The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-08-02
A NEW KIND OF LEADER.

America has often in the past
received the representatives Of OPP
pressed nations in foreign lands.
Ireland has from time to time
sent her pleaders to our shores to
enlist the sympathy and the help
OF our people in her struggle for
recognition. We have heard times
without number of the sutferings
and the wrongs endured by the
Irish people under the rule Of a
foreign power. No American but
is familiar with the story.
Now comes a new kind of
leader; a mathematician by pro
fession, an American by birth,
Hispano-Celtic by blood. His APP
peal is to the intellect, not the
heart or the imagination. He adj
dresses himself to the faculty of
reason, nor seeks to arouse senti-
ment or passion. With cold, in
cisive logic, with mathematical
precision, with unanswerable argu-
ments based upon history and
law, this leader, Eamonn de
Valera, seeks to win over the con-
victions Of the American people
to the justice Of his cause. Like
our own Franklin in Paris, plead
ing for the young American re-
public, De Valera pleads for the
Irish republic.
Scoffers ridicule the modesty Of
the Irish assembly which drew up
it's declaration Of rights; they
laugh to scorn the so-called pre-
tensions of a number of upstairs
who, in solemn conclave, asserted
the justice of the Irish cause.
Nearly one hundred and fifty
years ago a little gathering was
held in a certain town in this
country. A few business and pro-
fessional men, with a number of
farmers, asserted solemnly that
eve are and of right ought to be
free and Independent" The same
Westminster spirit smiled lightly
on the ridiculous" assembly held
in Philadelphia. The uppishness
of these horrid colonials was ex-
asperating, you know, it was posi-
lively annoying to his gracious
majesty and the government. A
few troops would be sent to chas-
tise these ignorant colonials and
to keep them where they belonged.
Well, the few troops grew into an
army and a navy. But somehow
those farmers of the colonies were
stubborn and hardheaded. A gen.
tleman farmer east in his lot with
them for the sake Of adventure,
mayhap, but he would be swept
away by the power of Albion.f$
Nations like individuals make
their blunders. Concord, Lexing-
ton, Bunker Hill, and a host of
other names, marked the footsteps
Of the oppressor as he blunder-
ingly wendell his way to the sign
which bore the legend: This way
out. The cream Of the British
army gathered one memorable day
at Yorktown, and the bespangled
CORVALLIS, a lord, if you please,
humbly handed over his sword in
recognition Of surrender to the
gentleman farmer, General George
Washington. To add gall to the
draught, the man who received
the symbol of defeat was an
Irishman.
What has happened may happen
again. A wise individual scarcely
blunders the second time in the
same way. Can nations afford to
blunder twice the same way? The
colonies might not have won
singlehanded, but France stepped
in and strengthened their arm. Is
it impossible that some other ma
ton might some day step in at
the critical moment and strength
en- the arm Of Ireland? A con-
tented Ireland would be the
strongest asset Of the British EN-.
pire, for one Of the Irishman s
most charming virtues is his gen.
crosby and his deep sense OF
gratitude.