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lf A v\ ilhMrte^oeijles wVl W s? i/i W: N Published by the JVORTHBRN PRINTING AMD PUBLISHING COMPANY, 411 to 410 First •••. No. Minneapolis, Minn. Published Saturday at Merchants and Jobbers Exchange Building, corner First Avenue North and Fifth Street, Minne apolis, Minn W. Nicollet 2308. Trl-State 87 273 TERMS PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. Oae rear tlx months "DAIL EIREANN ." fe "Dail Eireann" is the name of the supreme gov erning body of the new Irish republic, as fittingly designated in the Gaelic language. It assembled for the first time on Tuesday, January 21, at the Mansion House in Dublin, when a declaration of Ireland's independence was proclaimed and Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess), was chosen as speaker. Twenty-five members who were elected at the De cember elections by the Sinn Fein party, participated in the historical proceedings, the remainder of the members-elect being confined in British internment prisons, among these being the brilliant leaders, De Valera and Arthur Griffith. In accordance with the policy and purpose of the Sinn Fein movement, to emphasize distinctly the nationhood of the Irish people* the proceedings were conducted in the Gae lic language. A provisional constitution was adopt ed vesting the legislative powers of the republic in deputies elected from the existing parliamentary constituencies, the ministry to consist of a president and four executive officers—secretaries of finance, home affairs, foreign affairs and national defense. The "Dail Eireann" is to exercise control over the raising of all revenues. In the press dispatches are given parts of an ad dress formulated to the Free Nations of the world, which begins as follows: "The nation of Ireland, having her national in dependence, calls through her elected representa tives, in parliament assembled, upon every free na tion to support the Irish republic by recognizing Ireland's national status and her right to vindica tion at the peace conference." The address further sets forth that Ireland is rad ically distinct from England in race, language, cus toms and traditions, and is one of the most ancient nations in Europe. Through seven centuries of oppression she has never relinquished her national rights and has proclaimed them in every generation throughout the era of English usurpation, down to the last glorious resort to arms in 1916. By the freedom of the seas her great harbors, now empty and idle, will be opened to all nations, instead of being a monopoly to England. The address further proceeds: "Ireland, irrevocably determined at the dawn of the promised era of self-determination and liberty that she will suffer from domination no longer, calls every free nation to uphold her national claim to complete independence as an Irish republic against the arrogant pretensions of England, which were founded on fraud and sustained by overwhelming military occupation. "She demands to be confronted publicly with England at the congress of nations, that the civil ized world, having judged between English wrong and Irish right, may guarantee Ireland its perma nent support for the maintenance of national inde pendence." So the Irish republic begins. It appeals to the lovers of liberty through the world for recognition and support. It is the translation into actuality of the principles of democracy proclaimed as-well by British statesmen and of those of the other Allied nations as well as by President Wilson, as the basis of all just government, and for which the world •war was fought to victorious conclusion. The sin cerity and good faith of these solemn proclamations are now to be put to the test of application in par ticular instances. In the cases of Poland, Czecho slovakia, the Ukraine and other long oppressed peo ples they have already been virtually into beneficial fruition. The status of Ireland runs exactly par allel with these, and the peace and safety of the future of the world demands that the same reme dial measures shall be extended to her. To treat her otherwise would emphasize and aggravate her mis ery, marking her as an outcast and friendless nation, while the rest of the small nations are being en dowed with the God-given rights of freedom. Let the Peace Conference adopt the principle: "Tros Tyriusquqe mihi in nullo discrimine agetur." IS IT MISINFORMATION OR MALICE? News dispatches pertaining to affairs in Ireland, as distributed by some of the great American press agencies, continue to bear prima facie evidence of gross unfairness and inaccuracy. An Associated Press news item of January 21, for example, con tains the following: "This is one paradox. Another is that these Sinn Feiners, ejected by about half of the voters in Ireland on a platform of independence from the British empire were chosen members of the Brit ish parliament, but specifically refused to recognize that body and to call themselves members of the British parliament." -s Note the phrase "elected by about half of the vot ers in Ireland." This will, give us a notion of the slant of the whole article. As the returns of the election show that the Sinn Fein party has won at least 72 out of the total of 105 parliamentary seats, it will be seen how widely the dispatch varies from the stubborn facts of the situation. The Sinn Fein ers must have been past masters in the art of "Gerry mandering" if they succeeded in electing over two thirds of their candidates with only one-half of the total electorate. The best estimate of the total Sinn Fein vote is that it included three-fourths of the whole polling. Another portion of the same article states that half of the Sinn Fein candidates-elect are in "various English prisons, charged with sedition." The fact is that these victims of British hatred and stupidity are charged with no crime whatsoever. They re main interned as prisoners, denied the right of trial by jury, and would be glad of the opportunity to .C -J, 1 i-1?' .$.00 1.00 .OS defend themselves against the charge of sedition or any other crime that the British authorities may fabricate against them. Not content with misrepresenting what the Sinn Feiners have done in the past, the press correspon dent proceeds to volunteer the information that "they are about to take measures which are purely seditious and in direct violation of explicit law." Had the astute and zealous correspondent been pres ent at the Continental Congress held in Philadelphia in 1776, he would no doubt have used exactly the same words in relation to the transactions of that body, which proclaimed that this country "is and of right ought to be free and independent." By sug gestion, at least, he would have indicated the de sirability of arresting Washington, Adams, Jeffer son, Hamilton and their associates and would have raised a howl for action on the part of the British authorities. We submit that the American people have been overly "fed up" with this camouflaged species of British propaganda. It is the function of a quasi public corporation, like the news agencies, to give an accurate account of the facts, let the conclusions be drawn as they may. These purvej'ors of general news have been guilty of so many offenses of this kind that they have forfeited public confidence, and it has become a trite saying that they are unworthy of credence. Especially is this true of items per taining to Irish affairs which are notoriously un trustworthy, the vast majority of them being taint ed with malice and misinformation. THE NATIONS AT THE WORLD GRAB-BAG. "Claim everything," used to be the maxim of the old time political bdsses in American politics and this slogan seems to have been adopted by many of the nations directly or remotely involved in the deliberations of the Peace Conference. Proofs of former occupancy or possession of territory desired by these claimants, are forthcoming in amazing quantity and quality. The Greeks, for example, base their claims for certain districts in Asia Minor and other places on the fact that pieces of Greek statuary or architecture have been found in them in archaeological researches. It is evident that the complainants are not putting themselves in danger of being estopped of the relief sought by any defect or lack of sufficiency in their pleadings, for they have "claimed everything within the scope of the jurisdiction of the world tribunal." To use a Hibernianism it may be said that most of them expectto be disappointed as to the major part of their claims. They are using the mitrailleuse rather than the rifle in their hunting expeditions, and if they fail to negotiate a sizable deer or bear they hope to bring down at least a few quail or part ridges. This grabbing propensity is not confined to the nations more or less remotely connected wjth the Allies, but is also noted among the vanquished group, the parties of the second part. They, too, are lining up with their former opponents for the distribution of the prizes, like children at a Sunday school celebration. But there must necessarily be some blank numbers drawn, for there are not prizes enough to go around. Both sets of claimants need to be reminded of the political variation of the beatitude "Blessed are they that expect but little, for they shall not be' disappointed." PENAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE KAISER. With his own hand the German kaiser has written the words which may eventually establish his penal responsibility for the outrages and barbarities of the war and his punishment therefor. At the in stance of Premier Clemenceau, two eminent French jurists have made an investigation of the case of William Hohenzollern from a purely judicial or technical point of view. They are Ferdinand Ar nande, dean of the Paris law faculty, and Dr. A. G. Laypaydelle, professor of rights of nations in the same faculty. The principal points considered were the penal responsibility of Wilhelm, what tribunal should judge him. and whether his extradition could be legally demanded. The findings of the jurists are that the kaiser is responsible for the crimes of the war in virtue of the fact that the German sovereign assumed to derive his power only from God and the sword, and the decision to make war belonged to him alone. Under the German constitution he could not be forced to this decision, thereby escaping in part at least its responsibility. A letter written to the Aus trian Emperor in the early days of the war is cited which contains these self-accusing sentences: "My soul is torn asunder, but everything must be put to fire and blood. The throats of men and women, children and the aged, must be cut, and not a tree or house left standing. "With such methods of terror, which alone can strike so degenerate a people as the French, war will finish before two months, while if I use humani tarian methods it may prolong for years. Despite my repugnance, I have had to choose the first sys tem." The "I" and "my" in the above quotations may be the words that shall spell the doom of the former emperor in an international tribunal. It is also found in* the report that he cannot be arraigned under the existing common law, but that a new jurisdiction must be created to deal with such crimes and that inasmuch as he is not a political refugee his extradition may be lawfully required. Thus the arm of justice is reaching out for the blood thirsty and ruthless monster that has brought 'death and woe into innumerable households throughout the world, and given mankind the cruelest blow in all its history. CLEAN IRISH SOLDIERS. A British officer serving with the Leinsters in Macedonia pays this tribute to their cleanliness and high morale. The letter is quoted from Marie Harri son's recent book, "Down in Ireland "Their language is not far from being as spot less as their clothes These Irishmen find that they can get along quite well without bad language, and they do. They are, of course, practically all Catholics, and that accounts-for it. It accounts, too, for the fact that one never hears an echo of that lewd, indecent talk which forms seventy-five per cent of the conversation in some English settle ments, nor any of the obscene songs with which (English soldiers sometimes amuse themselves." A?6, IS NORTH DAKOTA THE ONLY STATE IN STEP? In nearly every part of the world democracy seems to be gaining ground except in Portugal and North Dakota. In these two widely separated dis tricts there seems to exist a tendency to revert to the monarchial or imperial systems of government. Even the bolsheviki profess to aim to be a govern ment of the people, for the people and by the peo ple, but they restrict the meaning of the "people" so as to exclude persons who are guilty of owning a piece of property, having a few kopecks saved up for a rainy day, or having learned to read and write. To be one of the people in their acceptation of the term one must be a simon-pure proletariat, free of any monetary or property incumbrances, and more or less of a manual worker, and strictly illiterate. If they could be persuaded that all the people must be dealt with fairly in the regime of government their schemes of reform and reorganization of so ciety might be entitled to more serious considera tion. Nevertheless it may be said of them that they are groping though in the dark toward those prin ciples of democratic administration which in the future must lie at the foundation of all civilized gov ernments. But with Kaiser Townley in the saddle in North Dakota, the trend of things is distinctly otherwise. The "Nonpartisan" leader presides at Bismarck with genuine Bismarckian methods. He has inau gurated in the Flickertail state a series of reforms "that are well calculated to make ths adventurous firm of Lenine and Trotsky gfreen with envy." Thd newspapers are to be hog-tied by designating offi cial organs in the several counties as the exclusive recipients- of public business, with the purpose of starving out the independent publications and avoid ing their criticism. State and school funds to the extent of $80,000,000, are to be put under the sole control of the Nonpartisan boss and his kitchen cabinet, and may be diverted to any enterprise or adventure they may take a notion to plunge into. Statutes have been already framed in anticipation of these financial orgies. They are as broad as a church door and as deep as a well and their malle ability, ductility and elasticity are guaranteed against all legal tests inasmuch as the same powers that enacted them can also control their interpreta tion and application in the courts. Co-operative stores, mills, factories, creameries, packing plants, elevators and banking institutions, are to be launched into business forthwith as "emer gency" measures, thus obviating the danger of a referendum, that quondam vaunted panacea for all the evils of legislation. With one stroke of his all powerful pen designating all the new-fangled legis lation as "emergency" measures the imperious Townley has nullified the spirit and intent of the referendum law, thus relieving the electorate of the state of the burden of thinking and judging of the important issues involved. Neither individual or corporate bankruptcy has any terrors for the great flax financier. He has faced the inquisition of his own creditors so often that he has become an expert in this line of procedure. His chief, concern is that the farmers of the. state shall "go along" cheerfully in paying their yearly tribute of dues into the Nonpartisan treasury, and that the pay checks of the officials shall be forthcoming with due regularity and sufficiency. As long as this procedure continues to yield the requisite revenues for the maintenance of the organization there will be no deficiency in the Wallingford financial proj ects and adventures supplied to the farmers in re turn for their credulity and coin. And if bankruptiy happens to the state, why Townley, like Mr. Britling, "will see it through." Bankruptcy is Townley's specialty. He evidently assumes that the great majority of the people of North Dakota are of that class of which one is said to be born every minute. SHALL WE TALK TO THE STARS AND PLANETS. One of the first "flashes of thought" that may divert human interest from the war and its burden some problems comes from Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy. He foreshadows the pos sibility of communication with the stars through the medium of the ether which pervades all space and is the transmitter of light. The messages cast upon the etherial waves ten years ago, he states, have not yet reached the nearest stars, but they have not yet stopped, so far as he knows, and are still hurtling onward at their initial speed toward the stellar re ceiving stations, if any such there may be. The language in which they are framed may not be intelligible to the inhabitants of these distant orbs, but if they are sufficiently alert they may at least learn that there is "sorrr&hing stirring" in the cos mos and they may in some way learn that the dis turbance is originating from the remote and per haps invisible planet. If they manifest any interest in the matter we can resort to our mathematics, ac cording to which two and two make four but that may be at variance with their laws of reasoning, and they may reach the conclusion that we are so hope lessly backward that it may not be worth while to establish'communication with us. Mathematics, however, is our only chance, because its laws seem to govern throughout the universe, as is seen in the accuracy of the determination of various celes tial phenomena. After we have gained a speaking introduction through our mathematical qualifications we may Venture to talk about the weather, fashions, baseball, politics, the bolshervikists, and tjtie League of Na tions—matters which perhaps have never -engaged the attention of these super or sub-entities of the other stars or planets. Go to it, Mr. Marconi. The inhabitants of old earth who have become well nigh disgusted with the terrestrial order of things, will joyfully acclaim the success of your high adventure. THE IRISH STANDARD Saturday, January 25,1919 THE SPIRIT OF IRELAND STILL LIVES ON. (Rev. Terrence J. Shealy, S. J., New York.) The one awful failure of a nation is to fall from her ideals, to give up striving, to sell her soul to lower and avarice, or aught that serves the sordid ?way of pride and passion. That indeed is failure which succeeds at the price of virtue and honor. Ireland might have been rich and favored. She might have merged her identity and her faith in an ilien empire and alien worship. But she fought and died she starved and agonized and in defeat she has conquered. Her spirit still lives on. l#rj \«V*A HORSE SENSE AND HISTORY APPLIED TO AMERICAN ANGLOPHILES. A tendency to what might be called "sloppiness" has manifested itself recently among certain news paper and magazine writers, and in other quarters, with reference to the historical relations between America and Great Britain since the beginning of our national history. Many of our overzealous Anglophiles would go so far as to re-write and re cast the story of our glorious and successful strug gle to cut loose from the tyrarfny and oppression of the "mother" country so as to inculcate into the minds of the children of the present and future gen erations of Americans different views of those re lations than those that have been handed down in the accepted American histories, According to some of these "authorities" the Revolutionary war was a gigantic mistake, and the Declaration of In dependence should be abrogated so as to make the record of our relations with our British "cousins" entirely harmonious and amiable. The war of 1812 should be entirely forgotten and English co-opera tion with the Confederacy in the Civil War should in no sense be regarded as being based on the hope of destroying the Great Republic of the West. This belated and ill-advised attempt to- camou flage the events of our history in the interests of "Anglo-Saxonism" is one of the by-products of the world war, in which America became associated with the Allied powers, and incidentally with Great Britain in the cause of universal civilization and hu manity, But it should not be presumed that in cast ing our lot with the forces of civilization as against the barbarous legions of Hundom that we have re pudiated the historical ideals and policies of our American nationhood. We would not undo the past if it were in our power to do so, and we will still continue to cherish and revere the heroism and pa triotism of the Revolutionary Fathers despite the futile efforts of the new would-be historians to re open the judgments of history in the interests of Anglophiles. In this connection we are glad to note a sense of reaction against the Anglo-Saxon propagandists who would white-wash and deodorize some long ad judicated issues. Anent our relations to the "moth er" country. Replying to an editorial that ap peared in the Minneapolis Journal, a few weeks ago under the caption "There is a Difference," Mr. John Pike Hummel of Dundas, Minn., adduces some well marshaled points touching upon this subject, which are well worth remembering. He states: "Nor are you safe in considering methods of warfare as a basis for comparison.- You have com pared the French revolution and continental wars with Anglo-Saxon warfare. Must I refer you to some points of history which you seem to have overlooked—to the massacre of the defenders of Acre by Richard I in the Third crusade to the English plundering expeditions into France of the Hundred Years' war, in which the burning at the stake of Joan of Arc was but an incident to the ruthlessness of the Wars of the Roses? Perhaps you have forgotten Cromwell's ferocious warfare in Ireland only a year or two after Marston Moor, and_ the terrors of the Wellington campaign in Spain. Must I remind you that in the wars of the American revolution and 1812 the British were al lied with Indian- savages and that British officers sometimes accompanied these savages and paid bounties on the scalps' of American settlers, men, women and children? I will quote the indictment against the British king in our Declaration of In dependence as having 'ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, destroyed our people. transport ing armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already be gun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages.' I will further remind you of their wanton burning of the White House and our national capitol in 1814, together with the library of congress with its prec ious records and archives of their alliance with the unspeakable Turk in the Crimean war of the shoot ing of Hindu prisoners from the mouths of cannon in the Sepoy mutiny of the brutal execution of Scheepers,.in violation of the Geneva conference, in the Boer war, and of the crowding of Boer women and children into concentration camps with the death rate at 110 per thousand per month." In conclusion, Mr. Hummel adds: "It is not pleasant to recall these things, but I must make plain why we must consider our civili zation distinct from any other. Let us thank God that we are simply Americans, with a clean record of our own." Mr. Hummel might have fairly added further cogency to his argument if he had included in his able marshaling of the foregoing historical facts the brutal treatment that the British government is at the present moment doling out to the several hundred Sinn Fein prisoners now detained in pris ons and internment barracks. Many of these have been done to death by the abuses and deprivations they have suffered since their incarceration. They have been denied the right of a trial by jury, that fundamental principle of modern jurisprudence, and no definite or specific charges Have been made against them, and they are still prisoners more than two months after the signing of the armistice. If "there is a difference" in the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic savagery, as seen in this present instance, it will require the eye of a Briton or an Anglophile American to see it and differentiate it. It is not readily seen or comprehended by the ordinary in dividual who cannot see through a grindstone. Mr. Hummel is to be congratulated for his Amer ican horsesense' as applied to the matter in ques-' tion, as well ^s for the irrefutable marshaling of his torical facts bearing upon the same. THE INNOCENT KAISER ABROAD That the kaiser had his mind concentrated always on maintaining peace in the world is abundantly proved by a post bellum .inventory of his private belongings, showing that in the imperial wardrobes there were but 598 German and foreign military and" naval uniforms. With such a meaiger supply of martial accoutrements no wonder Herr Hohenzol-? lern so stubbornly opposed the outbreak of the war. He was in the position of a prima donna with a trunk full of paraphernalia, who yet has "nothing to wear." Many other equally convincing argu ments could be adduced to show that the treacher ous onslaughts of the Belgians and French found him wholly unprepared for such an unforeseen and unexpected happening. The Dutch should keep a weather eye on their dykes and windmills.