What shall we do in Ireland

Front matter

What shall we do

Ireland ?

WALLACE CARTER.

Introduction

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What is sometimes vaguely known as the Irish Question has had many phases. It is not always that the most important comes to the front. During the last few years, however, Irish questions have undergone a considerable change. To-day the question which most concerns Irishmen is not, as many Englishmen seem to think, Home Rule, but land On this question the tenant farmers of Unionist Ulster march in line with Nationalist Ireland. While we in England are still arguing about Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bills, Irishmen, with an amount of practical common-sense with which they are seldom credited, while not for a moment modifying their demands for legislative indepen? dence are uniting to secure the immeimediate settlement of the land troubles. This is a subject which gets nearer home to the hearts of the people than any other question can do. Unionist and Home Rulers have joined hands and are at one as to the cause of their troubles, and the way out of them. What these troubles are, and the way Irishmen would find a way out of them, I shall describe in detail later on. It is sufficient to say here that Irish people are i determined to put an end to the present condition of land tenure which has drained the country of its resources and driven their sons into e>xile.

Here surely is an object lesson for Englishmen. For years we have been urged not to pay any attention to the Nationalists' demands, because Ulster, the seat of industry,

INTRODUCTION.

prosperity, and Protestantism, was against them. But to-day Ulster demands as strongly as Connaught the solution of the land question. Mr. T. W. Russell, the only Unionist of any commanding ability which Ireland has produced of late years, is at one with Mr. William O'Brien as to the lines on which that solution should be framed. Never in the history of any popular reform has public opinion been so thoroughly united as Irish opinion is on the land question. It is something entirely new even in the strange story of Ireland.

My object in writing is to draw the attention of my countrymen to the important changes which have come over the Irish question. What I have written is the result of a deep devotion to the cause of Ireland, and a careful study of the various problems which vex that distressed country.

In the province of Connaught it is possible to see within a miie of each other, the curse and the cure of the Irish land system. While there I made it my business to gather information from everybody who could throw any light on the various aspects oi the problem.

In the struggle which has been going on between Lord De Freyne and his tenants, we have a typical case of the differences which divide landlord and tenant, and which create the Irish question. On the neighbouring Dillon estate can be seen the successful solution of these troubles, an estate which was once the scene of continual warfare, but is now the home of peace and contentment. Thus we have the main facts of the Irish land problem and the remedy, reduced to the limits of two counties. It seemed to me that if these facts were placed before the English people it might help them to understand the

INTRODUCTION.

Irish land question, rather more clearly than they have hitherto been able. I have, therefore, tried to describe the position of affairs in these counties as simply, fully and accurately as possible.

I have given the case for Lord De Freyne, as it was given me by his agent, I have described the position of the tenants as I saw it, and as hundreds of them described it to me. As my sympathies were with the tenants I took special care to test their statements by enquiry from every official source which was open to me. What appeared to be unreliable I have suppressed. The case for Lord De Freyne I have not troubled to investigate. I give in its entirety the story told me by his agent., and repeated by a neighbouring landlord. This chapter has been carefully revised by the gentleman referred to. Some of their statements made to me have been withdrawn, and new facts added. I have allowed them to alter their story in any way they wished. I accept it as the honest opinion of honest men, and present it along with the case for the tenants, leaving my readers to draw their own conclusions.

On the Dillon estate I had the generous assistance of the Government officials and the delight of interviewing numbers of the people. Here, again, I wrote of things as I saw and heard them. I am well aware that the details of the work of the Congested District Board are open to obvious criticism, but I do not think it necessary to enter into it here. I am only anxious to show what can be done to improve the conditions of the people;.

What I have written will be of little value to the political expert, for whom these chapters are not intended. I have purposely

INTRODUCTION.

refrained from entering into the details of what men on either side think should be the plan of land settlement in Ireland. Such matters can be safely left with our statesmen, when the people have decided upon the principles which are to guide them. The man in the street, for whom I have written, will never trouble his head with the incidents of any Irish Land Bill. But he is prepared, or he will have to be, to decide upon the main lines of the policy which this country shall adopt in governing Ireland, and the attitude we are to assume in deciding between the men who cultivate the soil of Ireland, and the men who own it.

I hope that the following Chapters, which were published in the "Lincoln Leader" in the course of my journalistic work for that paper, though lacking the precision of more leisured writing, may be of some little assists ance in helping my fellow countrymen to understand the Irish land question. When these chapters were written the Land Conference had not met. The report of that Conference, signed by the chosen representatives of the tenants and the landlords, has produced an extraordinary situation. For the first time in the history of Ireland landlords and tenants, the English garrison and the Irish people, have agreed upon the lines on which the land question should be setttled. It now only remains for the Imperial Parliament to translate the principles embodied in the Land Conference report into an Act, But in so doing it is most important, that every care should be taken to ensure that the settlement shall, as far as possible, be permanently satisfactory to all concerned. This cannot be secured unless the question is thoroughly understood both inside and outside the House of Com-

INTRODUCTION.

mons. If what I havei written is of any assistance in this direction I shall be abundantly satisfied.

In conclusion, I must express my grateful thanks to a number of Irish gentlemen, who most kindly and patiently assisted me in various ways.

To the Right Hon. Horace Plunkett; Mr. Doarn, of the Congested Districts Board, and Messrs. Kelly and Haddock, two of his courteous assistants; Mr. S. Woulfe Flanagan, Lord De Freyne's agent.

To Mr. John Dillon, M.P., Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., Mr. Michael Davitt, Mr. John Fitz Gibbon, C.C., Mr. Patrick Webb, C.C., Mr. Patrick Conry, C.C., Mr. Denis Johnston.

G. WALLACE CARTER.

Lincoln, March, 1903.

THE LAND WAR.

II. The Land Wae

If the average Englishman is to understand the Irish land question, he must first of all rid his mind of English ideas. Agriculture is certainly an important industry in England. But in proportion to the capital and numbers engaged therein, it is by no means the most important. When an English agricultural labourer is dissatisfied with his position and prospects he goes into the nearest manufacturing town, whereJ there is generally a market for his labour. He can, and does, return to his country home at holiday times, so that the break with sentimental attachments is slight, and more than compensated by improved economic conditions which the town affords. In Ireland everything is different. The Irishman who is born on the land, must either find a living on the land or leave his country altogether. Agriculture is practically the only industry. It employs 43.7 per cent, of the entire population, against 16 per cent, in England. Manufactures are so small in Ireland that only 17 per cent, are employed, as against 40 per cent, in the industries of England. It will thus be seen that the prosperity of Ireland depends almost solely on the prosperity of agriculture. Unfortunately, the term prosperity cannot, at present, be associated with farming in Ireland. It is, however, a great mistake to imagine that

THE LAND WAR.

prosperity cannot be secured. The conditions of agriculture are in some important respects better in Ireland than in England. In England the difficulty is to keep the people on the land. In Ireland the difficulty is to find land to keep the people on; the land is there, but it wants redistributing. In England we are sadly in need of small holders ; in Ireland there are thousands of small holders who, if given a chance, would easily support themselves. The advantages of a peasant proprietorship no longer need. 1 arguing ; in Ireland there are thousands of peasants ready to become industrious and thrifty proprietors directly the law will allow them. Altogether the conditions of agriculture are such that, when present difficulties have been swept away by the establishment of a universal system of Land Purchase, Ireland would speedily become the most prosperous agricultural country in the world. A people who have clung to the land with such marvellous pertinacity, who have learned to live cheaply, who are wonderfully intelligent, naturally optimistic, and highly moral, need only to be given the necessary opportunities, and they will create a measure of prosperity which would be impossible in other lands.

What is it then that stands in the way of Ireland's happiness? To answer that question is to explain the whole position of Irish land tenure. I will endeavour to do this as simply and briefly as possible. To understand it we must again commence by putting out of our minds any comparisons with the position of agriculturists in England. The relations which exist between landlord and tenant in England are unknown in Ireland. The English landlord owns not only his farm lands, but the farm houses and buildings as well. He makes improvements

THE LAND WAS.

and alterations from time to time, and may be described, in many cases, as the father of his tenants, or, at least, as an active partner in their industry. He resides among his people, and their welfare is his welfare and concern. In Ireland everything is the opposite of this. The landlord owns the land only. The buildings upon it are the property of the tenant, constructed by him or his fathers. Such improvements as are made on the farm, are made solely by and at the expense of the tenant. The landlord is a sleeping partner, drawing a regular income from the people, but seldom residing among them, frequently never even visiting his estate, and a complete stranger to his tenants. The only interest the majority of Irish landlords have taken in their estates has been to extract the uttermost farthing of rent from them. As the tenant, by diligent labour and expenditure, has improved the farms the landlord has demanded more and more rent. Is it to be wondered then that friction has been the rule, rather than the exception between landlord and tenant? Imperial Parliament has fully recognised the anomalous position in which the two parties stand, and has frequently stepped in to protect the tenant against the landlord.

In 1881 Mr. Gladstone passed a Land Act, which may be described as the "Bill of Rights'' of the Irish tenant. This Act declared that the buildings constructed by the tenant were his own property, over which the landlord had no control, and for which he could not ask rent It further provided that the rent for the land should, on the application of the tenant, be fixed by Land Commissioners. Ine Commissioners, in fixing the rent, were not to include tenants' improvements. 12

THE LAND WAR.

Thus it was hoped that the tenant would be protected against unjust landlords. The Commissioners are supposed to inspect the land and assess the rent, The tenant can then £0 into the Land Court and have the rent fixed according to the valuation. There is a Court of Appeal to which, if not satisfied, either landlord or tenant can go, and demand a re-valuation. To my mind the chief value of this Act is the inalienable right which it established in the tenant's ownership of his buildings, and the valuable precedent for Government control of Irish land. When once it was enacted by law that the Government should step in between landlord and tenant to fix the rent, there could be no logical reason why some day the Government should go one step further, and take' over the land altogether, giving the landlord a just equivalent for his rent. The Act of 1881 established not only the tenant's interest, but also the Government interest in the land. In its immediate and practical purposes, however, it is to be feared the Act has failed to accomplish all Mr. Gladstone hoped for. It does not prevent! the tenant from being rented for his own improvements. The tenant will tell you to-day that if he improves his land, shows any signs of success, whitewashes his cottage, or makes the place comfortable, it has its effects on the Commissioners' assessment, and up goes the rent. The result is a direct discouragement of all efforts of self-improvement, and a premium is put upon neglect and slovenliness. It very often happens that when a tenant goes into the Land Court his rent is raised. Now the only grounds on which' the rent could possibly be raised is on the improvement in the holding, and the only

THE LAND WAR.

person who ever improves anything in Ireland is the tenant. On the other hand the landlord does not appreciate having his rent lowered, and he is by no means always willing to accept the valuation of the Commissioners. But the result of an appeal on either side, seldom brings satisfaction. In fact both landlord and tenant mistrust both Commissioners and Land Courts, which, by the way, costs the poor country some £150,000 a year to keep going. Then the landlords have never accepted the creation of joint interest in the land, dual ownership, as established by the Act of 1881. They regard that as the source of all their troubles, so that when in power for a few brief months in 1885, a Conservative Government tried to put an end to this state of things, by allowing a landlord to sell his interest in the land.

But the only person who would, or could, purchase the interest of both landlord and tenant, was the tenant. Thus, the Conservatives found themselves placed in a most unenviable dilemma. They solved the difficulty in the only possible way by passing the famous "Ashbourne Act," which allowed and assisted the tenants to buy out the landlord wherever they could come to mutual terms The object of the framers of the Act was, evidently, to enable a landlord who had troublesome tenants to get rid of them. The landlords did not see that by doing this they were preparing a weapon for their enemies, and placing a premium on "troublesomeness." Tenants only had to make things sufficiently unpleasant for the landlord in order to get rid of him. In fact the Conservative Government of 1885 took another "leap in the dark," the full consequences of which the Irish landlords have only recently realised. But the

THE LAND WAR.

Act, having been passed, it was absolutely impossible to go back. The £5,000,000 advanced by the Ashbourne Act, was soon swallowed up. Other Acts, on similar lines, with further grants, became necessary, until now the Government is pledged to advance over £40,000,000, to enable Irish tenants to buy out their landlords, and some 62,241 tenants are purchasing their holdings. It is unnecessary to explain in detail the various Land Purchase Acts. Briefly, they may be described thus : Where a landlord is willing to sell and a tenant is willing to buy, the Government, having satisfied themselves through the Land Commission officials that the farm is security for the sum agreed upon, loan the money for its purchase retaining for a certain period, if necessary, portion of it as. a guarantee for its repayment. The sum advanced is repaid by the tenant in half-yearly instalments, which represent principal and interest, the interest under the present law being fixed at 4 per cent, The half-yearly instalments are in all case® considerably less than the half-yearly rents formerly paid. The payment of them is spread over a period of from 49 years, after which the holding becomes the property of the purchasing tenant or his heirs. When the Congested Districts Board intervenes (as in the Dillon Estate) the Board purchases the Estate from the landlord, and afterwards sells to the tenants on very favourable terms. The smaller holdings are enlarged and other valuable assistance given, to the small tenants, so as to afford them an opportunity of starting anew under conditions likely to secure them a successful future. In these cases also, the yearly instalments are arranged to run over a considerable period of years, after which the holding becomes the property of the former tenant.

THE LAND WAE.

How smoothly and successfully Land Purchase has worked everybody, who knows anything of Ireland, agrees. The tenants secured in their holdings, freed from the fear of +he landlord, proud in the possession of their own land have become thrifty, industrious, and contented. What is known as "crime" has vanished, and something approaching prosperity reigns. The working of the Land Purchase Acts have indeed proved a great object lesson in demonstrating the sterling qualities of the Irish people, when placed under decent circumstances. Their honesty and industry cannot be too highly praised. No better evidence of this can be given than the words of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, in the House of Commons, on March 25, 1902. Mr. Wyndham said, "Land Purchase has this merit, that the State has incurred no loss under it, and is, I believe, exposed to no risks. Under the Acts of 1891 and 1896 more than 30,000 purchasers are paying annually £171,214 to the State. I have no case of bad debts to offer." When we remember that a few years ago many of these tenants were on the borders of starvation, at war with their landlords, evicted from their homes, and held down by armed police, the change to their present conditions is simply miraculous. I am convinced from my own observation that the Irish peasant is naturally honest, and given a fair chance will become prosperous and contented. Mr. Wyndham'? figures prove all and more than this.

The very success of Land Purchase has produced what some will consider a natural evil. It has created a favoured class among Irish tenants; those, who instead of paying rent, are purchasing their holdings, at less than they formerly rented them for Side by side with these are tenants whose landlord

THE LAND WAR.

will not sell, and who are doomed to go on paying rent in perpetuity, with no hope of materially improving their conditions. As the Purchase Acts stand at present no tenants can participate in their benefits unless the landlord is willing to sell. Is there any wonder that the people rebel against this unjust, position of affairs? The fact is, the Acts are a direct encouragement to the tenants to become troublesome. So long as tenants will pay their rents regularly a landlord, unless he is in financial difficulties, has no inducement to sell. His property gives him a certain standing in the country and if it produces a fair return, no matter what the condition or troubles of the tenants may be, he has no desire to let his estates pass into their hands. The Irish people are fully alive to the position of affairs, and whenever there is a chance of compelling their landlord to sell his estate they are not slow to seize it, and agitation at once springs up. Whatever English people may think of this process it is the only natural result of the present state of the law. Competent authorities, who have little sympathy with the tenants, have admitted the justification of agitation. Thus, The O'Connor Don, one of the best known resident landlords in the West of Ireland, at the landlords' conference in August admitted that where the tenant organization is strong and the agitation active, the collection of rent istroublesome, eviction is made difficult, with the result that those districts are rewarded with rent reductions and land purchase. Judge O'Connor Morris, hearing the appeal of Messrs. Fitz Gibbons and Webb, who had been sentenced to two months' imprisonment in connection with the agitation on the De Freyne estate, said for all that had taken

THE LAND WAR.

place on the De Freyne estate, the system of land purchase would, before the bar of history at least, be held responsible. He added : "In this unfortunate country abuses were allowed to grow up, and concessions as a rule were not extorted, except by agitation."

In face of these admissions by a landlord and one of His Majesty's judges, who can say that the tenants are not fully justified in an agitation, which frequently results in putting land purchase into operation? Could the position of the law be more absurd, and, one might add, more criminal ? The Government has provided an excellent plan for putting an end to land troubles in Ireland by land purchase. But to secure land purchase the tenants have to become troublesome; if they are troublesome they are evicted from their holdings, imprisoned and become, in the eyes of the law criminals. Yet the Judge who sentences them to imprisonment says they are justified in all they have done. Under the circumstances one would have thought the Government would, at least, have stood aside and allowed landlord and tenant to fight the matter out. Instead of doing so, however, they have placed the forces of the Crown at the disposal of the landlords. The landlords' interests have been protected at every point ; their rent^ collected and their decrees carried out. All this; was done at enormous expense to the people. Here is a pretty picture of "government," in a civilised country twenty centuries after Christ ; brought about simply because the English Parliament would not carry out to its logical conclusion legislation which has proved a remarkable success wherever it has been adopted.

As things have been in the past the Irish 18

THE LAND WAR.

people were drawn up into two hostile camps, and to all intents and purposes! a state of war existed. On the one side we find practically the whole of the people organised under the banner of the united Irish League. The avowed object of the League is to carry out the Purchase Acts by compulsion ; to win by agitation what Parliament ought to grant by legislation. The methods of the League are methods of the English trade unions drawn to perfection. The League is stronger and more effective than any Union we know of in England, for the simple reason that its membership consists of not merely a majority or even the whole of the workers in a certain industry, but the nation. Against the Irish nation we had the Irish landlords, and those who are interested in retaining landlordism, supported by the Government and the forces of the Crown. I have said a state of war existed in Ireland, and one can liken it to nothing else.

Ordinary law was suspended, and something approaching martial law substituted. Because no ordinary magistrates and no jury would convict men on charges which are purely political, popular and elected magistrates have been deposed, and the Government has the power of bringing men to "justice" before special magistrates, who have been appointed for the express purposes of securing convictions. Public meeting, trade unionism, free speech, a free press, are "crimes" in Ireland, for which men may be imprisoned, under the most cruel restrictions for lengthy periods. Ordinary crime, crime as we know it in England, is practically unknown in the rural districts. Yet the country side is lined with armed police, armed with revolvers and carbines, as well as the ordi-

THE LAND WAR.

nary truncheon, mounted on bicycles, ready to pounce upon the most unoffending persons who may have the temerity to advise the people to resist the arbitrary power of the landlords. At various intervals, through what are known as the disturbed districts, block houses, fully protected and loop-holed, have been put up, in order to more easily hold the people in subjection. The cost of thus garrisoning Ireland is, of course enormous. In proportion to its population the police cost is heavier than that of England ; whereas but for the work of upholding landlordism it need not be more than a quarter as much. As I shall subsequently show when once the cause of discontent has been removed, ordinary crime almost vanishes. Ilan died in a proper manner the Irish are the easiest people in the world to govern. No people so fully recognise the great moral laws of right and wrong ; no people so quickly respond to kindness and sympathy ; no people are so ready to forget and forgive, or so anxious to be forgiven. The question English men have to ask themselves is how long they will be content to force Ireland into discontent for the sake of maintaining landlordism, when, by one simple Act, Ireland could be made the most contented; and, I will add, weighing every letter as I write it, the most loyal people within the British Empire.

THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS.

III. The Congested Disteicts

So far I have only dealt with the land problem in general. But if one wishes to see the trouble in its most acute form, one has to go into the congested districts of Connaught.. I spent some! weeks; there, and what I write is from what I have seen and heard from the people themselves, from their leaders, and from friends and agents of the landlords. A large portion of these districts were unoccupied fifty years ago, consisting almost entirely of bog land which nobody ever thought of attempting to cultivate. Running through the bogs, however, is some very fine land, which to-day is used for grazing farms and accordingly very sparsely populated. I stayed at Castlerea and one day, driving out in the direction of Loughlynn, I passed through a district in which the cabins were only separated by a few yards, Another day I drove in an opposite direction, and as far as the eye could see there was not a single habitation to be found. Thus, within a few miles of each other we have the most distressing congestion, and the equally distressing absence of population.

It is most important that English people should understand that these districts need not be congested, if the land were properly distributed. In County Mayo, the Westporti Rural Council has recently published a most valuable report, which shows that the evil is an artificial evil which can and ought to be

THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS.

remedied. I will set forth the facts of the case as clearly as possible :

The population of the Westport Union ia 37,361.

The area is 349,819 acres. The number of occupiers is 5,322, This should give each occupier at least 50 acres.

But of the 5.322 occupiers, 3,041 possess such small and poor holdings, that they are rated under £4; of the remainder, 1,048 are rated from £4 to £8.

Who then holds the land?

Sixty-six graziers hold 99,180 acres.

Thirteen landlords graze 52,145 acres.

These seventy-nine individuals hold as much land as the whole of the remaining 37,302 inhabitants of the district.

Of the sixty-six graziers only five are residential, 18 are shopkeepers in the town of Westport, 9 are professional men, 4 are bailiffs.

Thus, we see the great mass of people are kept off the land, kept in hopeless distress for the sake of a few individuals who are not dependent on the land for their living. Indeed, it is very doubtful whether any of them are making a profit out of their grazing. As the report says : "The grazing ranches of this Union are not, generally speaking, rich fattening lands, suitable for permanent pasture, but are mostly reclaimed lands, which, for want of periodical tillage, and owing to the exhaustion caused by the rearing of young stock, have largely lapsed back into heather, fern, and rushes, while eminently fitted for the mixed tillage and pasture which small cultivators and their families could pursue with profit." At present these lands are held 22

THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS.

on the eleven months' system, which is, in point of fact, no tenure at all, and could be resumed at once without injustice and without compensation. Thus, without injuring anybody this congested district could, by the adoption of Land Purchase, be split up into small holdings, capable of supporting the people. What is true of the Westport Union, is true of the whole of the congested areas.