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A JOURNAL OF IRISH NEWS, IRISH OPINION AND IRISH LITERAT!
URE, PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF AN INDEPENDENT IRELAND
VOL.1. NO. 8.
THE IRISH PRESS-PHILADELPHIA, MAY 11,1918.
PRICE, FIVE CENTS
DRIVE AGAINST 1 RISH INDUSTRIES
England’s Policy Towards Irish Industries the Same Today
“as it Was When it Was Treason for an Irishman to Own a
Ship; Felony for Irishmen to Export Produce; Criminal
for Ireland to Carry on Its Staple Manufacture—Another
Attempt to Close Arklow Factory—Arthur Griffith Tells
the Story of the 1907 Attempt—English Jealousy of Irish
Prosperity Admitted by an English Manufacturer—Lib-
erals and Tories Alike Hostile
rom Nationality)
In the days of Elizabeth England
made it treason for an Irishman to
‘own @ ship; in the days of Charles
I England made it felony for the
Irish to export produce in Irish ships
—or in English ships without Eng-
Jand’s Jeave—in the days of William
II] England made it criminal for Ire-
Jand to carry on its staple manufac-
ture; in the days of the Georges Eng-
land interdicted all trade between
Ireland and the outside world and load-
ed our iinens, cottons, glass, brass-
ware, and fifty other industries with
prohibitive duties; in the days of Wil-
liam IV England prohibited our to-
bacco industry; in the days of Vic-
toria England anninilated our fish-
eries; and havmg succeeded after 300
years of repression in driving the
Irish from tillage and manufacturing
industry back into the shepherd state,
England lamented to Europe our pov-
erty and our backwardness.
“Three hundred years have brought
changes in England’s circumstances—
none to England's heart or England's
policy towards this country. So dong
as England controls the Customs of
Yreland she controls the trade and
commerce of Ireland, and is armed to
destroy that trade and commerce when
she will, In the last few days Eng-
“Jand has shown her hand™in Arklow.
In that town there fs a factory of
Kynoch’s, which the English Govern-
ment sought to close down in 1907,
and now seeks to close down again in
1918. Owing to the hubbub raised in
Ireland, however, the British Govern-
ment has decided not to close it at
once. Sir Worthington Evans, we
read, “assured the deputation that
‘Arklow had mot been singled out for
any special treatment. Similar fac-
tories were being, clused in different
parts of England, and large reduc-
tious in output and in works were
taking place in the national explosive
factories. While he could give no as-
surance that a reduction would not
take place, he. . - said that
in about a week or ten days’ time
he would summon a conference of the
directors and persons interested, and
come to a fair arrangement with them
as to the proportion of reduction,
which would not be greater in Arklow
than elsewhere.” .
Later on this government underling,
by arrangement with members of7the
Trish Parliamentary party,.declared in
the English Parliament that
“Tt was owing to Mr Redmond’s
strong, representations that the fac-
tory, having regard to the stock in
hand and the question of tonnage, had
not been closed down at once. Every
consideration had been given by the
government to the interests of Irish
industries.”
It is instructive to note how the
Irish industry-destroying English
Government and Mr. Redmond give
each other mutual certificates of good
character while they conspire to de-
Jude the Irish people.
‘The destruction of the Arklow in-
a@ustry has been an object of the Brit-
ish Government for the past ten
years. In 1915 we published in Na-
tionality a signed article on the sub-
ject, which we today reproduce, since
thousands who did not read it then
will read it now. Let them ponder
the facts and they will realize that
while England holds her grip on this
country—holds our customs in her
hands—Irish industry will never be
__ allowed to develop.
(From Nationality, July’ 31, 1915.)
‘Some of the orators and journalists
who support the English Government
in, Ireland have discovered a griev-
ance against that institution and,
- greatly daring, grumbled. The griev-
ance is that firms in Ireland are not
getting orders for munitions. The Eng-
lish Government, however, is going to
look into the matter, and so all is
well, and those who ibelieve that that |,
government has ceased to swindle Ire-
Jand -catieagain occupy their minds
with remembering Belgium, if they
do mot read further.
In July, 1907, the managing direct-
or of Kynoch’s wrote to me stating
that the chairman of that company
had read something of what I had
written on Irish affairs, particularly
on industrial conditions m Ireland,
and that he was anxious to discuss
the matter of industrial development
in Ireland. I met Mr. Arthur Cham-
berlain, chairman of Kynoch’s, and
Mr. Cocking, the manager, by ar-
rangement at the Shelbourne Hotel in
Dublin. We had three. mterviews—
at each of which I was accompanied
by a friend of mine, a Dublin man of
business. IL was obvious on the sec-
ond interview that Mr. Chamberlain’s
real object was to protect Kynoch's
from loss over its Arklow factory.
Eventually this was effected. The sub-
stance of Mr. Chamberlain’s state-
ments in the matter will be of inter-
est just now to those who believe in
leopards changing their spots and
other phenomena.
Mr. Chamberlain opened by saying
that he had read a speech of mine,
issued as a pamphlet, on the Sinn
Fein policy, with the industrial por-
tion of which he was in complete ac-
cord. As chairman of Kynoch’s, he
had caused that firm to have some-
thing that might be called a private
industrial survey of Ireland made
‘The result was to satisfy him as a
business man that Ireland was one
of the richest countries in the mate-
ria] of great industries, that her peo-
ple had a great natural aptitude for
commerce and manufacture, and that
nothing, but ignorance, lack of capi-
tal or repressive government stood in
the way of making her a great indus-
trial and commercial State. All this
was trite, but it was interesting to
listen te it recited from the lips of
the head of England's greatest indus-
trial concern
Mr. Chamberlain went on to. de-
seribe the coming of Kynoch's to Ire-
, and the birth of which it was
to be the germ. Kynozh’s. satisfied
‘by their investigators and’ chemists
of the teemmg natural wealth ot Ire-
land, had planned a scheme of in-
dustrial development through subsid-
iary Irish companies. The southeast
of Igeland, which Kynoch’s had dis-
covered to be a richer pottery district
than the famous pottery: country of
England, was to be worked by an
Irish company financed in the begin-
ning by Kynoch. the raa‘chless iron
of Leitrim was again to be wrought
by Irish hands, and so forth. A pleas-
ant scheme, after describing which Mr.
Chamberlain requested my opinion,
My opinion was that to be wh lly ben-
eficial to Ireland, the scheme shoud
be worked altogether on Irish capi-
tal; that I realized it was impossible
in the present circumstances of Ire-
land to induce Irish capitalists to ven-
ture on any large scheme of national
industrial development; that there-
fore a scheme by which Kynoch’s
would initially supply the capital and
organize the development through
Irish companies would be acceptable
under some restrictions, But I ask-
ed Mr. Chamberlain whether he, as
a great English industrialist, really
believed that the English Government
would encourage Kynoch’s or any
other firm or syndicate which it could
bring pressure upon to develop Ire-
land’s industrial arm.
‘Mr. Chamberlain replied that he did
not. ‘That it was a definite part of
English policy to prevent any serious
industrial or commercial development
in Ireland. That he himself was con-
vinced that policy was wrong, but that
it was equaffy held and practiced by
Tories and Liberals, and it would be
practiced until Ireland had a form
of home rule under which she con-
trolled her own finances and had pow-
er to impose /protective tariffs. No
other form of home rule could be com-
mercially useful to Ireland, Mr. Cham-
(Continued on Highth Page)
O'BRIEN DENOUNGES
PREMIER AS INGRATE
Conscription Irish Members’
Reward for Keeping Liberal
Party in Office
HOME RULE BILL SHAM
In his place in the House of Com-
mons, Mr. William O'Brien made @
forcible and impassioned speech
against Irish conscription. Mr.
O'Brien said he would not shrink from
his obvious duty of making his protest,
no matter how powerless it might
be against the mad and wicked
crime ‘which the government were
proposing to perpetuate on Ireland.
For forty years Ireland had been
pleading and hungering for peace with
England upon most moderate terms.
For the last eight years the Irish
people, through their representatives,
had had sovereign power of life or
death over two successive govern-
ments, and the only fault to be found
with the Irish people was that they
trusted too much, and had allowed
ther representatives to use their
tremendous powers—the greatest
powers that Iréland ever had—to be
only too feebly used.
“Even when this war broke out,” he
said, turning to the Treasury Bench,
“Ireland could have destroyed you
One of your own statesmen then
acknowledged that Ireland was the
one bright spot on the honzon, and
what is Ireland's reward? Now, in
your silent ignorance of Irish affairs,
you have taken it into your head that
the three last Irish elections show
that the spirit of Sinn Fein is dying
away. Now you have disarmed the
country—when you are holding Ire-
land only under martial law, and sup-
pressing Irish newspapers in every
part of the country—when you have
your Irish jails packed with political
prisoners, whom you are treating as
common felons for the same offense
of drilhng for which two distin-|
guished soldiers of the Ulster Volur-
teers have been promoted—this is the!
time that you chose for proposing this |
measure of conscription for Ireland.” |
It was disgusting treatment they/
had witnessed that night in mixing up
(Continued on Fifth Page)
RECEPTION TO LYNCH
Deported Sinn Fein Food Direc-
to be Entertained by Gaelic
League—Statement Issued
From Jail
At the regular meeting of St. Bnda’s
Branch of the Gaelic League on Sun-
day night Jast it was decided to send
a delegation to meet Diarmuid Lynch
‘on his arrival in this country and to
‘invite him to a reception in this city.
Mr. Lynch was Food Director for
the Sinn Fein organization and in that
capacity accepted full responsibility
for the seizure of pigs which were be-
ing exported to England. The pigs
were slaughtered and sold in Dublin
‘and the owners compensated at the
market rates. Nobody, therefore, sut-
fered any Joss and the Dublin con-
sumers were given so much more
bacon to purchase. The Government
later prevented the export of pigs
trom Ireland, but Lynch had to serve
this two months in prison, On the
8th of March he issued the following
statement from Dundalk Jail: -
“As av American citizen, I stand by
sthe principle laid down in the Dec-
laration of American Independence
and restated by President Wilson that
government of a people without the
consent of the governed is unjust and
contrary to the God-given rights of
every nation.
“TI stand by the inalienable rights of
the Irish Republic, enunciated by the
gallant men whom England murdered
fn 1916. I deny the right of any ‘court
constituted by British law to deprive
me of my liberty for any act of mine
committed in Ireland. That which
this court presumes to try me for
has, I venture to assert, the approval
of the overwhelming majority of the
Irish people. It was undertaken by
me in the capacity of Sinn Fein Food
Director as an effective protest on be-
half of the Irish people against the
criminal policy of the usurping
British Government in denuding this
country of bacon and other Irish
food products, contrary of the needs
and interests of the Irish people.
“It was also undertaken with the
clear perception of what might be
expected from the foreign militarism
which curses this unfortunate coun-
try, and now my advice to the people
Continued on Fifth Paga,
Recah
in the Nati
National Hibernian.
order throughout the country
end be it resolved that we ap
most extraordinary interest in
of the whole world.”
A. 0. H. NATIONAL PRESIDENT REBUKED.
Resolutions Favoring His Slavish Attitude on the |
Question Voted Down and Resolutions Favoring Ireland’s
Independence Carried—McLaughlin Suppresses the
sh
National S. f.
4 Organ- y
Mathews Exposes the Trick-—Sends Night Letter to Irish
Press in Order That Hibernians and the Irish Race in
General May Know the Truth
The following letter from the National Secretary of the
A. O. H. speaks for itself. Mr. Mathews writes: .
Kindly publish the following in order that members of
the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Americ@, and the Irish
race in general, may know the exact stand taken by the
members of the National Board of the A. O. H. at their
board meeting, held in Washington, D. C., on March 25,
26 and 27, 1918, same being omitted in the last issue of the
We desire that you publish the fol-
lowing, which was passed: “We urge the membership of the
to appeal to their representa-
tives in Congress to use their influence to have brought from
the Foreign Relations Committee one of the bills that have
been offered favoring the establishment of an Irish Re-
public and to support the measure in the House, and to that
point a committee of three
from this. National Board to co-operate with those who are
endeavoring to secure for such measure the favorable action
of Congress. We believe that such action will arouse the
this war by the Irish people
THOMAS J. MATHEWS, —
National Secretary, A. O. H.
NEW YORK DEMAND
Deliver Addresses
Madison Square Garden. New York,
was the scene on Saturday evening,
May 4, of an extraordinary demonstra-
tion in favor of an Irish Republic. A
crowd of fully fifteen thousand per-
sons was present in the great audi-
torium, Delegations attended from
Philadelphia and many other places
Almost every leader of note in the
Irish movement in Greater New York,
and many from elsewhere, could be
found either among the speakers or
in the audience. A remarkable num-
ber of persons among the most dis-
‘tinguished of the Irish race at present
in America addrgssed the gathering.
{The cheers with which demands for
the freedom of Ireland were received
once more gave proof that the Irish
people of America, as well as the
great mass of the non-Irish popwla-
tion of the United States, support
firmly the claim of Ireland for its full
rights.
Irish Warpipe Band of Phila-
delphia, which played Irish airs, re-
ceiyed a great ovation from the as-
sembled thousands, Toward the close
of the meeting an attempt was made
by two women to create a disturbance
The incident, which was quite trivial,
was given a great deal of attention
by the New York papers. There was
one thing about it, however, that was
rather illuminating. The women dis-
played the British Union Jack, It could
at least be said for them, therefore,
that they showed their true colors.
The other enemies of Ireland in the
England, and, in the interest of Eng-
land, they would have the Unitea
States bring dishonor upon itself by
assisting in the oppression of a smail
nation, Most of these people, how-
ever, have not sufficient honesty to:
come out openly under the English
flag, but pretend to be acting for
America’s sake.
It was ‘by some one of this sort
that a futile effort was made to pre-
vent the use of the hall for the meet-
ing. The New York newspapers as
usual did the best they could to help
England in holding Ireland ‘ down.
Their effort was a pitiable one, how-
ever; it consisted in the publishing of
a report that the meeting had been
called off. The intention obviously
was to keep people away, but as cou.d
be seen from the size of the crowd, the
effect was negligible.
The meeting was under the auspices
of the Irish Progressive League. Rev.
Peter Magennis, Vice Provincial of the
Carmelite Order, presided.
“While I was engaged in mission
work a short time ago there came to
me a young man who’ was the fourth
member of his family to be conscripted
and sent to the front,” said Father
fagennis, in opening the meeting.
“He asked me if I would not say a
few words ‘to his mother. ‘She comes
from the old land,’ he said, ‘and it
will bring some joy to her‘heart if
you tell her that when I have settled
things in France I will give a hand
in the old country in settling things
there. I love my country, America; I
would die for it, but remember—'t
there is one country in Europe worthy
to be free it is the country from
which my mother came.’
“What is the meaning of our meet-
ing here this evening? ‘We are here
to tell the world that we are behind
our President when he speaks for the
Tights of ‘small nationalities We love
America; we have proved it by our
blood, and not by our talk, or our
letters to the newspapers. Today the
hope of America is in the men of Irish
birth and of Irish extraction.
“We are here to do our bit for
America as well as for the old land.
We are here to put our old friend
England in the right, because, as
Ruskin says, she is usually in the
‘wrong.
“Four years, ago the Unionists of
Ulster under the leadership of Sir
+Eaward Carson were allowed to chal-
[lenge the supremacy of the nglish
Parliament by threatening Great
United States also seek solely to serve} ;.
5 IRISH REPUBLIC
Great Crowd in Madison Square Garden Cheers for Irish
Freedom—Father Magennis Presides-—Mellows Shows
Claim That Irish Question is a Tangled One is False—So-
lution Simple—Let the English Government Get Out Bag
and Baggage—Ireland Has Every Characteristic of a
Nation Except Freedom—Devoy Replies to the Calumni-
ators of the Irish Race—Denounces Statements as False.
Mrs. Skeffington, Mrs. Newman and Miss Connolly
Britain with civil war,
ernment backed down. It was tins
challenge that convinced Germany
that England would not go to war
and the gov-
over the invasion of Belgium. Who
were the pro-Germans then?
“The present condition of affairs
proves to us that we want a change
of government in Ireland. Lord Lans-
downe, who cannot be accused of
being disloyal to England, says the
present policy of the British Govern-
ment will lead to trouble and disap-
pointment, and one of our local papers
asks could any Insh Government mud-
dle things as badly as the British
Government has done in Ireland.
“The Irish people have been at-
tacked because they will not accept
a limited measure of so-called Home
Rule either with conscription or with-
out it. These attacks remind me of
the story of the Irishman who went
into a saloon and ordered a glass of
eer,
“The bartender, who was an Eng-
lishman, placed the glass of beer be-
fore him. e Irishman looked at
it, and noticed that there was a little
mouse floating on the top of it.
“‘Here’ he said, ‘I won't drink
that.
“‘Why? the bartender asked.
“Don't you see there’s a mouse float-
ing in it? 7
“The bartender reached over, caught
the mouse by the tail and lifted it out
of the beer. Nevertheless, the Irish-
man still refused to drink the beer.
“What an oid fellow this Irishman
.’ said the Englishman. ‘He won't
take his beer either with a mouse or
without it!”
The Reverend Chairman then intro-
duced Commandant Liam Mellows, of
the Irish Republican Army.
“One would imagine at the present
moment that the Irish question is a
tangled knot,” said Mr. Mellows. “It
has been made to appear as if it had
no ending. That has been done pur-
posely, it has been done by the British
Government in order to confuse the
mind of the world outside Ireland.
“The question is a simple one, The
British Government holds Ireland
against the will of the Irish people,
and the solution is for the English
Government to get out of Ireland bag
and baggage, and leave the Irish peo-
ple to work out their own destiny.
“At the present moment England ‘s
holding Ireland down by the throat,
@nd refuses to let go her hold. At the
present moment England is contem-
plating the perpetration of the great-
est wrong she has yet attempted, She
is contemplating the putting of con-
scription into force in Ireland.
“The Irish question is now, has been,
and Will be until it is settled in the
only way it can be settled—by the
establishment of an Irish Republic—a
thorn in the side of England, and
England thinks if she could alienate
sympathy from Ireland she could turn
around and massacre the young man-
hood of Ireland so that the Irish
question would be settled for good and
all
““When the war is over, when peace
is declared, England will have a
formidable problem to face, She will
have to dispose of her thousands of
soldiers, who, returning from the bat-
tlefield, will find their occupations in
England gone. She will have to at-
tempt another plantation to Ireland,
and to have such a plantation, it is
necessary that she wipe out a section
of the Irish people,
“St has been said by @ section of
the press of this country that the Irish
are cowards because they have refused
to be conscripted.
But the Irish have proved them-
selves the bravest of the brave by
standing out against the might of the
British Empire.
“You here in America standing out
on behalf of Ireland’ are asked to stand
for a principle thet is good in Ire-
land, that is good in America, that is
good in the sight of God. We ask you .
(Continued on Third Page)