They are actuated by love of their country. They yield to no one in
their patriotism and their desire for Ireland's welfare. They have
always given their support to movements which have had for their objects
the improvement of Irish conditions and the increase of Irish
well-being. Their sympathies are with Irish social reform--and the
sympathies of many of them with social reform of an advanced character.
Contrast their attitude with that of the Irish Nationalist Party in
respect of reforms which have proceeded from the Imperial Parliament and
movements within Ireland herself.
Take the Irish Land Act of 1903, accepted by both political parties in
Great Britain as affording the real solution of the Irish agrarian
problem. What has been the Irish Nationalist attitude? Praise for it on
platforms in the United States when it was essential to reach the
pockets of subscribers by recounting a record of results gained from
the expenditure of American donations; but in Ireland itself opposition
to its effective working. Read Nationalist speeches and there is always
running through them the fear that the Act by solving the land question
would remove the real motive power which made Home Rule a living issue.
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