Arizona republican., 1919-10-15

some good men, men fearless and pa
triotic as if they were borne to our |
shores on the providential decks of the |
Mayflower, were born of that blush |
ing Irish colleen whom, by inference |
he so ungallantly condemns.
Edmund Burke, in the English par
lament, quoting General Lee, said: Il
am assured that the major part of the
American army was Irish, and that it
was their valor that determined the
contest America was lost to England
by the force of Irish emigrants"
Richard Montgomery, Walker Stewart,
William Thompson, stephen Noylan
William Irvine and Richard Butler,
among Washington's most dependable
generals, were Irish exiles. General
Francis Thomas Meagher, an Irish
rebel deported for life by the English
government and escaped to the United
States from Van Diamen's land, was
among the first to offer his sword for
the preservation of the union. John
Sullivan, by his capture of Fort Will
lam and Fort Mary, won the first
great success of the American revolu-
ton OBrien, also an exile, struck the
! first blow at English sea power, and
saucy Jack Barry of Wexford is re-
garded as the father of the American
navy.
Under the selective service law such
unnaturalized residents of the United
States as were citizens of a co-bellig-
erent country had the right to claim
exemption when drafted.
The report of the provost marshal
shows that Irish and English waived
exemption as follows: Ireland, 90.4;
England 22.5. Hatred of England,
handed down through the ages for
seven centuries, could not stand in the
way of an Irish exile's devotion to the
land of his adoption. With these facts
and figures before me, am curious to
know with what providential race the
Irish must intermarry to produce Off
spring to be proud Of And until Mr..
Ford favors me with that knowledge
I will, enslaved perhaps by religion
and superstition" cling to the faith
that an Irishman is good enough for
the good U. S. and an Irish mother
good enough for an Irishman.
In seventy three years the popula-
ton of Ireland dwindled from 5000 900
to 100000. If the justice of Irelands
/
England was based on that single fact
the verdict is assured. l will let the
modern, well known English writer
Sidney Brooks, tell the cause of this
tragic shrinkage. "One by one we de-
liberately strangled her Qreland's)
incipient industries, woolens, glass,
cotton. sail cloth, sugar refining, ship
ping, the cattle and provision trade
all went" At the polls in 1918 all Ire
land with the exception of protesting
majorities in four of the nine Ulster
counties, voted for independence. The
Sim Fem party elected seventy three
representatives These seventy-three
refused to sit at Westminster and as
sembled as an Irish parliament at
Dublin. Fifteen million Irish in the
United States, with brain and Drawn,
contribute willingly to the military,
industrial and social progress of the
nation. These $4,000, 900, woven into
the warp and wool of our national life
today stand solidly against any alli-
, ance with "prefidius Albion" while the
Irish question is allowed to persist
The interest displayed by the Ameri-
can people and their representatives
in congress in the freedom of Ireland
+ is indeed not merely sentimental
I piAe. w mt 1T6SlQeII w USOn was pro-
claiming to the world his lofty senti-
ments of liberty and self determina-
! ton, here at home he was sowing in e
congenial soil the seeds of heroic de.
> votion to a principle. Liberty was the
: magic spell which oiled the wheels o.
I the selective service machine 1t wa.
y the balm that soothed the sorrows o.
many bereaved mother; the charm
, which compelled Americas prout
:, manhood to yield in docile submission
. to the utmost rigors of military disci
pline. When the British and Frencl
had their backs to the foe it was the
c thought that freedom was staked OF
them alone" that inspired the Ameri
+, can doughboys when, like a phantom
9 army, they dashed for the first tim
= into the dread arena of No Mans Lane
4 to challenge the victorious hosts of tn,
kaiser and turn the tide of battle a
# Chateau Thierry. They fought for lib
erty; they died for liberty: but wher
yet is the fruit of their victory? Wha
small nations have been freed (excep
in enemy territory? Where has tn
right of determination yet beef
accorded
. Ireland is still held in subsection b,
= invasion and armed occupation. Neve
7 has the soul of Ireland been brough
into submission. To-day no less thai
every wretched blood stained day fo
seven long terrible centuries Irelan,
: wants to be free"
n NAOS McCOLE.
=. A Word to the |. w. w.
| d