The Days of a Man [11914 



on holding Ireland whatever the cost, if thereby they 

 may hold England! Men cling to nothing more 

 persistently than to unearned privilege, and with 

 Liberalism firmly in the saddle the "decline of 

 aristocracy" is only a matter of time. 



The deeper needs of Ireland are industry and 

 education. The great work of Plunkett and Russell 

 has been belittled by some critics as being material 

 rather than spiritual, but it is along material lines 

 that first aid should be given. The exigencies of ' 

 Imperial politics thrust the country into poverty. 

 Effects of Spiritual elevation cannot take root in squalor and 

 ■poverty hunger. The virtues of self-respect and self-reliance 

 will arise through self-extrication from long-standing 

 evils. "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." 

 Poverty weakens the energies of life; it is the cause 

 of the ignorance, insanitation, unthrift, and violence 

 of which Ireland has long been more or less justly 

 accused. 



Again, true freedom is of the mind, not of the 

 body. Public education is a vital necessity to the 

 Ireland's ncxt generation in Ireland. She has now a dispro- 

 portionate number of old people, more or less igno- 

 rant and helpless. Her vigorous population has for « 

 generations been skimmed by emigration and by 1 

 military service. Half of young Ireland is in America. ' 

 She can recover in but one way — by taking hold of 

 her future for herself. Ireland belongs to the Irish; 

 her problems must be solved in Irish ways and by 

 the cooperation of all. Moreover, in my judgment, 

 no Irish republic wholly independent and resting on 

 American support can be possible or permanent. To 

 this conclusion Ireland may in time give assent, for 

 she is especially subject to "changing winds" of 



C 628 3 



weakness 



