate Eff
fort on Part OF Church Heads TO
Strengthen Their Hold on Young
or Generation OF Irishmcn.

or Generation OF lrishmen.
BY ALFRED PERCIvAL GRAVES,
Author of "Fnthcr O'FIynn."
DUBLIN September 22.-I have been
studying the eternal Irish difficulty for
nearly month. and in the most typi-
Gal parts OF Ireland. This | have done
In consultation with experienced repre-
sentatlves of all the Irish parties. AMI
these arc some Of my conclusions:
The earnest influence of the priest
and the nun in Irish character. which
practically have nodded and continued
TO mold, leaves the young man and
young woman 80 little initiative that
they are constantly being carried
away by those currents of political or
social sentiment which in generation
AFTER ate. generation have swept over
Catholic Ireland. and this want OF
3 lhltiatiEe on their part has caused such
movements to be started and controlled
by rTolestant inspiration-by a Swift,
Wolfe Tone. a Thomas Davis. "A Smith
O,Brien. Butt or Il Parncll. Daniel
OConncll being the one notable ex-
ception TO This rule. For TO com
IDEAS initiated by Douglas Hyde and
an Arthur Griffith NAV chiefly be at
trIbutcd the latest instance OF this
dangerous national install
No doubt this spiritual power OF the
Catholic Church in Ireland is exercised
With the best OF intentions. promotes
and results in better moral relations
between the sexes than are TO be found
elsewhere even in spite OF overcrowd
ing IN country cottages well
town tcncmcnts. Moreover. II is
inheritance OF the earlier times when
all educational and much political con-
troll Was in the hands Of ccciesiastics.
and OF the latter days when. under the
penal system, the priest was the per-
peea r of 5eiTl9n lna
or ireland by the Catholic Church still
persists. though the revolutions which
it Internationally brings about tend
more and more 10 shake IL to its foun-
datioD3.
PRESENT CRISIS PROVING
ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION
The present Irish crisis is . striking
instance of this. No Catholic bishop
Feiners what Bishop Moriarty said OF
The Irish revolutionarics of the sixties:
Hell is not hot enough or eternity
long enough for the Fcnians"
y ct Sim Fcin originated in Pros
testant brai and the Easter rebellion
had us origin In syndicaltsIn. to which
the Catholic bishops were hostile and
both would at this moment have been
under their anathcma had not the drop
ping executions that followed the Dub
violent rcvulsions Of public sentiment
that they have now TO reckon with 80
painfully, not only as II affects young
Ireland. but the young Irish priesthood,
many OF whom have been also car
r!ed away by it,
Had the government informed and
kept interned till the end OF the war.
al the Sim Feipcrs and Irish Labor
ties and executed only those who were
proved clearly guilty OF murder in the
: insnrrection or Of direct completely
with Germany, this action. even II
combined with CONSUMPTION, would
have satisfied the Catholic Church and
matter for the heads Of the Catholic
Church to choose between letting go
entirely their spiritual control over the
young revolutionaries who had ha!t
destroyed Dublin. and their new-found
friends. and supporting Lloyd Georges
call for irish CONSUMPTION. even II ac-
on the so-callcd majority report OF
the Irish convention. For they knew
that young Catholic Ir!ahmen not only
were not waiting 30 he fetched into
the war or even TO volunteer. but were
not in the temper 10 be satisfied with
any form OF home rule which could
the rest OF Ireland.
CATHOLIC BISHOPS
AGAINST CoNsCRIITIoN
81 a result OF all this when Dillon,
l,cN!.n and De Valera left the Dublin
Mansion House meeting in a taxi for
Maynooth, the assembled bishops there
almost unanimously decided TO throw
all their forces into the anticonscrip-
ton ranks. and so issued their his
,orical ukase against it. II is said.
indeed. that only one bishop proposed
a resolution in favor Of voluntary SER
vice as substitute for conscrption.
but that he had no scconder.
No doubt, two reasons other than
fear OF losing spiritual control over
\ their hocks II they fell in with con.
scription have been urged on behalf OF
this action OF the Irish Catholic
bishops the dread of n further revolu-
tionary outbreak ii i, were enforced.
and the apprehension OF the further
defamation OF the Irish Catholic regi-
ments caused by their constitutional
clan and their reported exploitation
the British commanders.
But those who know the situation
best are confident, as has been already
gain the spiritual hold on the Irish
people which was slipping from them
that the Catholic bishops entered upon
an apparently desperate political
SPECULATES AS TO
REASON FOR ACTION
But was IL really desperate course?
They are an extremely shrcwd set Of
men, and they probably reasoned thus:
These young people will probably calm
down again in the course OF few
months BY that time they will be in
n better mood to volunteers. Besides.
Americans. will have come into it in
such large numbers by then that the
war is likely to be over before too
long, and our young men would. there
fore. have little fighting and small
losses. Lord Frcnch's temporiznS
proclamation and the successful coun
terofensive of the allies go TO prove
this. II Lord French and Mr.. shortt
are both firm and cOnciliatory-Frenc
in earnest about enforcing compulsory
service il Gwynn and Lynch fail TO
bring in enough rccruitS-Shortt we'll
advised and expeditions over his pro-
posed social reforms trust us to use
all our powers to help on the volun-
teering before the last sands run out
> of the glass. And this is what wen
I say: III you don't volunteer up to the
. necess.fy limit and Ulster does, you
knows how long
Or if Ulster says: We've done more
than our Bit and must stay al home to
watch the Sim Feincrs or keep them
from taking our jobs or be fetched. you
can rctort by volunteering and SO take
the wind out of their sails and n snug
bit of land into the bargain, and so
help on home rule double quick!
SO the word may go round TO the