with the big brute that the little fellow is all right, and the big fellow all wrong, within a certain time limit-for instance, if the big fellow has trampled on and tried to control the little fellow for seven minutes onlyfor seven hours only-or even, maybe, for seven years only. But, as in the case of England and Ireland, the right and the wrong of the matter change places when the big fellow has prolonged the little fellow's agony for seven centuries! Among the most earnest and high-minded men in many American universities where I have gone to lecture, I have, strange to say, found this astounding view. And found these high-minded men, too, when going to denominate the still struggling little fellow, considerately pause to choose a word that should not seem derogatory!

If Outlook readers and myself set absolutely no value upon one of the greatest and noblest principles in the world-the Godgiven right of all peoples to be free (which the great-great-grandfathers of many of the aforesaid readers gladly laid down their lives for)—then I, as a mere materialist talking to mere materialists, might answer the question by saying that British rule in Ireland in the present era is so vile, cruel, and autocratic that even the most sordid materialist might be driven to arms-that even the followers of the betrayer Redmond, who pretend to shout for England to-day, hate English rule with rabid hate. An English and AngloIrish bureaucracy autocratically and tyrannically misrules Ireland from Dublin Castle even as Russian serfdom is not misruled. Economically, these fellows eat the vitals out of Ireland-and morally strive always to destroy her soul. Irish-hating judges, assisted by Irish-hating (Anglo-Irish) "packed" juries and Irish-hating Crown prosecutors, administer the "law" in such disgraceful manner that all Irishmen have long since instinctively ranged themselves on the side of the lawbreaker.

Russia in any of its crushed dependencies does not maintain such an elaborate spy system as Ireland is netted with. There are hundreds of Irishmen who for long years have been "shadowed," practically day and night, and every move of theirs for every day of long years kept on record in Dublin Castle. When, for instance, I arrive home in Ireland, a detective receives me on the pier, and I am under complete surveillance from that moment to the moment I take my departure for this side of the water again.

"Free" speech is under the control of any

133.

police officer any time, anywhere, and he can use the most extreme measures to enforce his will. Men are imprisoned or shot down for daring to insist upon this right. Even the philosophic Mr. Balfour by secret telegram (afterwards discovered) commanded an intimidating force at an anti-landlord massmeeting: "Do not hesitate to shoot." Which, as attested by four more Irish funerals, they did not. And fifty unarmed men, women, and children shot down in Dublin streets by British soldiers, one month before the war began, attested still that all the sporting privileges are the conqueror's.

Agents provocateurs are provided in all corners of the country. Sergeant McSherrys, in special districts, mutilate cattle and swear away, therefor. the liberties of innocent men; and, when discovered, are quietly and quickly, at Government expense, hurried from Ireland and from justice.

Men are imprisoned for such treasonable conduct as replying in Irish to a policeman, putting their names on their carts in Irish, looking at an English official with (as sworn in court) "a humbugging kind of a smile," and for the lèse majesté of "winking at my pig in the public market-place" (the outraged swine being the property of an English landlord's bailiff).

A royal commission appointed by Parliament discovered that $1,250,000,000 in taxes (principal and interest) over and above her just due had been taken from Ireland during the last century. And the English Treasury publicly said, "We are sorry," buttoned up its fob, and proceeded at once to increase Ireland's taxes at a still more frightful pace.

All of these and a thousand other injustices I might urge as justifying revolution, if I and you were mere materialists. But the fact that Ireland is Ireland and England is England is reason sufficient for men who cherish the fundamental principles on which nationality and freedom rest.

In the second place, the editor asked, Why would you not rather be content with autonomy or federation-such as Canada has-instead of struggling for complete independence?

This is mighty like lecturing a starving man on the superiority of pâté de foie gras over beefsteak. The hungry one might well ask, "But where is your pâté de foie gras ?"

To the suggestion that we should voluntarily agree to be coerced into the British Empire as a self-governing part, the material

minded man might very well answer: (1) There is no autonomy in sight. "Home Rule," so called (on the shelf and under sentence to be beheaded for the Orangeman before the cadaver is given to the Irishman), with its provision that England would still retain all control of the very little which is left of Irish trade and industries-and retain complete control of Irish taxation—is a huge joke. (2) It is as practicable to yoke the plow horse and the race horse in the same team as it is to yoke the English and the Irish nations. It would be as practicable to federate a conquered France into the German Empire as it is to federate conquered Ireland into the British Empire. We are as far apart as the poles in race, creed, and color, body, mind, and soul, methods, manners, ambitions, and ideals.

Every one of your vile and greedy big Trusts in this country is terribly anxious to federate the little independent fellow in with him. And when the little independent fellow boldly rebels and goes down "futilely " fighting, all true Americans applaud him. How wide you would open your eyes if I suggested that America should be happy to federate into the German Empire! After you recovered from the shock some of the brightest of you would remember to say, "Oh, but Germany hasn't conquered us!" But, I come back, Supposing Germany had conquered you?

For the answer to question No. 2, then, look within your own American, liberty-loving heart: or ask even Obregon or Villa whether they prefer federation with the United States to complete independence.

We Irish seek complete independence because we are men almost as brave, almost as spiritual, almost as intelligent, as the English; and having, under God, the same right to decide what we shall do with our land, as Americans with America, Cubans with Cuba, and Englishmen with England.

The editor's third and last question was: Why did the Irish revolutionists seize for their work the present critical moment when, if Germany wins, she will force her social and ethical, intellectual and political, bonds upon the whole world?

Without pausing to marvel at England's phenomenal success in making thinking men in America swallow her estimate of her deadly enemy and of that deadly enemy's "system," I shall answer :

(1) If you, a weak little man, are struggling

against a great, big bully, and the bully is suddenly attacked by his equal, do I understand that your ethical instincts would prompt you gallantly to help the fellow who was thrashing you, against the intruder, or even politely to stand aside till your bully, having got rid of his enemy, had time to devote his complete and undivided attention again to your annihilation?

(2) With regard to the rival systems—the British and the German-let us hark back to that hungry man that we left unfed a while back. You tell this poor wretch, "There are two fellows, John and Fritz, contending for the job of bread-agent-at-large to the whole world. Fritz's bread is mighty unpalatable to real epicures. John's bread, on the other hand, has a superior flavor-a fine, nutty flavor, in fact. We want you to help us get the job for John. We admit that, till this contest arose, we, getting enough ourselves, never bothered about you. But, fine noble fellow that you are, forget that. We need you now. Rub the rust off your bread-knife, up and follow! On, on, for John and his nutty bread!"

The hungry wretch will make answer : "Friend, why bother me about which bread tastes best on your tired tongue? What I want is BREAD. I am going to win a way to make my own. I did make my own once. And I served the world with it, too. But my God-sent protector, the Friend and Champion of all weak people, came to my house-and behold me now!

"Now I want bread-black bread-war bread--pretzels! Any but the bread of bitterness that has been poisoning my veins through the ages, till the flesh has withered from my bones, and the world, as it goes by, stops to

point and whisper.

point and whisper. I want bread, bread! and I'll have bread! And the preferences of your blasé palate are of small concern to a man dying of starvation."

That answers the third question. And those are some whys of endless Irish uprisings.

His honest English countenance beaming with that blissful smile which the wolf wore on quitting Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house, John Bull, on his apron, is now leisurely wiping Rebels' blood from his butcher's knife, and feeling free to sally forth again, in the name of England, God, and civilization (tail of right eye turned westward), to avenge all oppression that is manufactured in the workshops of his trade rival.

But Something stalks behind, John. Something stalks behind-drawing nearer, nearer, these days. And It heads a multitudinous

Published in 1913.

The Outlook's attitude towards the Irish revolt is the conventional one of many American newspapers, and is for that reason hardly as philosophical as one would expect in The Outlook. The ordinary American says, "The poor fools of Irish! why do they trouble themselves-and us-with a revolt ?" He forgets that his own forebears were once in precisely the same case as the Irish. Why did not such "poor fools" as Washington and Adams cheerfully accept the tyranny of the British? Why did they take advantage of France's antipathy to Great Britain to get her aid in their rebellion? Why do not the Belgians and the Servians accept their present lot as subject peoples with cheerful resignation? Why the universal longing of distinct races for independence from coercion by other peoples?

Can you doubt that in a fair plebiscite of the Irish people a vast majority would elect to be free from British rule? Why, then, as Americans who once felt the hardships of that rule, are you so unsympathetic towards an attempt to realize the ideals of the American Revolution? Is it because you favor a different form of the Christian religion from that of the majority of the Irish people? Surely not. Is it because the attempt, as you say, was "hopeless"? Do you, then, counsel meek submission on the part of the Belgians and Servians to their German conquerors? On the contrary, would you not praise as "heroism" any attempt, however futile, on the part of the Belgians to overthrow their masters? Why, then, scorn an Irish attempt of the same sort ?

The fact is that we too easily forget that the British are an overbearing, masterful people whose rule we could not ourselves abide. Have they not in many cases, indeed, pursued the same ungenerous course toward their enemies that we protest against in the Germans? Can we forget the British vandalism, equal to that of Louvain, which destroyed our National Capitol? the shooting of the captive Mogul princes, the last of their line, in India? the petty persecution

of Napoleon, the greatest of England's foesat St. Helena, with the dubbing of him as "General Bonaparte"? These qualities of the British have shown themselves perennially in Ireland. In addition, at present that island is borne down with taxation worse than the Stamp Tax which brought on the American Revolution. Why should not the Irish have taken the opportunity to revolt? They failed for lack of money and aid, just as America would have failed but for French aid in 1781. But why deny the legitimacy of the Irish provocation and the validity of the opportunity?

These Irish revolutionists were idealists. They lacked judgment. They certainly might better have died with their swords in their hands than to have surrendered to be shot down ignobly without mercy, as if they were in Mexico. But why condemn them for their aspiration for freedom for their race? Why not honor them, as sharers of the glory of Andreas Hofer, of Arnold von Winkelried, of Patrick Henry, of John Brown, of Catherine Breshkovsky-of all the great company of idealists who have striven, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, for the boon of racial freedom?

KATHLEEN HACKETT MOORE. Brooklyn, New York.

[We do not condemn the Irish republicans merely because they were rebels. Washington was a rebel, and we honor him for it. We do not condemn the Irish republicans merely because they sacrificed their lives in a forlorn hope. So did Leonidas, and his name is illustrious in history. We do not even condemn the Irish republicans merely because they attempted the utterly impossible-the impossible has been too often achieved. We condemn them because in the hour of Ireland's greatest need and largest opportunity they had not the vision to put aside the bitter memory of ancient wrongs nor the wisdom to choose the surest path to the liberty and freedom for which they were willing to die.-THE EDITORS.]