lord. What happens? In
the spring of 1919, 35,000 farm hands went on strike. Lord Bellew of
Ballyragget and Lord Powerscourt of Enniskerry used the eviction threat to
get the men back to work, and in Rhode, evictions actually took place.

The small farmer on bad land would profit by re-distribution. Many such
live in the west and northwest of Ireland. Take a farmer of Donegal. There
there's stony, boggy land. Fires must be built about the stones so that the
soil will lose its grip upon them and they may be hauled away to help make
fences. Immovable boulders are frequent, so frequent that the soil cannot
be ploughed but must be spaded by hand. Seaweed for fertilizer must be
plucked from the rocks in the sea, carried up the mountain side and laid
black and thick in the sterile brown furrows. Near Dungloe in Donegal, one
holding of 600 acres was recently valued at $10.50, and another of 400 at
$3.70. So the Labor party is confident of bringing over the farmers to its
point of view.

On the whole, it is said, the way of the labor propagandist is easy, for
capital in Ireland is very weak. First, there is very little of it. In 1917
the total income tax of the British Isles was L300,000,000; Ireland with
one-tenth the population contributed only one-fortieth of the tax. In the
same year, the total excess profits tax was L290,000,000 and Ireland's
proportion was slightly less than for the income tax.[4] Second, what
capital there is, is not effectively organized. The first national
commercial association is just forming in Dublin.

Whether the future prove the numerical strength of labor or not, the
leaders are determined that labor will be organically strong. It is
developing a pyramid form of government. Irish labor fosters the "one big
union." In some towns all the labor, from teachers to dock-workers, have
already coalesced. These unions select their district heads. The district
heads are subsidiary to the general head in Dublin. When each union inside
the big union is ready to take over its industry, and their district and
general heads are ready to take over government there will be a general
strike for this end. The strike will be supported by the army--the
Citizens' Army of the workers.

"There you have," said James Connolly, who promoted the one big union, "not
only the most effective combination for industrial warfare, but also for
the social administration of the future."[5]

"Certainly we mean to take over indus