IRISHMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

New Zealand Tablet, 22 January 1914, Page 13

IRISHMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

THEIR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Quite fittingly (says a writer in the Irish Independent), an Irishman has succeeded an' Irishman as the Mayor of the greatest Irish city in the world. Mr. John Purroy Mitchel, grandson of the Irish patriot, has been elected Mayor of New York. He succeeds the late Mr Wm. H. Gaynor, another Irishman. The fact gives rise to thought. Wonderful, isn’t it, how Irish brains, and grit have come to dominate the politics and business of America? Let us indulge in a short survey. We have called New York the greatest Irish city in the world. Sounds unusual, doesn’t it? Well, New. York boasts an Irish population of one million-one-fourth of the total population of Ireland. You would think that Dublin or Belfast would come next in the . scale of Irish cities. Boston has an Irish population of over half a million. The Irish population of Chicago is nearly three times that of Cork City. The Irish are the majority of race in Connecticut and Nevada * here are 20,000 Irishmen in distant Columbia. Of course, the seeds of this great Irish settlement were laid in scattering of the Gael, consequent upon harsh and tyrranical laws at home. Bear in mind that the early Irish settlers were, in the main, poor, untutored refugees from starvation—‘ seeking a mother’s welcome in a strange and foreign land ’ and the student of American conditions is still more amazed at the grip which the Irish element has upon the fortunes of the great Republic of the West. Some Leading Irishmen. Irishmen are conspicuous as Mayors of America n cities, lawyers, Congressmen, or educationists, Churchmen, scientists, writers, artists, orators, and as captains of industry, financiers, merchants, and inventors. We know that to the genius of the Irish in the United States the world is indebted for the first steamboat, the first telegraph, the first ocean cable, the first reaping machine, the first successful submarine boat. The new Irish Mayor of New York —the largest Irish city is Mr. John Purroy Mitchel, grandson of the Irish patriot. The Mayor of the second Irish —Boston—is John Fitzgerald. The three American Cardinals O’Connell, Gibbons, and Farley are Irishmen. The Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States include the Irish Justices, Joseph McKenna, Edward White, and Charles E. Hughes, and Mr. Justice Goff, another Irishman, presides over the administration of the law in New York. Mr. William H. Maxwell, who emigrated from Ireland when 22 years of age, presides over education in New York as Superintendent of Instruction since 1898. He has reformed the whole educational system of New York. Another prominent Irish educationist is Miss Catherine Goggins, who inaugurated a movement for equitable taxation that has added 10,000;000 dollars to the revenue of Chicago. Mr. Daniel J. Quinn, is President of the Fordham University, and-Mr. Joseph Dunn of Washington University. In addition to a long list of University professors there are 26,000 Irish teachers m the primary schools of the United States. The founder of the University of Chicago was an Irishman. A Genius for Politics. It has come to be an axiom that the Irish race has a special genius for politics Irish names are written large in American public life. Mr. Bourke-Cockran has for many years been a national figure ,in politics. Mr. James A. O’Gorman was elected Senator for New York. In the diplomatic service Dr. Maurice F. Egan is U.S. Minister to Denmark; Mr. T. J. O’Brien is American Minister to Italy; Mr. R. C. Kerins is U.S. Ambassador to Austria. Seven State Governors are : Irishmen, and one, J. M. Carey, Ts father of the famous ■* Carey Act’ that transformed " agriculture in theWestern The; Governor of Illinois is -Mr. Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne, a* distinguished lawyer and - a student of Trinity - College, Dublin.* At least seven

Presidents of the _United States were of Irish blood. Three signatories of the Declaration of Independence were of Irish birth, and at least six.others of,them were of Irish parentage. " - ■ ' Leaders of Industry; And as in politics so in business. Since the death of Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the most powerful man in the American business world is Mr. Thomas F. Ryan. Mr. James J. Hill went with his parents to America when a boy, and with his railways since has opened an infant empire larger than a dozen Irelands. The president of the greatest steel corporation in the world, the United States Steel Corporation, is Mr. James A. Farrell, and he is of Irish birth. Samuel Boyne, the millionaire, left Ireland at the age of 25, and found fortune in the oilfields. The celebrated Cudehy brothers left Kilkenny in black ’47, when over 20 ears old, and their rise to be controllers of the world’s food supply is one of the most remarkable of America’s wonderful romances of industrialism. The famous Montana Copper King is an Irishman named John D. an. The Irish-born Kinney, of Wyoming, and Reilly, of Nevada, are millionaire cattle kings. Thomas F. Walsh, the mining multi-millionaire, left Tipperary when 19 years old. Anthony Brady left Ireland at 18, and began business in a small shop in Albany. He became president of the Edison Company, of street railway companies, of the United States Rubber Company, and is a director of forty other companies. John B. McDonnell built the New York subway and the Baltimore Belt Line. John D. Crimmins has added over a thousand buildings to the cities of the United States, and is a director of several banks and financial institutions. His benefactions to Church and charity were acknowledged by the title of Knight of St. Gregory conferred on him by Pope Leo XIII. Names to Conjure with. Irishmen have control of a great number of the leading . banks in New York, 'Pittsburg, Sap Francisco, Boston, and Chicago, and the largest savings institution-in New York is wholly Irish in its administration. Daniel O’Daly, the Standard Oil millionaire, started as a laborer on his arrival from Ireland. The names of John Mackey, M. Daly, James Flood, W. S. O’Brien, and J. Fair are enshrined in legends of the Rockies. They wrested 200,000,000 dollars out of the mountain side, and in twenty years after their arrival in America from Ireland became the most powerful money kings of two generations. Among the Pioneers. Irishmen were foremost among the early pioneers. Captain John J. Healy is called the commercial discoverer of Alaska, David Lynch laid the cable to’ that distant territory, Patrick Nolan led the way to Texas, E. O’Connor is known as the trail-maker to Utah. The Irish were the first to cross the Alleghanies. They were the original settlers of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and of the mining districts of Pennsylvania. In the fight for American freedom Irishmen consecrated many a battlefield with their blood. The names of John Sullivan, who struck the first blow for freedom, General Moylan, General Phil Sheridan, General Sherman, and General Meagher, of Commodore Barry, who founded the American Navy, and of Commodore Perry, in the war of 1812, are amongst the most, glorious heritages of American history. An Answer to Bigots. • The list measuring the activities of the Gael in the Western Republic could be extended almost indefinitely. The emigrants from Ireland have vivified the Administration, the Church, the Army, the Universities, the schools, the literature, and the inventive spirit of the United States. Their success is the standing answer to the wilfully blind and superior folk who prate of the Irishman’s unfitness for self-government, forgetful of .the capacity, amounting to wizardy, which he -has shown in helping to build up the-- young empires : of * the ’ world.' P The election of : Mr. Mitchel - to the 1 Mayoralty of New York is the latest manifestation of

Irish success in the United States. The position ranks next in importance to the Presidency itself. That it should be occupied by one bearing a name so honored and revered in Irish history is not the least grateful of the sensations which the election brings to 1 the heart ’ of the Irishman.