TOPICS OF THE DAY
• THE FREE STATE ELECTIONS.
IRISHMEN have always been a political people, and the Free State, with less than two million electors, has been true to its character in putting up 874 candi- dates for 150 seats. We say 150 seats because the three Trinity College, Dublin, seats, which bring the seats up to the full number of 153, were filled unopposed before the election. Although the results are not com- plete when we write on Thursday—the counting of votes under Proportional Representation is a slow process— the success of those who stand for the Treaty and the existing order is overwhelming. Things have turned out far better than anyone could have foreseen even a few months ago. We sincerely hope that the Free State will now be able to settle down with as little disturbance as possible to the very serious business of straightening out everything which has been made crooked during the past few years. The elections are described by common consent as having been dull. But Irish elections are never really dull. Dullness was probably attributed to them owing to some sense of relief and surprise at the unaccustomed absence of bombs and bullets. Where there were rows —and there were plenty—they seem to have been con- ducted in the good old former manner with the shillelagh and the blackthorn, the stone and the potato. There were also many concerted attempts at breaking up meetings, and the heckling of candidates is said to have been superb. There is no one quite like an Irish heckler. He is so well primed with awkward facts, if not with whiskey, and he has such a fierce vivacity that the untrained parliamentarian is hard put to it to deal with him. He may be less pertinacious in the long run, as he is certainly less subtle, than the Scottish heckler, but he has so many points in his favour that it would be difficult to say whether the most efficient heckler of the British Isles is the Irishman or the Scots- man. The Irishman excels in scorn and aggressiveness, the Scotsman in the ingenious art of setting dialectical traps—logical or theological, legal or metaphysical. Supreme among the leaders of the Free State Party is Mr. Cosgrave. We venture to congratulate him on the courage and the boundless energy with which he has conducted his whirlwind campaign. There was not a dangerous constituency—not even the stronghold of Mr. De Valera himself—which he did not visit and where he did not face his enemies. He was ready to meet all their charges about executions, imprisonments and floggings. He was here, there and everywhere, getting about the country by aeroplane or fast motor. It was said that he had made a present of thousands of votes to the Republicans when he had Mr. De Valera arrested. Truly in Ireland a politician in prison is as a rule worth a hundred lucky mascots to the party which he is prevented from representing. But this time the Republicans rejoiced too soon ; most Irishmen, of whatever party, seem to have been mainly impressed by the spirit and determination which the Free State Government had displayed. The prestige of the Govern- ment went up by leaps and bounds. Mr. De Valera could, no doubt, have been arrested on countless occasions, but the Government felt strong enough to carry out the arrest dramatically when Mr. De Valera's foot was, so to speak,- on his native platform, or, to speak literally, in his chosen constituency surrounded by thousands of his stoutest supporters. ' Only thirty-five Free State soldiers and an armoured- car were needed for the job, and the "mountsiny " men; renowned for their resolution and lasting power, who (as the Times -correspondent tells us) were present in large numbers, took to their heels. When all has been said in extenuation, the incident was a humiliation for the Republicans.
The G3vernment, or " Cumann," Party has undoubtedly been favoured, first by the incoherent policy imposed upon the Republicans by Mr. De Valera and by the proud but futile declaration of the Republicans that they will never defile themselves by sitting in the Dail, and secondly by the disabling disputes among the repre- sentatives of Labour. The Republicans managed to put forward fifty candidates, but, as none of them will sit, a very small minority over the Republicans would have served the Government as well as a large one. The effect of the Republicans' failure must be looked for rather outside the Dail. Let us hope that that failure is significant enough to take the heart out of Repub- licanism and prevent a revival of the campaign of murder, arson and ambush. It was noticeable that a considerable proportion of the Republican 'candidates were women. We cannot feel certain that we have seen the last of these Amazons, for their obsession is, if possible, more violent than that of the men, and the women must be reckoned as more heroic than the men or less—according to the point of view. Although it is of their own free will that the Republicans will not sit, it need not be expected, for that reason, that they will not make it a grievance that they are not sitting. There seems to be no limit to the illogicality with which their minds work. They have talked in their election speeches a great deal about the will of Ireland, but when their meaning is analyzed it is found to be that the will of Ireland is always expressed by the Republicans, however few in number they may be. To take another instance of illogicality, one of the most popular of the Republican songs, the Lillibullero of the campaign—the object of the ridicule being, of course, the Treaty Irishmen—with a rollicking rhythm and a resounding tune ends up by vowing that De Valera shall be King of Ireland. As a Republican campaigning song this would be bad to beat in any country, and we should think that it has not been excelled for humour even in Ireland.
The very few Labour men who emerge from the crash of their party will take their seats in the Dail, but will do so under protest. The party has been left leaderless by the breakdown of Mr. Johnson's health, and its whole position has been weakened, if not under- mined, by the machinations of Mr. Larkin. Mr. Larkin himself did not stand for election, and it seems that there were only four Labour candidates (those chosen by the Trades Councils in Dublin) who received his imprimatur as being true Simon Pures. On the Labour side the principal effort in unconscious humour was the solemn protest against there being a public holiday for the elections without pay being provided for the manual workers. Mr. Larkin advised the .workers to show their resentment not only by not voting, but by offering to work as usual. It is said that some firms accepted the suggestion that work should go on as usual. In any case, a great many Labour voters cut off their noses that day to spite their faces. No doubt the Labour members will carry on as before, struggling for what they call a "Workers' Republic," which is not by any means to be confused with the other Republicr with or without Mr. De Valera as king.
While the Cumann Party put forward 109 candidates, the Independents, with 71 candidates, and the Farmers' Party, with 64, were well in the running. A fair number of the Independents will no doubt stand for the Treaty, and all the farmers may be expected to do so. The thorough organization of the Farmers' Party, which contested every rural constituency, is really remarkable. The farmers as a class have no experience of political life, but they have a programme about which they are very much in earnest, and their seriousness hag made up for their lack of oratory. The farmers are, in a word, for economy, and they are perfectly right. The problem of making both ends meet is among all the difficulties before the Free State the most desperate. If waste and expenditure go on as they have been doing so far the Free State will carry an oppressive burden of debt through all its early years, a burden that will frustrate all its hopes of making good or of rendering individual prosperity in Ireland a possibility. It is the fear of grinding taxation and personal poverty or ruin that the farmers have continually before them. Their concentration, though ineffectual in result, has been a very good sign. Perhaps they have a better economic sense than the corresponding class in England has, for it is certain that the farmer politicians in Ireland have produced detailed and exact schemes for the cutting down of public expenditure.
We do not want to exaggerate, for we well know what a dangerous and complicated task lies before the Free State Government, but we believe that the Government, sent on its way with all the necessary signs of public confidence, ought to win through. We sincerely wish it success. and we hope that after all that has happened quiet and prosperity and contentment may yet be the lot of distracted Ireland. It is satisfactory to know that the priests are now with practical unanimity urging the people to abide by the Treaty. No doubt the priests, owing to the deplorable attitude of most of them during the murder campaign, forfeited a large part of their influence. Of course, they hopsd to preserve it by a convenient ambiguity, but the justice of events was too much for them and Nemesis overtook them. It would be wrong to say that their influence is injured irreparably ; it may be restored ; but as things are religion counts for less among the Southern Irish than any observer of a generation ago would have believed possible. On a survey of the whole situation, however, we feel much more encouraged than discouraged. Law and order have an exceptional custodian in Mr. C,osgrave.
Previous page
