bserved, and,
above all, the spirit in which the work must be approached, if the
movement is to fulfil its mission.[40]

One of the difficulties incidental to a movement of this kind, which,
for the reasons already set forth, had to be rapidly and widely
extended, was the enormous cost to its supporters. It is needless to say
that such a staff as I have described could not be kept continuously
travelling by rail and road for so many years without the provision of a
large fund. These officers must obviously be men with exceptional
qualifications, if they are not only to impress the thought of their
agricultural audiences, but also to move them to action, and to sustain
the newly organised societies through the initial difficulties of their
unfamiliar enterprise. Such men are not to be found idle, and if they
preach this gospel, they are entitled to live by it. They are not by any
means overpaid, but their salaries in the aggregate amount to a large
annual sum. Before the creation of the Department of Agriculture and
Technical Instruction in 1900 large sums were spent by the I.A.O.S. not
only in its proper work of organisation, but also in giving technical
instruction, which was found to be essential to commercial success. When
the Society was relieved of this educational work many of its supporters
withdrew their subscriptions under the impression that there was now no
longer any need for its continued existence. But so far from the
Society's usefulness having ceased, it has now become more important
than ever that the doctrine of organised self-help, which must be the
foundation of any sound Irish economic policy, should be insisted upon
and put into practical operation as widely as possible. All those who
are devoting their lives to the firm establishment of this self-help
movement among the chief wealth-producers of the country are agreed that
no better educational work can be done at the moment than that which is
bringing about so salutary a change in the economic attitude of the
Irish mind.

It is not to be wondered at that the greater part of the necessary funds
should have been drawn from a very limited circle of public-spirited men
capable of grasping the significance of a movement the practical effect
of which would appear to be permanent only to those who had a deep
insight into Irish problems.[41] The difficulty of a successful appeal
to a wider public has been the impossibility of giving in brief form an
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