Sir Horace Plunkett died in America on Wednesday. He was
sixty-five years of age. While his recent advocacy of "Dominion Home Rule " and his coquetting with Sinn Fein had distressed most of his old friends, his political eccentricity should not make us forget the excellent work that he had done for Irish farming. He taught the Irish dairy farmers the value of co-operation, and, through the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, formed in 1894, he showed them how to combine as the Danish farmers had done. He persuaded the Government in 1899 to set up an Irish Department of Agriculture, and as its first Vice-President he made the Department a real force in Ireland. The Nationalists of course opposed him and his movement, because it was non- political and aimed solely at benefiting the Irish peasantry. The Liberal Government of 1906 deferred to the Nationalists by dismissing Sir Horace Plunkett, and by allowing his successor, Mr. T. W. Russell; not only to withdraw the State grant to the Agricultural Organization Society, but also to obstruct the Society's application for' a grant from the Development Cora- mission. Happily the Irish co-operative movement survived these discreditable Liberal and Nationalist intrigues. Sir Horace Plunkett was unanimously chosen to be the Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917.
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