The organ of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society publishes an
interesting letter addressed by Mr. Roosevelt to Mr. Bryce in March last. The "Country Life Commission" appointed to investigate the state of agriculture in the United States submitted their Report last February, and Mr. Roose- velt's personal interest in the problem led him to express to the British Ambassador the debt which his country owed to the co-operative movement in agriculture initiated and directed by Sir Horace) Plunkett in Ireland. There are now nearly a
thousand farmers' societies in Ireland with a membership of a hundred thousand, arid an annual turnover of 22,500,000. The serious blow which the new Irish Land Bill is likely to deal to this system, founded on the principle of self-help, to which he has devoted the best years of his life, is set forth by Sir Horace Plunkett in the June Nineteenth Century. The withholding from publication of the President's letter by our Government is entirely of a piece with their previous treatment of Sir Horace Plunkett.
Previous page
