'3 



could hardly imagine. The public aid given to your class 

 was not given because you were the poorest class in the 

 community, but because public aid given to agriculture 

 promised to repay the nation by an increasing produc- 

 tion of wealth which would finally affect the urban 

 workers in Ireland. Directly it seemed the State could 

 find no way of making the poor in Irish towns wealth 

 producers, so they were passed over, but aid given 

 to you promised a return to the nation. Statesmen 

 were told of the magic of proprietorship and that once 

 you owned the land you occupied you would immedi- 

 ately increase production, you would improve your 

 methods, till more, pay labour better and be better cus- 

 tomers for the decaying urban industries in Ireland. 

 The moral obligation as a class you owe to the nation 

 is to help it in its need, as it helped you in your need. 



It cannot be said that these prophecies of increased 

 production have been fulfilled. Tillage has steadily 

 declined year by year since the Land Acts came into 

 operation. Less labour has been employed. You are 

 not altogether responsible for this. The decline in prices 

 for foodstuffs which had been going on since the New 

 World poured the produce of its virgin soil into the 

 markets of the Old World made it difficult indeed for 

 farmers in the Old World to compete. You were unor- 

 ganised for business purposes, are still, three-quarters 

 of you, unorganised to buy, manufacture, and market 

 in that large economic manner which in modern times 

 is required for successful business. Technically, you 

 were uneducated. Methods of farming almost primi- 

 tive, together with a business policy which split up your 

 buying and selling into petty and fractional enterprises, 

 could not hope to make farming a success even on the 

 most fertile land, even if it was burdened with neither 

 rent nor annuity. That has been changed since the 

 beginning of the century. You have in Ireland access 

 to technical knowledge. You have a body of extremely 

 able organisers instructing you in the co-operative 



