When the Americans fought for and won their independence they
were suffering under far worse grievances than anything which living Irishmen can remember. To-day Ireland is a petted, over- indulged, lightly taxed, and over-represented country. The difference between the United States and Ireland is that Americans have the nobility to forget wrongs which are embedded in past history. The Americans are fighting in conjunction with Great Britain not for Great Britain but for Right. The Lord Mayor of Dublin invites President Wilson to say that it is just for Ireland to serve Wrong in order that she may score off Great Britain. The most melodramatic remarks in the document about the " Blood Tax" of Conscription will leave Americans peculiarly unmoved. The " Blood Tax " is in kind, though not in degree, like any other tax. It is a terrible tax, but it is a tax on good citizenship. Lincoln understood that when he applied the Draft in spite of Irish frenzy, and he insisted on the very thing which the Irish rebels are now trying to mai* namely, that secession should be forbidden, and that union should prevail. As a. result Lincoln, next to George Washington, is the greatest of American heroes.
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