The Seward gateway daily edition, and the Alaska weekly post., 1919-06-14
WAR MAY BE RESULTED
3 IRISHMAN'S CLAIM g FOR INDEPENDENCE . s sS ss fS

LIMERICK. Ireland June IA Cor respondence of The Associated PreSS.) The IriShman's claim to political in- dependence is not wholly sentimental according to Alphonsus OMara' May or of Limrick and one of it's leading manufacturers. There is. he says, a much more practical side to the ques' tion. the desire for economic indepcn- dence and the opportunity for indus trial advancement which the lriShman feels he can never attain until he is permitted to make his own laws and deal authoritatively with his own pro- blemS.
 Material advantages have come out of every movement Of the Irish for freedom. but the main grievenca remains" said Mir. OMara. The one point is we are heavily overtaxed. This year England is making a profit of twenty millions out of us. That is she is taxing Us thirty-five millions and giving us a government which costs her no more than fifteen millions These figures are not ours but hers. We have England's word for it.
 Ireland has improved it's position in the past years, but we have not al vanced industrially. We lack capital and We lack confidence because Eng land and England's statesmen have told us that we are not fit to govern ourselves. that we lack those esSent- ialS which make for self-government of the mass and therefore of the indi- vidual. Our farming population ab- sorbing this sentiment through oft TO- iteration. have withheld their money when it was needed by Irish enter prise. They have deposited it in banks, vast sums of it. and the money has been loaned to Englishmen for the de. velopment of English industry.
 Limerick some 75 years ago had a prosperous mercantile marine. Now the Shannon bears not on it's bosom a simple ship that can call Limerick its home port.
 Also we had fine textile indus try. with more textile workers in Ire land than there were then in England But that has gone the way of the ships.
 "We have here the finest river in the world for shipbuilding. We could line the shores of the Shannon v'''h busy shipyards and workshops. But the people who would take the initia- tive have not the money. and because we are told we are not capable of Self-government' the people who have the money will not lend it to thosa who could use it.
 "The world is passing through an industrial crisis. Every nation Am erica. England, France and even Ger many. is making preparations for world trade. But Ireland is not allow d to take any industrial step that would help her people here at home. Why. the British government even re- fused me a passport when I wanted to go to America to place the natural advantages of Limerick before your in veStors and shipownerS. So here wc are. high and dry with the ocean ot prosperity all around us.
 "We could only take the steps nec- assary to develop this country if we were assured Ireland would be allow cd to make it's own laws and provide it's own government for in no other way could We give American investors any guarantee that England would not tax their investments out of existence.
 "I don't have a great deal of faith in what the rest of the world is going to do for us unless we do something for ourselves. We have stated our principles, and at the present moment government of the people of Ireland is in office in Dublin. Of course this government can't have any real power until England withdraws her army oi occupation and that can only be brought about by pressure from out. side of Ireland"