THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THIS " SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—It has been the custom in Nationalist circles in Ireland —that is, in circles dominated by the United Irish Leaguers— to sneer at the younger, though more virile, movement of the Sinn Feiners. But the latter have secured a firm footing in the country, and Nationalists, who up to the present have affected to regard them with contempt, are now beginning to have this feeling changed into dismay. If the Sinn Feiners can achieve so much in a few brief years, what is to become of the Nationalist cause, which is already threatened with more than one disintegrating influence ?
But a still greater danger confronts the followers of Mr. John Redmond and his party. For long they have had a singular advantage over their less numerous but more active opponents. They have had at their back the power of the Press, notably of the Freeman's Journal. During the last two or three years Mr. W. O'Brien's paper, the Irish People, has no doubt been a thorn in the side of the party, but now they are menaced with one that will give them even more painful pricks. Sinn Fein, the organ of the Sinn Feiners, has at its command many of the cleverest of Irish journalists. But Sinn Fein is a weekly, and now many members of the party are clamouring for the establishment of a daily journaL Their demand has been put forward with such persistency that it can no longer be ignored. The only question is that which has been fatal to many projectors of daily newspapers. It is
a question of finance. If the paper is started, it will have to be by the Sinn Feiners themselves coming forward with the necessary financial support. An appeal is being made to them to put down the requisite funds. On their response must depend whether or not one of the most interesting experiments ever attempted in daily journalism is to be entered upon. It is proposed to have an evening paper to be conducted on entirely novel lines. It will occasion some surprise among those who know what lavish sums have been expended on the establishment, or the attempted establishment, of London daily newspapers when it is mentioned that the amount asked
for in order to inaugurate this weighty enterprise is 28,000! Mr. Arthur Griffith, the editor of Sinn Fein, who will, of course, be the head of the new journal should it see the light of day, has no very great respect for his contemporaries. He says :— "No country can be overcome so long as its Press remains national and independent. The daily Press of Ireland is neither one nor the other. It is cowardly, ignorant and corrupt, and its cowardice, ignorance and corruption are reflecting themselves amongst a people naturally brave, intelligent and honourable. Even the sense of humour is being deadened in the people by this daily Press of ours, which if it be Orange attributes our poverty and emigration to the Pope, and if it be Green attributes our poverty and emigration to the English Legislature, and advocates as a remedy for that poverty and emigration the opening of our purse to pay the expenses of a permanent emigration to the Legislature it condemns."
The new paper will be unique in more than one respect. It will not, says Mr. Griffith, be a chronicle of the dock and the betting-ring,
"and the other garbage with which the daily Press of this country corrupts the mind of youth. I am convinced that the vital interests of Irish humanity, and of all humanity, are concerned with science and art, industry and commerce, religion and ethics, and not with the co-respondent and the murderer. Therefore, if the opportunity be given to me to produce a Sinn Fein daily paper, let none be deceived about its nature. It will be a chronicle and review of humanity, not an exhibition of its sores."
Meanwhile it seems inevitable that Mr. Griffith will have to show us what kind of a paper Ireland really needs, for on Saturday last it was announced that thirty of the thirty-two
Irish counties had responded to the appeal, and before the end of the year it is hoped to issue the new paper.—I am,
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