owever, that all doubt on the subject might be finally
removed, the I.A.O.S. issued a circular to all its societies, in which
the following question was directly put:--

"Has the I.A.O.S., as a body, or the Committee acting for it, done,
in your opinion, any act in the interest of any political party, or
any act calculated to offend the political principles of any
section of your members?"

The answers received have been published and form very interesting
reading. Not a single society, of the many hundreds that have replied
from all parts of Ireland, has been found to assert that politics have
ever been mentioned by the agents of the parent association.

The hostility of the politicians to the co-operative movement rests, it
is safe to surmise, upon some other foundation than these flimsy charges
against the I.A.O.S.

In itself the movement is vital to the prosperity of rural Ireland. The
disfavour shown to it arises from apprehensions respecting its
_indirect_ bearing upon the great issue between Unionism and
Nationalism. Home Rulers who oppose the co-operative movement find
themselves in this dilemma: either they hold that nothing in the way of
material improvement could affect the demand for Home Rule, or else they
are really afraid lest "better farming, better business, and better
living," should weaken the attractions of their own political nostrum.
In the former case, they are left without a shadow of justification for
their attitude towards the I.A.O.S.; in the latter, they tacitly admit
that the interests of the farming classes must suffer in order that the
cause of Home Rule may be promoted.

Unionists are in no such difficulty. Our policy is clear and consistent.
Improvement in the social and economic condition of the people must be
our first object. It is an end to be pursued for its own sake, whatever
the indirect consequences may be. But the indirect consequences need
cause us no anxiety. Increased material prosperity, and the contentment
which inevitably accompanies it, whatever their other effects may be,
are not likely to strengthen the demand for constitutional changes.
Successful resistance to Home Rule at the present crisis may well mean
the saving of the Union for good and all.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: Originally published in the _Irish Homestead_, and quoted
in Sir Horace Plunkett's "Ireland in the New Century," p. 190.]

[Footnote 71: "Ireland in the New Century," p.