The movement which the I.A.O.S. represents was started by Sir Horace
Plunkett, and he has remained the most prominent figure in it ever
since. Sir Horace Plunkett bears an honoured name wherever the rural
problem is seriously studied; but, like other prophets, he has received
perhaps less honour in his own country than elsewhere. At all events, in
the task to which he has devoted his life, he has had to encounter the
tacit, and indeed at times the open opposition, of powerful sections of
Nationalist opinion. Happily he belongs to the stamp of men whom no
obstacles can discourage, and who find in the work itself their
sufficient reward.
Sir Horace Plunkett's leading idea was a simple one, and has become
to-day almost a commonplace. He compared the backward state of
agriculture in Ireland with the great advance that had been made in
various continental countries, where the natural conditions were not
dissimilar to those of Ireland, and asked himself the secret of the
difference. That secret he found in the word _organisation_, and he set
himself to organise. The establishment of co-operative creameries seemed
to afford the most hopeful opening, and it was to this that Sir Horace
Plunkett and a few personal friends, in the year 1889, directed their
earliest missionary efforts. The difficulties to be overcome were at
first very great. "My own diary," writes Sir Horace, "records attendance
at fifty meetings before a single society had resulted therefrom. It was
weary work for a long time. These gatherings were miserable affairs
compared with those which greeted our political speakers."
The experiences[70] of another of the little band of devoted workers,
Mr. R.A. Anderson, now Secretary of the I.A.O.S., throw an interesting
light upon the nature of some of the obstacles which the new movement
had to encounter.
"It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the
people, and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians.
It would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative
_Cork Constitution_, or that of the Nationalist _Eagle_ of
Skibbereen, was the louder. We were 'killing the calves,' we were
'forcing the young women to emigrate,' we were 'destroying the
industry.' Mr. Plunkett was described as a 'monster in human
shape,' and was adjured to 'cease his hellish work.' I was
described as his 'man Friday,' and as 'Roughrider Anderson.' Once
when I thought I had planted a creamery within the town of
Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local
solicitor, who, having elicited the fact that our movement
recognised neither political nor religious differences--that the
Unionist-Protestant cow was as dear to us as her
Nationalist-Catholic sister--gravely informed me that our programme
would not suit Rathkeale. 'Rathkeale,' said he pompously, 'is a
Nationalist town--Nationalist to the backbone--and every pound of
butter made in this creamery must be made on Nationalist
principles, or it shan't be made at all.' This sentiment was
applauded loudly, and the proceedings terminated."
Eventually, however, the zeal of the preachers, coupled with the
economic soundness of the doctrine, prevailed over all difficulties. By
1894 the movement had outgrown the individual activities of the
founders, and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was
established in Dublin in order to promote and direct its further
progress. That progress has been rapid and continuous, and to-day the
co-operative societies connected with the I.A.O.S. number nearly 1000,
with an annual turnover of upwards of 2-1/2 millions. They extend over
the length and breadth of the land, and include creameries, agricultural
societies (whose main business is the purchase of seeds and manure for
distribution to the members), credit societies (village banks), poultry
keepers' societies (for the marketing of eggs), flax societies,
industries societies, as well as other societies of a miscellaneous
character.
In 1892 the Liberal Party came into power. During their three years'
tenure of office a Home Rule Bill was introduced and passed through the
House of Commons, but little or nothing was attempted by the Government
for the economic regeneration of the country.
The Unionist Party came back with a large majority in 1896, and the
attention of the new Irish Government, in which the post of Lord
Lieutenant was held by Lord Cadogan and that of Chief Secretary by the
present writer, was from the first directed to the condition of the
Irish farmer. The session of 1896 was largely devoted to the passing of
a Bill for amending the Land Acts, and for further facilitating the
conversion of occupying tenants into owners of their holdings. Time,
however, was also found for a new Light Railways Act, under the
provision of which railway communication has been opened up at the
expense of the State in the poorest parts of North-West Ireland.
It was in the following year that the first attempt was made to
establish an Irish Department of Agriculture. The Bill was not carried
beyond a first reading, because it was ultimately decided that a Local
Government Act should have precedence of it. But the project was only
put aside for a time, and it was always looked upon by me as an integral
part of our legislative programme. In framing the Bill of 1897, and also
the later Bill of 1899, which passed into law, we received the greatest
assistance from the labours of a body known as the Recess Committee,
concerning which a few words must now be said.