The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1919-07-26
IRELAND A PROSPEROUS COUNTRY
Ireland Of Fifty Years Ago as Dead as the France
ing Way to the English-Speaking World

system Of light railways which now cor.i
ers these remote districts has given yalus
able facilities for the marketing Of fish |
and every kind Of produce. The various
boards and other executive agencies CON-
sist almost entirely Of Irishmen.
"IRISH AGRICULTURAL LABOR
ER.--There 10 vast difference between
the present lot Of the Irish agricultural
iaborer and his condition in 1883, wheu
reform In this department was first talu-
en- in hand. Cottages can now be pro-,
vided by the rural district councils and
let at nominal rents. Nearly $4,000, 900
sterling have been voted for this purpose
at low interest A recent observer
writes:
"The Irish agricultural laborer ca1i
now obtain cottage with three rooms,
q piggery, and garden allotment Of an
acre or half an acre, and for this he ID |
charged rent Of one to two Shillingn AI
week. These cottages by thu
wayside give hopeful aspect to the
country flowers are before tho
doors Of the new cottages and creepers
upon the walls. The laborer can keep
pigs, poultry, and q goat, and grow his
potatoes and vegetables in his garden all
lotment. (Padroic Column, 'fMy Irish.
Year. ''-19O9.)
"PRESENT CONDITION OF IRE
LAND.-The internal condition Of Ire<
land already shows Q marked response
to the altered state Of things II nI
visible, as many American travellers
have noticed, in the face of the country,
and Is proved by official records.
Emigration has declined to>its low,
est point; education has spread amongst
the people. Irish emigrants, when they
do leave their own shores, take higher
positions than ever before. A popula-
ton Of some 100000 largely composed
of small farmers, has lent f47,O00,000
sterling to the government; and, what 10
still more significant, the deposits in
Post Office Savings Banks have risen
from f6,000,000 In 1896 to over
Ella, ,00o,0 600 the year before the war. /.
"Irish agriculture, partly owing TO
climatic conditions, and partly to the
fact that ireland has monopoly Of the
export of live cattle to England, had
developed hitherto rather in the direc-
tion Of cattle-raising than Of tillage;
and cattle have increased since 1851
from 100000 to over 100000 head,
and sheep from 100000 to 100000.
Poultry have nearly quadrupled in the
same period. The gross railway receipts
another significant symptom--wer
e., 10000 in 1886. In 1918 they had
risen to f4,S3l, 900. The cooperative ag-
ricultural associations, in which Ireland
has shown the way to the English-speak-
ing world, now number about 1000, and
do q trade Of well over 25,000,000 a
year. The thousands of laborers' cots
tages which have sprung up, each with
its plot Of land, have been to the Irish
laborers what the Land Acts have bean
TO the farmer--they have completely
transformed his economic status In the
country" IT. W. Rolleston, ''Ireland
and Poland-A Comparison. ~
Ireland's poverty was formers
ly the hue-and-cry Of the pro-
genitors Of Sim Feinism; nous
that Ireland Is prosperous, q new:
cry must be invented, and it is an
Irish republic. An Irish republia
in fact is an impossibility, as thres
fourths Of Ireland's population.
the Roman Catholics Of the South
and West Of Ireland, do not be-
lieve IN the sovereignty Of the peo,
pie, which is the foundation Of q
genuine republic. a
Were an Irish republic estabs
1ished, who would defend it from
foreign aggressioni Were Francs
or Italy or Russia or Germany to
seize ireland, would Ireland ash
England to deliver heri And
would England conscript her citt.
zens to fght for an island that had
repudiated her authority, that had
attempted to cut Off the breasts Of
the mother who had succored heri
An Irish republic is an absuriity.
No American loyal to the Stars
and Stripes can side with treason-
able Ireland, for Ireland in 1919
declared war against our ally.
Great Britain.
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