New-York tribune., 1921-12-25

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rood luck might have created. That
man is Arthur Griffith
j. = proper. I think, to relate Griffith to
-srnel. In the first place, he, with Eoin
,tacNefri, the Speaker of Dali Eireann, is the
oo,v man Of the moment whose activities go
h,c, 70 the time of the lost leader; the Others
Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera and Richard
uulcahy, could only have been rolling their
soons upon the sidewalks when their parents
,;,red on the first ivy leaf in Parnell's
memory.
Griffith was then in the fight for Parnel
.lthough he must have been only very young
man at the time. I remember his telling me
club tried to make a stroke that would have
moan a rally for the Parnell cause. One of the
nublin seats happened to be held by Par
nellte. Timothy Harrington. If that seat went
N Parnell himself the leader and the cause
would gain the prestige Of being the capitals
,bo;ce. the elections following would be in
vent to Harrington with the proposal: Would
he resign and let the chief go up in his place?
Harrington declined; he thought more of his
seat than he did of the cause.
As far as I ever heard, this was Arthur
Grifith's first intervention in politics. But
his relation to Parnell is not merely historical;
he is properly related by being, as think, the
one political parsonage that has emerged in
Ireland since Parnell's time.
do not mean by that that he is the greatest
man or the most heroic man who has ap-
peared By political parsonage I mean
man who has had real political idea. Par
nell showed himself to be political parsonage
when he gave a watchword to the sefni-serfs
who were then the tenantry of Ireland Keep
firm grip on your homesteads." He showed
himself to be a political parsonage when he
adopted the tactics of obstruction in the British
House of Commons And Griffith showed him
self to be political parsonage when he gave
Ireland the outline of policy that began with
Efort').
In the fruitess time that followed the break
up of the Parnen force Griffith went to South
Africa He worked in the mining fields around
johannesburg, and he was of the Out
larders who were for Paul Kruger and the
Beers The South African War came on, and
Griffith returned to Ireland.
Then, on the centenary of the insurrection
Of 179S newspaper was founded to express
the views of the dispersed groups that stood
for the separatist idea in Irish politics-the
middle-aged survivors of the Irish Republican
Brotherhood and the young men and women
to whom the Irish tradition was coming with
new richness through the work of the Cache
League. The newspaper was the weekly
United Irishman." 1t was first conducted by
Arthur Griffith and his comrade, William
Rooney, the poet. SO poor was the little
group that founded the Omitted lrishman'
that they could afford to pay only one editor,
and William Rooney killed himself by the
double task of earning living IN railway
Office and working enormously for the UNITED
rshman.'
After the death of William Rooney Arthur
Griffith had sole charge of this eight-page
weekly The journal was about three years or
age when the present writer began to make
youthful contributions to it. My acquaintance
with Arthur Griffith began with my first pub
lcaton
met him first at some function that was
held under the auspices of an association that
had for its president the wonderful Maude
Come | was taken to meet Arthur Griffith;
he was standing at the door of the salon. saw
friendly eyes behind magnifying glasses;
saw massive chin, and got the impression
Of man square and solid. | saw him ire
quently at such poltico-social functions, and
afterward, with the founder of the Irish Thea
ter, l used to go for tramps with him.
At that time the literary and political lite
Of Dublin was not differentiated. If one
wanted to write or act or learn Irish one be-
longed to a political group, and met ones
colleagues at a celidh on a Saturday or Sun
dav