The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-01-30


 Y been made on the speech of
 Postmaster General Jnnaes A.
 Farley delivered last Saturday
 evening at the annual dinner
 of the AmeriSan-nrish HistOFi-
 caI society of New York city.
 The address delivered at the l"
 Hotel Ast0r was heard by
 thousands over the radio, but
 the Democrat takes pleasure
 in printing it verbatim. lt
 reads as follows: 4s
 Neither time nor custom Shai ever alter the abiding truth tha' success Is dependent upon strength of purpose and willingness to sac rifice. This is true not only oI persons but also of nations. We who are the citizens of these Uni ted States, and who therefo.S art these United States, may well looi back and inquire into the reason why we who had no power, should find ourselves ranked with tbt powerful, and why we who hac sat at the feet of older nations should find them now seated a' our feet. The answer lies within the two dominant forces whtct flowed through our national uft at it's birth, and which have ac. tivated it's blood stream ever since and sent 1t rushing through every channel of development. These two forces were: first, a strong purpose and secondly, consecrated readiness to sacrifice in achieving that purpose. One without the other would have been helpless; together they attained the goal and made US a nation apart from other flations-free, sovereign and inde. pendent. And yet these two dy' mamie traits never exist aptr from individuals. We grew into nation hood because within our borders there were hearts on fire with purpose and wills abloze with sac. rifice. These individuals belong. ed to no one race in particular They belonged to all. I'honor and respect all of the races of men which have contributed to tht growth and glory of the. United States of America, but on this par. ticular occasion, because 1 am ad. dressing a society which held iti first meeting years ago in the old Revere House. in Boston, wish to speak of the one people whose history your society studies, and to which people all America grn. ciously acknowledges an indebt. edness, namely, the Irish.
 Irish Slaves
 The point I wish to emphasize is an interesting paradox which may briefly be stated thus: the Irish people who were most denied the right of nationality, were those who have most helped others tc achieve nationality; they who were denied sovereignty were those wne fought to make others sovereign In other words, the Irish were like slaves who fought to make others free, or poo- men who worked that others might be rich.
 If we search for the profound reason why they who were nation less became the nation makers, ] think 1t must be found in the lofty conception they have of their an. cestry. Has it ever struck you that other races are content to have their origin traced back to monkey in a tree, but the Irish proudly insist on tracing their an- ccstry to king on a throne? Other people may look /, down to the beast, but the Irish looked up to the sovereign in his castle. Other peoples will admit they are de- scended from 8 cave man, but you have yet to find an Irishrhan who denied he was descended from q king. That is why the Irish are political, and that is why they are politicians in every land. In their veins flows the proud her. ,itage which they claim, and the zeal to infuse others with that heritage. Not even the denial of sovereignty and national rights in their own land could extinguish the fire and flame of those ideals If they could not be free in their own land, then they would go tc other lands to make them free Only the poor know the value oi food and clothing; only the sick who are deprived of health, know the value of being whole: and only the Irish who were denied their freedom know the value ot being free. Only the nationless know the worth of a nation, and for this reason they by nature are politicians. For this reason here and everywhere, they have al ways decoted their, talents to the establishment and, protection oi every nation to which they have given their loyalty. W
 Politicians
 < Don't blame men of Irish blood throughout our land for being poi. iticians. Blame the long line oi Kelleys and Burkes and Sheas be. fore them whose lives were bound up with America. Blame the Celts whose names are found in the rolt of the Minute Men who fought Q, Lexington and Concord. and whc were found among the colonists.
 In the political order Americans of Irish descent have cast theii lot with one or the other of the major political parties, For most of the time at least during the last half century, the party which most of them chose, has been in the minority. And what appeals te me Is not so much that occa sional. ly they win, but that 1t could new CT be said, that they were cas, down by defeat. They were the race who had strength of purpose in their knowledge and plan oi what America should be, and what she should stand for; they were also the race who were pre-. pared to sacFifice to attain thai end, for they had already eater the bread of sacrifice and had drunk of the wine of Calvary. s' Explorers The fact that the Irish were among the first influences that our nation recognized iB an uncls. puted one and no one knows 1t ol has done more to spread the knowledge of 1t than this society 1t. self. There is q tradition tha, "the bit o'grecn" first toucheL American soil with the arrival oi Brendan in the sixth century, ,an( that the Daricn Indians spoke [ language akin to that of the. prin tive Irish, and, that an eight cen, tury people in Tiorida were speak