New-York tribune., 1919-07-11

US IN the past, can put US off no longer
with words or compliments to the Irish
wit or Irish genius. They have cx-
tended the power of America to lib
crate other peoples, they have liber-
ated peoples to whom this country
owes little if any debt, and we are
going to stand together here as Amer
Republic and hold fast to this one
thing, that no political party, that no
social faction, that no business interest
can get the support Of men devoted
to liberty until that liberty is extended
to one more republic. We pledge to
him Ode Valera) tonight and to the
land that he represents, the full force
and strength of a body of free men
here, who are determined that that re-
public, which was kicked from the
door of the peace conference like a
beggar, shall have it's place among the
nations of the world, when kingdoms
that have oppressed it are down in the
dust"
Lieutenant Colonel A. Z. Andersen,
of the Sixty-ninth, the next speaker,
pledged his word to de Valera that:
"World peace, which was to be the
outcome of this great struggle, the
peace which was to be realized on the
signing of the treaty, will never be
realized until the gallantry and the
courage Of the Irish are rewarded
until Ireland has its frecdomy'
Father Peter McGinnis, assistant
general of the Carmelite Order, was
next, and won his loudest applause
when he said
America won the war and saved
that mighty empire (British) from de-
struction. God forgive u.s."
Cheered Over Ten Minutes
De Valera was given another en-
thusiastic reception when he rose to
speak, and the cheering lasted for ten
minutes and half. He said
"lrishmen want their country. 1t is
rightfully and lawfully theirs. 1t is
their home. The English power in
that home is an intrusion and usur-
patton which lrishmen want to get rid
of. England has no just claim, no
right whatever in Ireland.
Freedom. Freedom from the rule
OF the baton and the bayonet, from
from police spies, ana police perjurers,
and from the invasion of their home S
without writ or warrant; freedom from
murder by British government agents,
from government action, from invented
crimes and imprisonments without
trial; freedom from perpetual coercion
and military law.
"And now last, freedom from the in
famous libcls spread by the organized
official propaganda of the English gov
ernment in order to hide the true
nature of their rule in Ireland, throw
dust in the eyes of people, and cover
up the truth.
Kept From the World
"The smooth hypocrisy of England,
no less than the immense resources
she commands, the huge power she
wielas and the prominent position she
occupies in the worlds affairs, has
prevented the torment that Ireland has
suffered through English rule from
reaching the ears and engaging the at
tcntlon of mankind as it should.
There is no people who talk sc
much about liberty as the English peo-
pie, no people who make liberty anc
their writings, who SO much extol the
picture of the patriot daring and BRAY.
ing all for his country, and it is nc
wonder that the stranger who has nc
personal experience of English craft
and particularly the American whose
language brings him under the spell
of the writings of Englishmen, should
find 1T difficult to believe that a peo-
pie with such principles constantly or
their lips could at the promptings OF
selfish national greed and impc riahstc
mbitions be themselves guilty of a
tyranny such as that we in ireland
must accuse them Of.
During the last quarter of a GEN.
tury his eyes have been full Of tears
for the Hungarian, the Armenian, the
Greek, the Bulgarian, the Serb, the
Pole, the Bohemian, the Italian, the
Alsatian. They have flashed with in
dignation at the conduct of the Turk
the Russian, the Prussian How car
the world believe that all this time he
and his class were themselves working
on their nearest ncighbor an infaIny as
great as any they denounced-a silent
infamy worked behind the cunning
mask of 1ibcrtyloving England?'
"Generation after generation the
agonized voices of the Irish have beer
drowned or disregardcd.
Does any one here-docs any Amer
ican or any fair-minded man or woman
anywhere wonder that even Froude, in
his History Of England wrote:
The Irish were not to be blamed
as they looked to Spain, to France. to
any friend on earth or in Heaven to