It has been stated by Mr. Churchill that under the Government scheme of
Home Rule, Land Purchase and Old Age Pensions will be paid by Great
Britain. Even if that were a workable arrangement it only covers a small
part of the field. For the rest Home Rule would mean the complete
abandonment of the attempt to level up the social conditions of Great
Britain and Ireland to a common standard. The Irish Government would
never have the means to carry out the same programme of social
legislation as will be carried out in Great Britain. Handicapped in
competition with British industries it would, moreover, naturally be
disinclined, even apart from the question of cost, to apply any
legislation or any regulations which might tend to raise the cost of
production. There will thus not only be an inevitable falling back for
want of means, but, in addition, a continual temptation to the weaker
and more backward State to meet superior industrial efficiency by the
temporary cheapness of inferior social conditions.[88]
But such a policy would not only be disastrous in itself in its ultimate
effect upon Irish national life.
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