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The Commoner.
, V0LTJME3, NUMBER 15,
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V
TUB IRISH LAND BILL RECENTLY INTRO
duccd at tho instigation of the Balfour min
istry by tho chief secretary of Ireland, is tho
most important measure rolating to Ireland that
has been presented for consideration since Mr.
Gladstone's famous home rule bill. In brief, tho
purpose of this land bill is to enable the tenant
farmers In Ireland to purchase farms and the bill
provides that to this end tho British government
is to advanco tho cash. Tho measure provides so
distinctly a stop in tho right direction that it has
met with popular approval throughout tho civil
ized world. It is evidont that there aro some
English politicians who do not take kindly to
the plan, but it is not likely that theso will open
ly oppose it, while the general recognition of tho
fact that tho timo has coino when the British gov
ernment must do something by way of solving tho
Irish problem will doubtless ensure thn adoption
of the measure.
& ac
AT A RECENT CONFERENCE OF THE LAND
lords and tenant farmers, the chief features
of tho Irish land bill were agreed upon. Accord
ing to tho lorms of tho bill the British govern
ment appropriates the sum of $GO,000,000, which
lo to bo a frco gift in order to supply tho dif
ference in some instances betweon tho price de
manded by tho landlord and the price which tho
tenant can afford to pay. In addition to this largo
sum provision is mado for a system cf loans, out
of tho British treasury. It is estimated that tlieso
loans will aggregate $500,000,000. This sum is to
bo raised on a now government loan guaranteed
at 2 3-4 per ctfnt interest, the bonds to bo issued
as tho money may bo needed. This money is to
bo loaned to tho Irish tenants at 31-4 per cent
interest. Three commissioners aro named in tL3
bill and their duties will bo to carry out tho
provisions of tho measure. If the measure should
becomo a law it will tako effect November 1, 1903.
It is of course not compulsory on tho part of tho
landlords to sell, but it Is believed that tho ma
jority of them will bo glad to disposo of their
interests.
AMONG IRISH LEADERS THE MEASURE
appears to bo a popular one, not entirely
because of tho immediate relief which it wi'l
provide to the Irish tenantry, but moro because
It is very generally believed that this measure is
but the forerunner of homo rule, an accomplish
ment which has been very near to the Irish
heart. Speaking of this bill, John Redmond says:
U marks an enormous advanco on any measure
or its kind which has ever been proposed by tho
English government" And Michael Davitt, founder
of the Irish land league, says: "When I remem
ber that in 1879 I served my first term of Im
prisonment for proposing almost exactly what a
conservative Irish secretary proposed today, I
realize how times change."
THE SCENES WITNESSED AFTER THE
presentation of the Irish land bill have a
deep significance. The cable dispatches to Ameri
can newspapers say: "The passing of tho first
reading 0f the bill was followed by a rush to tho
lobby, where ensued scenes that might well make
the body of Parnell turn in his grave. The toll
SSn "I?"!'1 f DUdley Lrd Lieutenant of
Ireland) could be seen amid a crowd of nation
alists, who scarcely a year ago would rather
have suffered every penalty than associato with
the official head of tho Irish government. Beside
Lord Dudley stood grizzled little Sir Anthony Mac
Donnoll, the first assistant Irish secretary. Ho It
was who drafted the bill. Horaoo Plunkett, Lord
Wcg',Lo,r?1A8hbourno' and maQy unionist mem
bers joined the group. Tho Duko of Aborcorn, the
most powerful landlord in Ireland, asked to bo
introduced to John Redmond, and a mutual
Mend brought his grace to the leader of the na
iona?t Partr. with whom tho leader of tho
Irish landlords heartily shook hands. They
patched up tho peace of Ireland over tho houso
of commons refreshment bar."
NEWSPAPER COMMENT IN" THE UNITED
S tot2? wlth, resPect to the Irish land bill is
all favorable, and it may bo said that newspaper
comment n Great Britain is encouraging. The
London Standard, while saying that it remain
to bo seon whether thn terms offered "will nrnvo
sufficiently tempting to overcome the inertia of
the situation," adds that if the secretary's finan
cial forecast proves to bo correct, "concord will bo
cheaply purchased by adopting his scnome." The
Post says that tho scheme is large and bold, that
it is a mixture of good and evil, but if certain
defects can be remedied, the bill will bo of con
siderable benefit of tho tenant farmers. Tho Tele
gram declares that tho bill will be received In
England with positive relief. The Daily Mail
thinks that the measure will be at least proof to
tho world of the generosity and disinterestedness
of tho British nation, and that "if it ends the
toary period of disloyalty and discontent, the re-1
suit will be cheap at the price." Tho Chronicle
says that tho British ministry realized that tho
opportunity was a great one and sanctioned a
largo measure of reasonable expectation. The
News says that it requires time for the tory party
to learn its lesson and recant its errors, but still
it learns; and it asserts that the secretary's
' speech destroyed half of tho case against homo
rule at the same time that It admitted the claims
of tho agrarian reformers up to the hilt. The
News adds: "If this poverty-stricken tenantry
could be trusted with a hundred millions of Brit
ish money, they can bo trusted with something
more, the right to shape their own affairs as a
nation." The Dublin (Irish) Times declares: "The
bill furnishes a better prospect for closing the
melancholy chapter in Irish history than was
ever before provided." The Belfast (Irish) News
thinks that "the provisions of the measure appear
to be an honest and courageous effort to settle
tho burning question."
THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY
J. not fully appreciate what this measure,
means to the people of Ireland. "What the re
storation of their land to tho Irish people means,"
says the Philadelphia Public Ledger, "can in no
way be conceived by those who have not gazed
upon tho extreme of human misery as it is shown
in Ireland today." The Ledger adds: "Since
Cromwell s armies overran tho country, and the
land was parceled out among his generals, its
people have been subjected to a long and merci
less exploitation. Tho landlords have been mere
exactors of tribute; none of the money wrung
from tenants has gone back in the form of im
provements; little of it was ever allowed to cir
culate again in the country, which was drained
and sucked dry. Each generation paid for tho
land, without acquiring an acre; the next genera
tion paid for it again, and still owned nothing.
Usually the people were allowed to retain enough
off the products of their own toil barely to keep
in?,IriS4UlS i?mtheIrj, bodies, though between 1845
and 1848 a million of them died. After the famine
year matters wore even worse. Landlords de
spairing of regular rents from the starving people
drove them off of large tracts, which they now
gave over to pasturage. Today out of 15 000 onn
acres of arable land in Ireland, less than 2,500 OoS
acres s under the plow. The best land is given
to cattle. The people are in many regions hud-
n elf Vier in.bogs' tryinS t0 e a livtag out
of mudholes such as an American farmer would
fhn7i0P '? h S PigS for a wallow- The mSf
l?wViini hUtS nf olQe or two rooms often
i? 7iniows' , 0ne ln seven of the popula
tion is 'on tho rates'-supported by the parish-
aSd naVSn1!? ? ,tte rad edge of Zger,
and half the remainder are fed largely- bv the
sons and daughters of America Fill
on Wednesday instanced a vHlage in wWch S
landlord was in the workhouse tho ater Vart
of the year, while the tenants lived Sr condi-
inA3fr7ca''G " thS6 fUnd "mcJngto SSta
nn-IE FIRST ANNUAL REPORT TO THE
,i stc.t,holders of the steel trust was recently
made. This report covers the fiscal year endine
December 31, 1902. The income account ffS? S
year shows total net earnings of all properties
after deducting t .penditures for ordinaV?ePaS
and maintenance, also interest on bonds for the
subsidiary companies of $133,308,764; less sinking
funds on bonds of subsidiary companies, $642,064
depreciation and extinguishment funds, $4,834 710
extraordinary replacement funds, $9,315,615; snol
cial funds for depreciation and improvement?
$10,000,000; total, $24,774,389; balance of net earr
ings for the year, $xu8,634,374. A supplement
report shows that the net earnings of thn i
trust for the first quarter of 1903 ending March f
after deducting outlays for repairs, g renewal
maintenance of plant, interest on bonds at'
fixed charges amounted to $24,656,136. The Zt
ffSSSw first quarter 0 1902 a
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OP
Yale university a student of African an-
wm7 M T0n a prlm The Prize dinner was
William Pickens, a member of the junior class in
the academical department, Pickens was awarded
the Henry James Ten Eyck prize for excellence in
pubIIc Peaking. Tho New Haven correspondent
of the Philadelphia North, American- says- -Pickens
was one of thirty-seven juniors who original
ly entered the contest He was fourth pf the five
remaining for the final trials to speak before an
audience of about three hundred leading pro
fessors of the university and the members of the
junior class. Pickens' masterly oration caused a
wave of enthusiastic approval to sweep the hall
and gave evidence that although the audience
might not look to him as the probable winner,
they generously acknowledged his ability. The
committee of judges was out but a few moments,
and by practically unanimous vote gave tho prize
to Pickens. Tho prize is the income
from $2,600, about $100 a year an
nuel17 Pawrnded' The fund was 'Siven by the
ciass or 1879 moro than twenty years ago as a
memorial to Henry James Ten Eyck, a member
of the class. William Pickens, the prize winner,
is a resident of Little Rock, Ark. His father is
a shop-keeper in that town.
j?1 jo .
AN ANTI-UMBRELLA CAMPAIGN IS IN
progress in the city of Philadelphia. Ac
cording to the Philadelphia correspondent of the
Chicago Tribune, somo one has figured out that
the cost of umbrellas lost in one year will pay
tor the construction of the universal umbrella
and sunshade. At the same time the wear and
tear on human patience occasioned by the loss of
umbrellas and the failure to take them away
from home when they are needed will be done
away with. It is therefore proposed to build por
ticoes over the sidewalks which will serve tho
double purpose of protection from the sun and
shelter from the rain.
PHILADELPHIANS INSIST THAT THIS PLAN
4. ls no,t oriSlnal with them. They point out
that the plan was utilized in tho construction of
Grecian and Roman buildings, the agora or market
place of nearly every Greek town being sur
rounded by colonnades which afforded protection
?. a2in and sun- Tne Tribune correspondent
ShinV . Is an amusinS story by Athenaeus
mJ i1? tne Possible origin of the phrase:
we does not know enough to ccme in out of the
JSm.rwCorai?s t0 the enterlaining grammarian
Zlelto' a town in Greece, under stress of evil
who S CeS' b0ITowed money from a rich man,
2m iaS SGCUrity for tnG loan a mortgage on
SikH ?8nP0rtlC0 Wnich Burrounded the
SJwhenTVnSoJTi8 not an onerous creditor,
annm,nnn w? d -ne caused the town criers to
fSS016 fUizens uad Permission o tako
ownSnM colonnade. Strangers visiting the
SSSJm Gd t0 navo the matter properly ex-
Srdinarv oT TQVQ so Pressed by the extra-
tho ?enL wm?tances tuat tney spread abroad
had to iS ft th peoplQ were B0 stuiid that they
nad to be told when to come in out of the wet"
A S RECENTLY BEEN IN
It is callon dnm he Vnl Beel at Cincinnati
is to teach HH UclJe1n Pining," and its purpose
f toys T l0r?rlf h0w1 t0 keeP nouse by means
OhicaX TneUncinnati. correspondence of the
gardeners' ;Cean says: "ThQ little 'kitchen
fng St hn J1 ClaES ,of tiny 6Irls' who are be
rooms dnsf nT, to, make beds set tables, sweep
SuaSt mJriand Lace tuitlSS in order in a very
3S li?55- T.h? Children meet every Thurs
S?i and 5t?ii8i0d?1ld,Bhe8 aro gen tho chil
little chih rpne do11 bles aro in evidence. The
tables and ?n,,aiVn?wn now the doll
at each Htn 'V0 w d forks properly
eacn plate Tney are taught ih& proper way
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