"_For the last two and twenty years, at first a few and now a goodly
company of rural reformers with whom I have been associated, and on
whose behalf I write, have been steadily working out a complete scheme
of rural development, their formula being better farming, better
business, better living."_--SIR H. PLUNKETT, letter to the _Times_,
December, 1911.
"_Ireland would prefer rags and poverty rather than surrender her
national spirit."_--MR. JOHN REDMOND, speech at Buffalo, September 27,
1910.
It should never be forgotten that the maintenance of the legislative
Union between Ireland and Great Britain is defended by Unionists no less
in the interests of Ireland than in that of the United Kingdom and of
the Empire. That the ills from which Ireland has admittedly suffered in
the past, and for which she still suffers, though in diminished measure,
in the present, are economic and social rather than political, is a
fundamental tenet of Unionism. Unionists also believe that economic and
social conditions in Ireland can be more effectively dealt with under
the existing political constitution than under any form of Home Rule.
Ireland is a poor country, and needs the financial resources which only
the Imperial Parliament can provide. She is, moreover, a country divided
into hostile camps marked by strong racial and religious differences. As
Sir George Trevelyan long ago pointed out, there is not one Ireland,
there are two Irelands; and only so far as Ireland continues an
integral part of a larger whole can the antagonism between the two
elements be prevented from forming a dangerous obstacle to all real
progress.
Nationalist politicians, of course, diagnose the situation very
differently. Apply suitable remedial measures, say the Unionists, to the
social and economic conditions of the country, and it is not
unreasonable to hope that political discontent--or, in other words, the
demand for Home Rule--will gradually die away of itself. Give us Home
Rule, say the Nationalists, and all other things will be added to us.
The main object of the present paper is to give a bird's eye view of
Unionist policy in relation to rural development in Ireland during the
eventful years 1885-1905. It does not pretend to deal with the larger
issue raised between Unionism and Nationalism; but incidentally, it will
be found to throw some interesting side lights upon it.
The Irish Question in its most essential aspect is a Farmers' Question.
The difficulties which it presents have their deepest roots in an
unsatisfactory system of land tenure, excessive sub-division of
holdings, and antiquated methods of agricultural economy.
Mr. Gladstone endeavoured to deal with the system of land tenure in the
two important Acts of 1870 and 1881; but the system of dual ownership
which those Acts set up introduced, perhaps, as many evils as they
removed. It became more and more evident that the only effectual remedy
lay in the complete transference of the ownership of the land from the
landlord to the occupying tenant. The successful application of this
remedy with anything like fairness to both sides absolutely demanded the
use of State credit on a large scale. The plan actually adopted in a
succession of Land Acts passed by Unionist Governments, beginning with
the Ashbourne Act of 1885, and ending with the Wyndham Act of 1903, is
broadly speaking as follows:--The State purchases the interest of the
landlord outright and vests the ownership in the occupying tenant
subject to a fixed payment for a definite term of years. These annual
payments are not in the nature of rent: they represent a low rate of
interest on the purchase money, plus such contribution to a sinking fund
as will repay the principal in the term of years for which the annual
payments are to run. The practical effect of this arrangement is that
the occupier becomes the owner of his holding, subject to a terminable
annual payment to the State of a sum less in amount than the rent he has
had to pay heretofore.
The successful working of the scheme obviously depends on the credit of
the State, in other words, its power of borrowing at a low rate of
interest. In this respect the Imperial Government has an immense
advantage over any possible Home Rule Government: indeed, it is doubtful
whether any Home Rule Government could have attempted this great reform
without wholesale confiscation of the landlords' property. Here then in
Land Purchase and the abolition of dual ownership, we have one of the
twin pillars on which, on its constructive side, the Irish policy of the
Unionist party rests. But to solve the problem of rural Ireland--which,
as I have said, is _the_ Irish problem--more is required than the
conversion of the occupying tenant into a peasant proprietor. The sense
of ownership may be counted on to do much; but it will not make it
possible for a family to live in decent comfort on an insufficient
holding; neither will it enable the small farmer to compete with those
foreign rivals who have at their command improved methods of production,
improved methods of marketing their produce, facilities for obtaining
capital adequate to their needs, and all the many advantages which
superior education and organised co-operation bring in their train.
Looking back to-day, the wide field that in these directions was open to
the beneficent action of the State, and to the equally beneficent action
of voluntary associations, seems evident and obvious. It was by no means
so evident or obvious twenty years ago. At that time the traditional
policy of _laisser faire_ had still a powerful hold over men's minds,
and to abandon it even in the case of rural Ireland was a veritable new
departure in statesmanship. The idea of establishing a voluntary
association to promote agricultural co-operation was even more remote;
and, as will be seen in the sequel, it was to the insight and devoted
persistence of a single individual that its successful realisation has
been ultimately due.
So far as State action was concerned, a beginning was naturally made
with the poorest parts of the country. Mr. Arthur Balfour led the way
with two important measures. One of these was the construction of light
railways in the most backward tracts on the western seaboard. These
railways were constructed at the public expense, but worked by existing
railway companies, and linked up with existing railway systems. The
benefits conferred on those parts of the country through which they
passed have been great and lasting.
Mr. Balfour's second contribution to Irish rural development was the
creation of the Congested Districts Board in 1891. The "congested
districts" embraced the most poverty-stricken areas in the western
counties, and the business of the Board was to devise and apply, within
those districts, schemes for the amelioration of the social and economic
condition of the population comprised in them. For this purpose, the
Board was invested with very wide powers of a paternal character, and an
annual income of upwards of £40,000 was placed at their free disposal, a
sum which has been largely increased by subsequent Acts.
The experiment was an absolutely novel one, but no one who is able to
compare the improved condition of the congested districts to-day with
the state of things that prevailed twenty years ago can doubt that it
has been amply justified by results.
Every phase of the life of the Irish peasant along the whole of the
western seaboard has been made brighter and more hopeful by the
beneficent operations of the Board. Its activities have been manifold,
including the purchase and improvement of estates prior to re-sale to
the tenants; the re-arrangement and enlargement of holdings; the
improvement of stock; the provision of pure seeds and high-class
manures; practical demonstration of various kinds, all educational in
character; drainage; the construction of roads; improvement in the
sanitary conditions of the people's dwellings; assistance to provide
proper accommodation for the livestock of the farm, which too frequently
were housed with the people themselves; the development of sea
fisheries; the encouragement of many kinds of home industries for women
and girls; the quarrying of granite; the making of kelp; the promotion
of co-operative credit; and many other schemes which had practical
regard to the needs of the people, and have contributed in a variety of
ways to raise the standard of comfort of the inhabitants of these
impoverished areas.
It will be noticed that among the other activities of the Congested
Districts Board, I have specially mentioned the work of promoting
co-operative credit by means of village banks managed on the Raffeisen
system. The actual work of organising these co-operative banking
associations has not been carried out directly by the Board, but through
the agency of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (generally
known by the shorter title of the I.A.O.S.), to which the Board has for
many years past paid a small subsidy--a subsidy which might well have
been on a more generous scale, having regard to the immense advantages
which co-operation is capable of conferring on the small farmer.
The I.A.O.S. is a voluntary association of a strictly non-political
character. "Business, not politics," has been its principle of action;
and partly, perhaps, for this very reason it may claim to have
contributed more than any other single agency towards the prosperity of
rural Ireland. To its work I now turn.