The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-10-25
M'SWINEy IS
CONTINUED from Page One)

whether the Catholic clergy, repre-
senting a church which holds suicide
to be crime, could consistently ad-
minister the sacraments to hunger
strikers. The Kings reply through
the Secretary of State for War, to
the petition of members Of Parliament
was generally interpreted to mean
that the Kings personal leaning was
toward granting pardon. But, since
Premier Lloyd George and the Foreign
Minister, A. Bonar Law, were at the
same time issuing arguments against
clemency for the Lord Mayor, it was
evident that any action in that direc-
ton by the King would be against the
advice of his ministers.
The newspapers published many edi-
torials and letters setting forth. on
one hand, that King George should not
be embarrassed by direct appeals to
him and, on the other hand, that he
should and had the right to exercise
his nominal constitutional power Of
pardoning.
The Weekly Nation, which is one of
the most advanced liberal organs and
not generally rated as a supporter of
monarchy, argued that this was an
occasion for the King to vindicate his
constitutional right and protect the
country against the growing autocracy
of the cabinet.
Many Arguments.
There were many other arguments
to the same effect, one historical
writer, combating the theory that the
King always had been a cipher in
such matters, exhumed a new story i'll
the annals of British monarchy, telling
how Georve w described by Thackeray
as the weakest and least admirable
character in the line of British Kings,
used to pace the council chamber with
tears, although once when he wrote to
the Viceroya of Ireland granting pardon
to a murderer he was compelled by
his cabinet to cancel his edict.
One of the chief reasons put forward
by MacSwiney's advocates, although
advocated from anti-Sinn Fein quar-
tiers, was that the offenses of which
MacSwiney was convicted were so
comparatively light they did not justi-
fly his suffering even though volun-
tari1y. Premier Lloyd Georges reply |
was that Mac Swiney undoubtedly was |
a high officer of the Irish Republican |
army which decreed and executed
murders of officials and police in Ire
land. The Republican army, unlike the
Sim Fem, is purely a secret organiza-
ton. The identity of it's officers and |
personnel is kept from the public and
there is doubt even whether the Sim
Fem controls it or officially knows it's
workings.
The theological argument over the
course Of Bishop Colahan and Mac
Swiney's chaplain. the Rev. Father
Dominic. in. as critics say. encourag-
ing him to commit suicide. was largely
p;hl;Dal Tho Row Father PorD rd
Vaughn was the only priest who pub.
licly criticized them. A lecture which
he was to deliver in Glasgow, a center
of labor unionism, had to be cancelled
on account of the unpopularity his
words brought upon him.
The human aspect of the Lord
Mayors hurNyer strike was the one that
chiefly interested British people and
the sympathy of even his
hardest political enemies. Mrs. Mac
Swiney and his brothers and sisters
were treated everywhere with respect
and on their side had nothing but
good to say of the jailers and police
with whom they had to deal.
Any way out of Mac Swiney's i'm
prisonment except his death would
have been welcomed by the whole
public but his family were as firm as
Mac Swiney in refusing to listen to
any end except release or death. There
can be no doubt the Irish republicans
believed MacSwiney had given their
cause the most valuable service in his
lower and that, like John Brown "he
will trouble you more than ever when
you have nailed his coffin down."
Mac Swiney's hunger strike was be-
gun on August r., when, with ten of