Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1902 — SENATOR SADDRESS IRISH-AMERICANS [ARTICLE]

SENATOR SADDRESS IRISH-AMERICANS

Tillman Urges Them to Take John Bull by the Horns and Humble Him. MASON SAYS THEY ARE LOYAL Challenges Any One to Bhow a Celt In the Ranks of the Anarchists— Declares His Attitude Toward Boers Has Caused Ostracism. “We want to fight against this tyranny by physical or moral forces. Stick together, arouse public opinion and make a fight for it Pull together and you will win.” This was the advice given by United States Senator Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina to Irish nationalists assembled in annual pionic at Chicago. Three thousand people, gathered in Oswald’s grove, Fiftysecond and Halsted street, Indorsed the sentiment with their cheers. Do Not Pull Together. “The Irish are like a team of horses,” continued Senator Tillman. “They are prone to pull in a zigzag manner. One pulls and then the other. If you, the Irish-American, and the Irish of other countries, contribute your moral forces and your physical forces the question of Irish independence would be solved as soon as you could pull together. Take Johnny Bull by the throat and force him to his knees. Urges United Action. “God did not make Ireland slave to England any more than he made the thirteen colonies slave to the same country, and some day Ireland will throw off the yoke, as did those brave men of 1776. “I don’t see what can become of this agitation for Ireland in America unless some action is taken. Back your resolutions up with action. I think that England should be made, forced to feel public opinion In every possible way. She has no longer the right, nor never had, to put Ireland under the heels of English landlords and nobles and grind her to death." Attack on Redmond. John Mack Sullivan of New Haven, Conn., at the evening meeting, attacked the purposes of those who are content to fight Ireland’s battles in the halls of parliament, as is being done by John Redmond. “What a spectacle the Irish people would present to the world,” he declared, “if they at last become united in supplicating England for money and a crumb! With a history such as no conquered country on earth can boast of. It is an unthinkable proposition. Is Against Weakness. “How long would that nationality have lasted had we kissed the hand of the conquerors, as this latter day convert to constitutional agitation would have us do, and meekly depend on their generosity for permission to live? “O’Connell failed, and, as his successor, John Redmond will fail. Constitutional agitation has always been a failure. The present one will follow those which have gone before. The Redmond government will fall. Senator Mason Talks. While aggressive action was advocated at Oswald’s grove, the United Irish Societies, assembled in the old Sunnyside park, indorsed the work of John Redmond and his followers in parliament. United States Senator William E. Mason was the principal speaker here and was given a rousing welcome. “No nation is good enough to govern another nation without its consent,” said the Senator, a statement that brought the crowd to its feet. Irish Are Loyal. Mr. Mason said the Irish-Americans were the most loyal Americans. “Did you ever hear of an Irishman turning an anarchist?” questioned the speaker. “There is not a case on record.” He said that when he had denounced the Boer war on the senate floor at Washington after he had been criticised and had been made the butt of ridicule, he could go to just two places. To his wife and children and to his Irish-American friends.