The Irish standard. [volume], January 10, 1920, Image 1

About The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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(Extracts from an interview with the
Holy Father, by Philip Gibbs.)
At the doorway stood Benedict XV.
He was a simple figure dressed in
white, not so tall as 1 had expected,
~and with a scholar's look, a little aus
tere at first glance. Only at a glance,
for after my first salute, and when I
asked him for permission to speak in
French, he laughed in a genial way,
and said in French also, "In that lan
guage ,we shall understand each oth
er."
Then he took me by the hand and
led me to a chair close to his own so
that we sat side by side. He asked
me about America, first, having heard
that I had been there not long ago,
and then asked me to tell him about
the little studies I have been mak
ing of the conditions of Europe after
the war. I spoke to him about the
distress of peopled burdened by high
prices and heavy taxation, and about
the curious and rather dangerous
psychology of many people in Eng
land, France, Belgium and Germany
—probably in Italy also—who are in
revolt against present conditions, and
are disillusioned about that "new
world" which they expected after the
war.
The People's Duty.
The Holy Father listened attentive'
ly, and then cut me short, as I had
hoped.
"Yes," he said, "the wfcr was a
scourge"—he urged that word "fieaU"
several times in his conversation—
"and the effects of it are enormous
and Incalculable. When it began peo
ple imagined that it would be a quick
,wer—lasting three, four, or five
months. Few guessed that it would
last for*nearly five years. That long
period of strifd^-that terrific' scourge
will have far-reaching and'enduring
results.
"The people must make up their
minds to endure the consequences of
war. They must steel themselves to
suffer. At the same time we must do
everything in ohr power to alleviate
those sufferings and to ease the bur
dens of those who can least afford
to support them."
44
I noticed that throughout our con­
A Large and Most Appreciative Audi
ence Hears Recorder J. P. Murphy
of Hibbing, Speak Upon Ireland's
Cause and His Recent Trip to the
"Old Land."
A recent issue of the Mesaba Ore
contains the following address of Mr.
J. P. Murphy of Hibbing, lately a vis
itor to the land of his birth. Mr.
Murphy is one of the best known and
respected citizens of that section of
the state in which he lives, is a prom
inent Episcopalian and his address
and story of the trip will be read with
Interest by every reader of the Irish
Standard. He spoke as follows:
"If one would ask me: 'What is the
religious question in Ireland?' I would
be compelled to answer, 'I don't know,'"
said J. P. Murphy, village recorder,
who has just returned from a visit to
his old home in Ireland, speaking be
fore the members of the Benjamin
Franklin branch of the Friends of
Irish Freedom and their friends in the
public library last night. Hibbing tor
the first time was given the opportun
ity of hearing one of its own citizens,
a man who has been respected by the
people ftor many years, give his ver
sion of the Irish struggle for inde
pendence. They were given the op
portunity of hearing from the lips of
their own citizen, one that Is not a
member of 'the Roman Catholic
church, that the Irish question was not
a religions question.
Recorder Murphy In beginning hie
address held up bis right hand and
•aid: "Yon people have come here for
the truth—God grant that I may tell
itr
"I am glmd to see so many people
oat to the meeting tonight—it is grati
fying and inspiring," said Mr. Murphy.
1 don't know whether you came to the
meeting to hear what I have to say
concerning the Irish cause, or came
here out of respect to me, hut I am
going to claim part of it, and the great
saaee can claim the rest."
The Holy Father
on World's Unrest
versation the Pope's thought* teemed
to be concentrated mostly upon the
conditions of the working classes. He
spoke of the people, rather than of
their rulers, and of the poor, rather
than of the rich.
When, for instance, I referred again
to the strikes and other symptoms of
social unrest in many countries, he
said:
"The people have been Irritated by
a sense of injustice. There are many
men who have made money out of
this war." He made a gesture with
his forefinger and thumb as though
touching money, and said, "Those
who grew rich out of the war will
have to pay I"
For a few minutes his mind went
back to the great conflict .which had
caused all this fiancial ruin in Eu
rope, and he spoke of what the Catho
lic Church had done, and tried to do,
to alleviate its miseries and agonies.
"We could do very little," he said,
"in comparison with the enormous
suffering caused by the war, but as
far as possible we took every oppor
tunity of relieving the sorrow of peo
ple by work of charity. We could do
no more than that, and it was only
small compared with all the suffer
ing but it did bring comfort to many
poor- people, and mitigated some of
the severities of military acts."
His Holiness mentioned briefly
some of the work which had been
achieved under his direction, and re
ferred me to a detailed list of charlt
able services done during the war by
the Holy See. Among these works
.which Benedict XV particularly men
tioned were the exchange of prison
ers of war incapacitated for military
service, following his telegram dated
December 31, 1914, tc the sovereigns
and heads of belligerent' States and the
liberation and exchange of civilian
prisoners.
These proposals were accepted, and
the exchange of prisoners through
Switzerland proceeded quickly, so that
between March, 1915, and November,
1916, 2,343 Germans and 8,868 French
men returned to their own countries,
while in a single month 20,000 French
(Continued on page 4)
He stated that he kept a few notes
of his trip mid was going to give the
audience JuW the facts and impres
sions obtained while in Ireland.
He advised the audience that if any
one was thinking of making the trip
to Ireland at the present time to tell
them not to go. He told of his trials
and tribulations in obtaining pass
ports, and that a passport was nothing
more than a nuisance. He stated that
while in Duluth he was told by a friend
that he need not .worry but that the
British government would know all
about him before he arrived in Ireland.
He told of his feeling when he landed
in the United States on his return and
said that it was worth while making
the trip to enjoy the pleasure of get
ting back.
"I was surprised to find, while in
Ireland, that the British soldiery was
everywhere, and that the streets and
even the trains were filled with sol
diers—that even the little villages and
hamlets had their garrisons of sol
diers," said the recorder. "It is es
timated that there is between fifty
thousand and one hundred and fifty
thousand British soldiers in Ireland.
These, with the Royal Irish Constabu
lary, bring the total armed forces in
Ireland to about 225,000 men."
He stated that Ireland was gov
erned by "Dora," as the Irish call it,
but which in reality means the De
fense of the Realm Act, and which
means that all governing and execu
tive power has been placed with the
military.
"Under that system the Irish young
men are being tried and condemned
in private, and sent to prison," stated
Mr. Murphy. "It's a common occur
rence to see a young Irish lad being
taken to jail between two soldiers, and
to hear him shout at the top of his
voice: Up with thf republic!' Oh,
yes, the vast majority of the people
of Ireland ase in favor of the
—especially those of the yonnger
oration."
-V"
-I
Vol. XXXV. No. 10 Minneapolis, Minn., Saturday, January 10, 1920
republic
-$3L-
Article X, Which the Irish Race At
tacked as Upholding English Domin
ion, Admittedly Caused Downfall.
(By C. P. A.)
Washington, Jan. 6. Although
there is no rift of light on the sena
torial horizon, Washington looks for
ward to the ratification of the Peace
Treaty some time in January. Such,
at least, is a common prediction, but
it is purely a prediction, and has no
basis in fact. The original treaty as
the President brought it is doomed.
Strangely, enough, with this situa-
tion prevailing in Washington, the
Lloyd George home rule plan has not
evoked ft ripple of comment. The op^country
position to Section 10 has not been
modified in the slightest degree and
the Irish national movement goes on
quite the same as before. It is evident
that, if the British Government
counted upon its home rule plan for
ally criticism in the United States
there has been no responsive echo in
the capital.
Friends of Ireland Mass Meeting.
On the contrary, preparations have?
been made for a mass meeting to be
"I confess, like the majority of you,
that I believed the Easter rebellion in
Ireland was foolhardy, but now I know
that it was not," said Murphy. "The
Irish people learned that writing and
speaking got them nowhere and that
it was the auspicious time for them to
do something that would once more
bring the Irish' cause to the ears of
the world they wanted to show that
Ireland was not content to remain a
subject nation. They knew that per
haps they would be compelled to lay
do,wn their lives for the cause, but
they knew that by making such a sac
rifice the Irish question would once
more be brought to the attention of
the world. The rebellion did that very
thing. The Irish laid down their lives
and the que'stion is once more con
fronting the civilized world, and near
ing solution."
He said that the Irish know that
they must obtain aid from without be
fore the question can be settled satis
factorily, and that is the reason why
they are asking aid in the United
States.
He told of an argument that he had
with a man who had traveled through
Ireland at one time. The man said
that the Irish in the southern portion
were thriftless. He said that such a
statement was an untruth, the Irish
in the southern portion of the country
are not thriftless. He told of how the
landlords took all that the little Irish
farmer raised in taxes and rentals, of
how the Irish farmer could not repair
his fence and houses, because of the
lack of funds, and why he was unable
to obtain new clothes occasionally. He
stated that if an Irish fanner would
appear before bis landlord with a new
suit of clothes, the landlord would
raise the rental that much more. He
stated, however, that the land bill had
alleviated the conditions of the Irish
termers. He said that he was a south
ern Irishman, and that he wasn't afraid
of comparison with the Northern
Irishman or ^pj other race for that
_, ^"v *V^'^i'J' -i.-~ -V
Original Treaty
Seems Doomed
Section Main Obstacle.
Section 10 of the League of Nations
Covenant, the particular target of at
tack for those who are pleading the
cause of Ireland, continues to be the
main obstacle in the way of an agree
ment. Outside of the reference to the
Shantung agreement the other reser
vations in the so-called Lodge resolu
tion of ratification might be adjusted
to the satisfaction of both sides, but
neither has shown any signs of yield
ing on Section 10. The President, ac
cording to all accounts, regards it as iel F. Quigley, Thomas Petit, George
essential, especially the phrase guar-! A. Hernan, Francis T. Hurley, Robert
anteeing the territorial integrity of?Barrett, Mrs. Quinlan, Mrs. George Fe-
member nations. The Senate regardB
it as unacceptable.
From this it may be assumed that'
the Irish question is of a momentous
character in more ways than one. It
has become the center of the fight
over the League of Nations, upon
which che peace of the world, accord
ing to the league adherents, in large
measure depends.
,. nine hundred members, has taken up
Lloyd George Home Rule Ignored... .. ..
the matter in earnest, and is preparing
an
held shortly after the new year iB ush
ered in for the reception of Eamonn
de Valera, provisional "President of
the Irish Republic." President de
Valera haB visited Washington several
times, on some occasions slipping in
and out quietly without making his
presence known but he has not yet
made a public appearance. The forth
coming mass meeting, therefore, may
be regarded more or less as a national
affair.
The local branch of the Friends of
Irish Freedom has made arrangements
to secure the largest hall in the city,
anticipating an enormous crowd to
hear the spokesman of Ireland's cause.
The following committee on arrange
ments has been appointed:
Arrangements Committee.
P. T. Moran, William Needham,
Rossa F. Downing, Jeremiah O'Conner,
P. J. Ryan, Joseph A. Daly, Miss Mar
garet Butler, Miss Margaret Brosna
han, John J. Noonan, George Rorke,
J. Frank O'Meara, Tom McGratli, Dan-
gan, Miss Katherine Breen, Rev. John
J. Callahan, Dr. P. J. Healy and John
Trant.
K. C. Headquarters to Washington?
The movement to bring the head
quarters of the Knights of ColumbuB
to Washington has been revived by
the Washington councils. Potomac
•Council, which boasts of more than
organized campaign. The argument
is made that the capital is the logical
center from which all parts of the
IRISH QUESTION NOT SECT QUESTION"
may be reached aad lliat here
the organization will be directly In
touch with national affairs. William
J. Feely, Grand Knight, has announced
that a committee will be appointed to
direct the movement for the' transfer
of the headquarters. Literature will
be distributed and an effort will be
made to secure sufficient backing for
the project by the time the next na
tional convention meets.
matter, and he didn't think that the
others in this country would be afraid
to compare themselves with the north
ern Irishman.
"Ireland's resources will support a
population of twice the present num
ber," said Mr. Murphy. "Beside the
rich farming lands of the country,
there are 'coal, copper and marble
fields which are still undeveloped.
They will not be developed until Ire
land has a republic, because, at pres
ent, they know that it would be Im
possible to compete .with England.
"The English at the present time
have two policies in Ireland," re
marked Mr. Murpliy, "one is that of
suppression and the other policy is
what we in America call 'soft soap.'
The suppression is applied by a mili
tary, stiffles the press and free
speech, and governs, or rather tries
to govern Ireland, with the mailed fist.
The 'soft soap' policy comes in the
form of unlimited rations, which even
the English at home do not enjoy, and
other pseudo good works. But the
Irish people are not fooled, they know
the ways of England from past asso
ciations. They know that England
has no charity for Ireland," he said.
Another English "bug-bear" he
stated, was that If Ireland was made
a free nation, England would have an
enemy at her very door. He said that
this statement, too, was an untruth, as
everyone acquainted with the nature
of the Irishmen knows that one act of
kindness will cause him to forgive all
the injuries of the past, and that Ire
land collectively Is like Ireland in
dividually.
"No," he said, "Ireland will not be
an enemy of England, If her freedom
is granted, and so soon as that day
comes, amicable relations between the
two countries will spring np, and the
past will be forgotten."
Another English argument against
Irish freedom was that if Ireland was
given her freedom the other British
Society
Capito1
nnesota
^cun
HISTORICAL
Brilliant and Convincing Expression of
Views on English Premier's Latest
Attempt to Cloud the Issue—Judge
Cohalan Knocks to Pieces the Amer
ican Analogy—Ireland as a Nation
Never Accepted the Idea of British
Domination.
When Justice Cohalan of New York,
was asked for an expression of his
opinion upon Lloyd George's scheme
for giving Ireland its freedom, etc., the
justice said:
"This is only another attempt upon
the part of the responsible spokesman
for the classes .who rule England to
becloud the issue and to attempt to
turn the public opinion of the world in
to a channel'that will be favorable to
them. There is only one issue be
tween England and Ireland and that,
in its last analysis, is a very simple
one. There are two peoples who want
to govern and to control Ireland—the
Irish people to whom it belongs and
for whom it was set apart by God him
self, and the English people to whom
it does not belong, and who through
their ruling classes have been endeav
oring to get possession of it for
provinces would likewise ask for free
dom and self-determination, and he
said, "If England must deny one coun
try its freedom because others will
also make the same demand, England
has no right to hold these colonies,"
Perhaps the most interesting phase
of Recorder Murphy's lecture was the
religious question. Because of the
difference in religion of the Irish peo
ple, England claims that Ireland could
not govern itself without continued
dissension. Heretofore, all the speak
ers had been Roman Catholics, who
are in the vast majority in Ireland, but
Mr. Murphy is of a different creed.
For the first time, the people had the
opportunity of hearing a plea for In*
dependence for Ireland from one of a
Protestant religion, and from a creed,
the English claimed did not want in
dependence.
"If one was to ask me 'What is the
religious question in Ireland?' I would
be compelled to answer: 'I don't
know,' remarked the recorder. "Per
haps there has been disturbances In
Ulster, but I am sure that Protestants
there .were the aggressors, not because
of religion, but at the instigation of
the British government"
"The English
Bay
The Mental Twists
of Lloyd George
750
years. That they have utterly failed
to do that except to the extent to
which a naked rule of force enables
them to hold Ireland with a great army
of occupation is proved by Lloyd
George's statement that "never was
British rule so unpopular in Ireland as
it is today.' The people of Ireland
want possession of their own country
to rule it for themselves .with absolute
political and religious equality for all
the people of that land and without
hostility or animosity to any other
people. They did on December 14 last
declare just what they wanted. With
a plebiscite taken on that day in spite
of the presence of a great army of oc
cupation and of the existence of mar
tial law, in spite of the arrest and re
moval of many of their leaders, in
spite of the suppression of the right
of assembly and of free speech, they
declared by a vote of over 1,200,000 to
308,000
in favor of the establishment
of an independent republic and of the
total separation of Ireland from Eng
land.
that if Ireland was
given its freedom, the Protestants in
Ireland would suffer, but *he people
of Ireland know*that such would not
be the case, and that is the reason,
proportionally, that the Protestants
are also fighting and dying for Inde
pendence. In the little village, where
I was born and raised there are twenty
Roman Catholics to every Protestant,
and because of that I have more Cath
olic friends than Protestant friends.
To my own knowledge there has never
been any ill feeling between the peo
ple of the two creeds," he stated.
He told of how on his arrival In his
home town, he .was kissed by two
women, one his mother, who Is a
Protestant, and the other an old friend
of the family, who is a Soman Catho­
mr
"Lloyd George speaking for the rul
ing class which he represents said that
the secession of Ireland from the em
pire would be opposed with the same,
vigor and determination with which
the North opposed secession of the
Southern States. This iB simply
another clever mental ruse of the mm
who hap been well called the artful
dodger of British politics. There is
absolutely no analogy between th»
cases. The Southern States were by
choice and from the beginning an in
tegral part of the United States. Their
representatives took part in the estab
lishment of the United States and
helped to formulate the constitution
and to create the institutions under
which we live. They then wanted to
leave the Union which they had helped
to create and very properly, were not
permitted to do so. The people of Ire
land never voluntarily entered the
British Empire. When the Act of the
Union went into effect on January 1,
1801, it did so as the result of what
Gladstone, the great English Liberal
Premier, characterized as the worst
piece of corruption and jobbery to he
found in the annals of history. It was
brought about under the direction of
Pitt by the work of the infamous Lord
Castlereagh, and who as Byron said:
'Having cut his country's throat, fit
tingly cut his own.' The Parliament
which he corrupted and which was
elected only to administer the affaire
of the country, was made up of repre
sentatives of only 10 per cent of the
people of Ireland. It had no power to
delegate its authority to any body,
much less to destroy the liberties of
its country and vote itself out of exis
tence. But this is only one of the
mental twists of Lloyd George. Ha
is an adept like his long list of British
statesmen predecessors, In giving a
name to a thing which it does not In
any .way deserve. He affects to give
to Ireland in one phrase general pow
ers of government which he then, by
speciilc qualifications takes away In
the next breath.
"By a talk of two parliaments for a
country which neither nature nor its
people have divided, he tries to con-
(Continued on ttmge 4)
lic. He told of how his mother wis
held up, as he was leaving, by two
women, one a Roman Catholic and the
other a Protestant. He told of how
he, when a boy, bad played around the
Roman Catholic church' door, and that
the old canon was one of the best
friends of the family.
"Perhaps, these little incidentals
don't mean much to you, but they do
to me—they show that the Catholics
and Protestants do get along together
in Ireland, and will get along under the
republic," he explained.
"If the nations, of which the major
ity of people have heard very little^
have been conceded the right of sel*»
determination, why not give Ireland
tbat right?" he questioned.
"I am proud of my American citizen
ship, but I cannot forget the land In
which I was raised, and look forward
to the day when Ireland will take her
rightful place among the nations of
the world," he stated In ending.
Following the ending of his address,
the hall rang with applause.
Con Kepple, president of the Ben
jamin Franklin branch of the Friends
of Irish Freedom, acted as chairman
of the meeting.
Mr. Kepple stated that they WBfie
nearing the goal. He told of the Ms
son bill, calling for an appropriation
of $14,000 to pay the expenses of
minister and consuls to the new re
public and which virtually meant rQt*
ognition of the republic.
He refuted the claim that Ireland
was on the side of Germany in thh
war, when he pointed out that fifty
eight per cent of the Irish people of
military age enlisted voluntarily on
the side of the allies.
President Kepple announced that An
January 21, Colonel William H. DohJ*
hue of Minneapolis, an officer in UBS
Rainbow division, would address th
Friends of Irish Freedom here. Ob
January 21, the first anniversary dt
the Irish republic will be celebrated.
r.^
&