New-York tribune., 1922-10-15


government. The four ministers who
are members of Parliament will alone
be responsible for all matters relas-
ing to external affairs, and they, Of
course, will lose Office following de-
feat in Parliament.
The governing idea of the new CON
stitution is to make popular control a
reality, and TO this end its authors
have added the devices of referendum
and initiative to very wide franchise.
exercisable by all adult citizens with
out distinction of sex. The Senate
similarly is to be an elective body, but
nearly half the first Senate will be
nominated by the President. The chief
power Of the second chamber is to be
that of forcing a referendum upon
other than money bills by three
fifths majority, and such body prob
ably will tend toward conservatism.
All internal details of the constitution,
however, are liable to amendment dur
ing the committee stage of the bin now
before the Dahl
In the absence OF the republican
deputies, the Labor group in the Dali
has constituted itself the official Op-
position, with Thomas johnson as it's
leader. Labor, too, has been sobered
by responsibility, and its role in OPP
position, while critical, is not factious.
Johnson himself already is in the way
of making political reputation. A
slight, wiry man, with wave of dark
hair going gray crowning a clean
shaven, lined humorous face. Johnson
certainly does not look the Bolshevist
/ he has been accused of being. Maybe
he is a Bolshevist in theory, but if so
he is a Bolshevist with a difference.
This mild, pleasant hammered man of
much culture giye9 you the impression
that, if occasion arose and the purpose
Of his movement could not otherwise
be served, he might hang you politely
but firmly from a lamp post-with
graceful gesture of regret for the un-
happy necessity withal.
But johnson, successor in the leader
ship of the Irish Labor movement of
Jim Larkin and James Connolly-if
one seeks an analogy between that
movement and the Sim Fein movement
one might almost describe Larkin as
its De Valera, Connolly as its Griffith
and Johnson as its Collins-is no slave
to his theories, whether they be Boil
shevik or not. He is realist in poll
tics, an opportunist in the better sense.
Nobody is more conscious of the futil-
ity Of seeking to impose communist
ideas upon country which contains
an overwhelming majority of peasant
proprietors. And, whatever he may
seek to do later on, Johnson is demo-
c~at enough to have lined up the Labor
ties solidly behind the provisional gov
ernment's insistence that the rule of
the gun by the irregulars must go.
Labor does not like the constitution
overmuci1, but it will not embarrass
the government unduly until the gen
erai situation is ironed out.
Two Fo.ees Waging War
To Impose Rule on Nation
5 Spade work Of constitution making
by government and Dali, backed by the
Free State army-there is the construc-
tive tendency in Ireland. Spade work
Of different kind by the irregulars,
in trenching the roads and so on
there is the destructive tendency.
w ic In,
The constitution certainly will 60
through, substantially unamended so
far as relations with England are con-
cerned Though many even of the Min
isterial party dislike it they will hold
together if only for the reason that, as
d cynical observer who does them less
than justice has pointed out, over
thirty of the fifty-six Ministerialists
are in the direct pay of the government
as ministers, assistant ministers, prison
governors, army officers and so forth
1t seems safe to predict that the con-
stitution will have passed through all
it's stages in the Provisional Parlia-
ment by the end Of October and be
ready for presentation as a bill to the
British Parliament when it meets in
November. After it passes the British
Parliament the Belfast Parliament will
have month in which to decide
whether to come into the Free State or
not. Making allowance for Ulster re-
naming out-for the present at least,
though some ARRANGEMENT hetween Duh-
lin and Belfast is inevitable sooner or
later-and for the setting up of the
boundary commission, it probably viii
be April or May before the first cleo
tion for the first regular Irish Free
State Parliament can be held.
Whether by then the Republicans
will have been reduced to the position
merely of dwindling parliamentary
opposition depends not so much on the
government, or the Dali, or even the
Free State army, as upon the ordinary
mass of the people. The absence of out
standing leaders should in sense be
a good thing because it should help
to quicken what Ireland long has
lacked--a responsible popular opinion.
Guerrilla war could be carried on
successfully against the British because
the feeling of the people was back os
the Irish Republican army. Guerrilla