The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE IRISH IN AMERICA

New Zealand Tablet, 6 July 1916, Page 29

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE IRISH IN AMERICA

HYPHENATED paper published ‘out West ’—the British-Californian, to wit—has printed what we believe to be the most f remarkable wail on the subject of the Irish West’—the Eritish-0 alif orni an, to wit—has printed what we believe to be the most remarkable wail on the subject of the Irish uprising that has yet seen the light, and our contemporary, the Dunedin Evening Star with that curiously cosmopolitan taste which is at once the amusement and the despair of its readers, has given the weird lucubration the hospitality of its columns. The burden of the Californian scribe’s lamentation is that all the ills and woessocial, political, and industrial—afflict the land of the Stars and Stripes are due, wholly and solely, to those wicked Irish-Americans. ‘ Though they and their stock are less than 5 per cent, of the population, they have the nation cowed and helpless in the grip of their intrigues.’ ‘ Bad Irishmen,’ continues this apoplectic outburst, ‘ are the curse of fair America. They fill our prisons, corrupt our politics, spread discontent and mutiny in our every social and industrial institution; dominate our Labor unions, our newspaper press, our halls of legislation always to evil ends. They live by agitation and crime. They are grafters, boodlers, bribers, and corruptionists. The history of every municipality is the same ; 80 per cent, of official wrong-doing is done by Irishmen. And withal they show no gratitude, no loyalty to the country that has given them asylum and their own way. They must rule or ruin, and if crossed show a ferocity and viciousness truly fiendish. They are moved to acts of treason by the slightest provocation, and without provocation, recent examples being their conspiracies to blow up American factories, to invade the territory of a friendly nation, to start a civil war in the United States, should their dictation go unheeded. And all this while posing, with brazen effrontery, as patriotic Americanised citizens.’

If this indictment were true, it would at least furnish rather striking testimony to the dynamic energy and force of character of these same Irish-Americans. If 5 per cent, of the population are able to acquire such

an ascendancy that they have the nation cowed-and helpless’—well, it doesn’t say much for ‘the nation,’ and the nation’s journalists would show more sense and self-respect by keeping discreetly silent -about the fact. Moreover, it must at once occur to the intelligent reader as rather remarkable that this singular phenomenon should be entirely confined to America. In all the rest of the English-speaking worldin Britain, in Canada, in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand —the citizens of Irish birth are, admittedly, playing a part in public and political life that is as useful as it is honorable. This outstanding and unanswerable fact raises at once a strong presumption that the Californian writer’s statements are, like Hood’s oyster, ‘open to suspicion.’ They are, in point of fact, sheer figments —the obvious outcome of a cerebral weakness and disturbance for which the writer cannot be held seriously responsible. This we can easily establish on unbiassed and unimpeachable testimony. Even so conservative a witness as the London Times acknowledges that ‘ in these calmer days no Englishman denies the extent, variety, and value of Ireland’s contribution to the Empire ’; and the statement has ap even stronger application to the history and development of America. To this fact accredited authorities on the subject of the career and influence of the Irish race in the Republic bear willing testimony. In a notable speech delivered at Chicago, during the term of his occupancy of the White House, President Taft paid a warm tribute, not only to the ease and rapidity with which the Irish had developed allegiance to the Republic and its institutions, but also to the high value of their contribution to American life and character. ‘ The proportion of. their number,’ he said, ‘ that have been successful and are well to do has greatly increased in the last two generations. The amalgamation between the Irishmen and Americans has gone on and the Irish are rapidly being absorbed and are rapidly contributing their share to the new and distinct type of American. The Irishman has contributed in this common type to its chivalry, its courage, its courtesy, its resiliency, its capacity for enjoyment of life, Its imagination, and last but not of least importance, its sense and its enjoyment of humor. In all our wars the Irishmen have been to the frontin the Revolution, in the war of 1812, in the Mexican war, and in the Civil war. They are naturally a warlike people, and their patriotic love for their adopted country made them soldiers in the Army of the Union than whom there were none more daring, none more effective. The fondness with which they cherish the memories of the beautiful island of their origin does not in the slightest lessen their loyalty to the country in which they have made themselves so prominent and successful a part. Loving personal and religious liberty, insisting upon broad tolerance and equality before the law, they are a most valuable element in our body politic. Relieved from the sadness of the surroundings in their island home, they do not .like some of the rest of us, take their pleasures sadly. Broad, open-hearted, full of that spirit of good fellowship and love of human kind, they create an atmosphere by their presence in the community that it is healthful and delightful to breathe.’ ,

gV- That is a fair and disinterested summary of the position, and it is an answer on every point to the H reckless rhetoric of the Californian paper. But it may be interesting to look a little more in detail into the work and achievements of the Irish in America, p and in doing so we shall find that the Irish have contributed more than their share to the pioneers and leaders in almost every branch of American progress. To "the genius of the Irish in the United States the If -world is indebted lor the first steamboat, the first lj telegraph, the first ocean cable, the first reaping machine, and the first successful submarine boat, says | Mr. W. W. Young, formerly editor of Hampton's HMagazine , in an interesting article on ‘ America’s Debt to the Irish,’ published in the Syracuse Herald. f * Throughout our nation’s growth, the Irish have been foremost amongst the pathfinders in westward progress,

and they were here from the very beginning, for it is recorded that in the crew of the ship that carried Columbus was a Galway sailor. The Irish were first to cross the They were the original settlers of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and of the mining districts of Pennsylvania. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett were among their leaders. Sam Houston and Patrick Nolan led the way to Texas; Patrick E. O’Connor was the trail-maker to Utah. Captain John J. Healy has been rightly called the commercial discoverer of Alaska, and another Irishman, David Lynch, laid the cable to that distant territory.’ James J. Hill, the pioneer in railroads, ‘came with his Irish parents to the States when a boy, and with his railroads since has opened an infant empire larger than a dozen Irelands, and with his steamships has linked the inland empire with the great empires of the eastern world.’ American farming machinery, so well known throughout the world, is the everlasting monument to the inventive genius of a famous Irish-Ameri-can pioneer, Cyrus H. McCormack, inventor of the reaping machine. Few outside of America are aware of the wonderful array of American industrial pioneers. We see Robert Fulton, the father of steam navigation; Samuel F. B. Morse, of telegraph and ocean cable fame; Henry W. Oliver, Pittsburg steel king; John B. McDonald, builder of the New York subway and of the Baltimore Belt line; John P. Holland, submarine boat inventor; and a host of others. John D. Crimmins, the noted New York contractor, has' added more than a thousand buildings to the cities of the United States. Among the noted engineers is John J. Kelly, of Pittsfield, Mass. His speciality is electricity, and he has received more than 80 United States patents for its utilisation. William Mulholland, chief engineer of the waterworks of Los Angeles, has conducted one of the most remarkable engineering feats of recent times in the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct, carrying water from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the city, a distance of 250 miles. * Turning to the learned professions, we find that in the educational world the Irish are again to the fore. A pathfinder in education was William Rainey Harper, the real founder of the University of Chicago. William H. Maxwell, who emigrated from Ireland when 22 years old, presides over education in New York as Superintendent of Instruction since 1898, and was Superintendent of Brooklyn schools from 1887. He has reformed the whole educational system of New York. Miss Margaret Haley, of the Chicago schools, is another great educational reformer, who prepared legislation for teachers and working women that found its place on the Statute Books and is known by her name. Another prominent Irish lady educationalist is Miss Catherine Goggins, who, with Miss Haley, inaugurated a movement for equitable taxation that has added ten million dollars to the revenue of Chicago. The Irish professors in the colleges have notable repre- ' sentatives, such as James J. Walsh, of Fordham and Cathedral Colleges, New York; Daniel J. Quinn, president of Fordham University; Joseph Dunn, of the Catholic University in Washington; James McMahon, of Cornell; and Thomas C. Hall, of Union Theological Seminary; and it must be remembered that Asa Gray, the eminent botanist, was an Irishman. There are' more than 26,000- Irish teachers in the public schools of the United States, doing more to mould the minds and influence the future of young America than any number of hysterical journalists. In the medical profession we have such noted Irish-Americans as the Mayo brothers, of Rochester, Minn., whose great institution is famous throughout the world, and surgeons of the calibre of Dr. John B. Murphy, of Chicago, and Dr. Francis J. Quinlan, of New York. In the legal world, 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. It would require a whole volume —and an interesting volume it would be—to give an

adequate account of the noble part borne by * the fighting race’ in the battles of the Republic. It must suffice for our present purpose to'say that the names of John Sullivan, who struck the. first blow for freedom; of General Moylan, General Phil Sheridan, General George G. Monde, General Sherman and General Charles Meagher; of Commodore Barry, founder of the American navy, and of Commodore Perry, in the war of 1812, are amongst the most glorious heritages of American history. . At least seven Presidents of the United States were of Irish blood. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence— Smith, and Taylor—were Irish by birth, while five more were of direct Irish descent—Rutledge, Lynch, McKean, Reed, and Carroll. The man who read aloud the Declaration on the birth morning of the Republic was Charles Thompson, born in Ireland. The second to publicly read it was Nixon, son of an Irish exile, while Thomas Dunlap, an Irishman, printed it. * And so we might go on; but we have said sufficient to show that there is a very different side to the picture from that presented by the jaundiced Californian paper. The action of a section of Irish-Americans in aiding and abetting the Irish rising is greatly to be regretted, but it is not difficult to explain in the light of Irish history and in view of the bitter memories which the exiles must have carried to their new-home. Their attitude and doings are fair matter for fair comment; but it should surely be possible to discuss the subject without descending to the pitiable drivel which our Dunedin contemporary has passed on to. its readers.