Tendency and Accident 157 



other, to their common loss all round in the end ; 

 the same shallow greed of unconscionable acuteness 

 to strip the strong back naked, making it the less 

 able to provide the means and subject of the sharp 

 practice another day ; the same unnaturally 

 ruinous conflict between the ethics of distribution 

 and the economy of production which prevents 

 capital from venturing to employ Irish energy and 

 talent in the land of their birth and nurture. We 

 finance " education " to make ourselves unemploy- 

 able, and wonder why rich people will not " start 

 factories " for us. Meantime, the Department 

 sends round Commissioners to " take evidence " 

 which nobody dares give on these things ; to-day 

 about the want of milk for the creameries, to- 

 morrow about the want of pigs for the factories ; 

 but the official foolish enough to put a line of the 

 plain truth in the report could not hope to hold 

 his post for a month. So useless can great and 

 costly institutions be made by those for whose 

 good they are chartered and endowed. " Holy 

 Ireland ! " What a sight ! 



I will stick to the red cow for the present. 

 Should more intensive products, involving more 

 wages, become equally safe from theft in my time, 

 I may try some of these. Ireland is prepared for 

 prosperity at a bound the day Irishmen permit it. 



While the man who keeps " all his eggs in one 

 basket " must take the risks, the man is probably 

 in still worse case who runs his farming into a too 

 great variety of products. For instance, cattle, 

 pigs and poultry make a strong combination, one 



