Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1919 — DE VALERA AND THE K. OF C. [ARTICLE]

DE VALERA AND THE K. OF C.

In speaking editorially of the visit of Eamonn De Valera’s visit to Indianapolis this week, the Lnrdianapolis News said: Eamonn De Vela, the so-called “president of the Irish republic,” declared in his Louisville speech that Ireland justified her nonparticipation in the world war and was glad of an opportunity to stab the mother country—England. In his address in Indianapolis De Valera boasted that Ireland, as such, refused to recognize the principle of conscription and declined to give aid to Great Britain at a time When Germany threatened to crush the empire. Fortunately De Valera had am opportunity to hear Joseph A. McGowan and Thomas D. McGee at the banquet given by the Indianapolis Knights of Columbus. They paid a just and fitting tribute to that organization. Not a single word of criticism, McGee said, had been uttered against the Knights otf Columbus for the part the order took in the war. Yet while De Valera gloated over the fact that he and his Sinn Felners stabbed England, the Knights of Columibus were doihg everything in their power to aid the allied cause. There Is no record that a Knights of Columbus worker refused succor to a British Tommy and then gave it to a German. The Knights of Columbus earned the praise given them through their tireless energy In support of the allied cause, but De Valera is seeking support on the theory that he and his followers stabbed an American ally when-

ever the opportunity was offered. It may well be remembered also that it was De Valera’s Sinn Fetner constituency that mobbed American sailors in the streets of Cork eo that in order to avoid further trouble it was necessary to declare the city “out of bounds” for our men. It is unfortunate that De Valera is put forward as spokesman for those who hope fpr further Irish freedom; for he does not represent the 200,000 Irish who fought in the war against Germany, the Irish priests who served so valiantly as chaplains during the war, nor the Irish prisoners who spurned the German bribes held out to them to induce them to betray the cause of the allies. These did not seek to “stab” England and incidentally to defeat the cause that America fought for. America has- not forgotten the war.