While the circumstances of the agricultural class in Ireland are by no means ideal, a great deal has been done to improve them. At the present rate of progress, however, it will take from twenty to twenty-five years, if not much longer, to accomplish the results intended by the Wyndham Land Act of 1903, which was expected to bring about the Irish millennium. That act provides that an owner of a large estate may sell to his tenants the holdings they occupy, and his untenanted land to any one who desires to buy it, in such tracts and at such prices as may be agreed upon, corresponding to the income now derived from that particular property. No landlord can sell a few acres here and there of good land under this act, although, of course, he is at liberty to dispose of any part of his estate at any time at any price that he may consider proper. But the terms and privileges of the Wyndham Act can only be enjoyed by a community of tenants in the purchase of the whole or a considerable portion of an estate. A board of commissioners which sits in the old-fashioned mansion in which the Duke of Wellington was born, on Merrion Street, Dublin, is authorized to use its discretion in the application of the law and in granting its privileges to those for whose benefit it is intended. Nothing can be done without their approval. The landlord and the tenants may arrange their own bargains to their own satisfaction, but they must be submitted to the board before they are carried out.

When such agreements are reached and approved by the commission,—including the area sold, the price, and other terms,—the government is expected to furnish the purchase money from the public treasury. The landlord is entitled to receive the cash in full, and the tenant, who pays nothing, gives a mortgage, as we would call it, upon the property to the government for sixty-eight years or less, and agrees to pay an annual installment of 3¼ per cent of the purchase price, of which 2¾ per cent is interest and ½ per cent goes into a sinking fund to cover the purchase money at the end of sixty-eight years. A purchaser may pay off the mortgage at any time he pleases, and receive a clear title to the land; or he may sell it whenever he chooses, subject to the mortgage, which follows the land and not the person. If he is unable to pay his annuities, the government can turn him out and dispose of the land, subject to the same terms and conditions, to another person. It can make no allowance for crop failures or cattle diseases. It cannot extend or modify its credits.

Nearly all of the landlords are willing to sell their estates; many are glad to get rid of them, because the average tenantry in Ireland are a very determined class, and are always making trouble. There have been almost continuous disturbances over land questions of one form or another in Ireland since the beginning of time. The rents are low compared with the American standard, but have been difficult to collect, and when there is a failure of crops they cannot be collected at all. The landlords complain that all the laws that have been enacted of late years are entirely in the interest of the tenants; that the landlord has no show at all. And perhaps that is true, because public sympathy is invariably with the tenants, and they cast many votes, while the landlord has only one, even if he tries to vote at all.

Since 1881 the land courts have adjusted the rents of 360,135 farmer tenants, involving 10,731,804 acres of land. The total rents paid for these lands annually before adjustment was £7,206,079. They were reduced by judicial order to a total of £5,715,158, a difference of about $7,500,000 a year in American money, in favor of the tenants.

Therefore it is perfectly natural that landowners—and especially those who have had a good deal of trouble with their tenants—are anxious to dispose of their estates for cash, which they can invest to much better advantage. The Duke of Leinster, for example, who is a minor, has realized more than £800,000 in cash, which his trustees have invested in brewery stocks, railway bonds, and other securities which pay regular dividends and give him no anxiety.

Mr. Bailey, one of the commissioners, told me that the good estates have been disposed of without difficulty. The disposition of the poor land has been more difficult, because the tenants are not as eager to get it, the owner is not always satisfied with the price, and the commission is not willing to make advances upon small bits of land among the bogs and rocks and other tracts of unfertile soil that would not be considered good security by anybody. The commissioners have treated these transactions very much as they would have done if they were mortgage bankers. They have refused to make advances on land that a banker would not have considered good security. They have not been willing to make advances on farms that cannot be made to pay. There have been complications in certain cases that have perplexed them, but, as a rule, the law has been working out in a most satisfactory and gratifying manner. The chief object of the commission and the purpose of the law has been to break up the great estates of Ireland so far as possible in farms of not more than one hundred acres, and sell them to the occupants, so as to create a nation of peasant proprietors, and that, he says, is being accomplished more rapidly than any one had reason to expect. Of course Mr. Bailey does not pretend that everybody is satisfied. That would be impossible. The millennium has not yet come, and the Wyndham Act has not brought it, although it has undoubtedly done more than any previous legislation to promote peace in this distracted country, and offers promises of future prosperity and contentment.

Naturally some of the landowners have not been willing to sell their property, and their tenants have been trying to force them to do so. That accounts for the “cattle driving” and similar disturbances that you read about in the newspaper cablegrams from Ireland. It is to be regretted that the tendency of the newspapers is to publish sensational occurrences and unfortunate events. If a man commits a great crime it is advertised from one end of the world to the other. If he does a good deed very little is said about it, and a false impression concerning conditions in Ireland has been created by the widespread publication of every little outrage or disturbance that occurs over there, while the enormous usefulness and the satisfactory application of the Wyndham Land Act has been almost entirely neglected by newspaper writers.

There have, however, been a good many little disturbances occasioned by the efforts of the tenants of certain estates, particularly those that are now devoted to cattle-breeding, to force their landlords to divide up the pastures and sell them. At present there is more money in the cattle and sheep business than in any other kind of farming in Ireland, and, as you drive out into the interior, you can see the loveliest pastures in the world filled with fat, sleek animals feeding upon the luscious grass. I do not believe there are richer or more beautiful pastures in any land, and Irish beef and mutton command a premium because of their flavor and tenderness. Hence prosperous cattle-breeders cannot be blamed for refusing to sell their pastures and go out of business, and there is no law to compel them to do so. But the rough and reckless elements in the villages, and in many cases among their own tenantry, often try to persecute them by cattle and sheep “driving,” as it is called, until they are willing to cry quits. The popular method is to break down the gates or the hedges,—they do not have fences in Ireland,—turn the cattle and sheep into the road, and run them as far as possible away from their proper pastures, scattering them over the country. This is done in the night, and the next morning the owner is compelled to take such measures to recover as many of the strays as he can. Various means are adopted to prevent such outrages. Armed guards are employed who defend their cattle, sometimes at the cost of life and bloodshed, which, of course, provokes bad feeling and greater trouble. Hundreds of men have been arrested and punished by long terms of imprisonment, but “cattle-driving” still goes on in various parts of the country with some serious results. But it is comparatively insignificant when compared with the great good that is being accomplished by the breaking up of the big estates whose owners are willing to dispose of them.

Thus far the Wyndham Act has been carried out without much friction; the chief difficulty having arisen from the eagerness of the landlords to dispose of their estates, which is so much greater than anticipated, that the funds provided have not been sufficient, and the landlords who have sold their property have been compelled to wait for their pay. In November, 1908, Mr. Augustine Birrell, chief secretary for Ireland in the British cabinet, introduced into the House of Commons a bill for the appropriation of more than $760,000,000, to be raised by an issue of bonds to pay for the estates that have already been sold and for those that may be sold in the future. That amount of money he asserted would be necessary to carry out the plans of the government under the Land Act of 1903.

This proposition of Mr. Birrell is without doubt the most stupendous munificence ever offered by any government to its subjects. The money thus appropriated does not pay for any service performed. It is a direct appropriation from the public treasury to the people of Ireland for the simple purpose of relieving their poverty and placing them in circumstances which will permit them to enjoy life without the hardships and sufferings and fruitless labor which they and their forefathers have for generations endured.

The advances of the British government to the Irish peasants, if this bill becomes a law, will reach nearly $1,000,000,000, but it is to be repaid by them in small installments. Mr. Birrell, in his explanation of the purpose of the bill to the House of Commons, stated that up to the 31st of October £25,000,000 in round numbers (which amounts to about $125,000,000 in our money) had already been expended by the estates commissioners in purchasing farms from the large landholders in Ireland for the benefit of the tenants who occupy them, and that £52,000,000 (which is the equivalent of about $260,000,000) is due to other landowners who have sold their estates under the Act of 1903. These transactions have been completed with the exception of payment of the price.

The transactions concluded under the Land Act of 1903 up to Oct. 31, 1908, provide farms for about 126,000 Irish families, at a cost of $385,000,000 to the British treasury, which is to be refunded by the owners of the farms in sixty-eight years, with interest at 3¼ per cent. Three-fourths of 1 per cent of this annual interest, to be paid by the man who owns the farm, goes into a sinking fund to meet the principal of bonds which have been issued to provide the purchase money. The remaining 2½ per cent is paid by the farmer in lieu of rent, and is used to meet the annual interest upon the bonds. Thus the farmer gets his land in perpetuity by the payment of sixty-eight annual installments of an amount equal to 3¼ per cent of its present value. The average cost of the 126,000 farms thus far purchased is $1,790.

The British government advances the money and becomes responsible for the payment of the interest and principal. The annual interest is only a trifle. In some cases it is only a shilling a week, and it runs up to as high as a pound or two a week in special cases, the average being estimated at $59 a year for the 126,000 farms, or $5 a month for the purchase of a farm, and whatever improvements may happen to be upon the land. If these improvements are not adequate, if the house is not comfortable, and if barns, stables, fences, and other permanent improvements are needed, the government advances the money to provide for them upon the same terms,—sixty-eight annual payments of 3¼ per cent of the cost.

Mr. Birrell in his explanation estimated on Oct. 31, 1908, that the additional sum of $760,000,000 will be necessary to complete the work, to provide every family in the rural districts of Ireland with a farm of their own, and with the intention of doing that he asks an appropriation of that amount, which will bring the cost of the Irish land policy of the British government up to nearly $900,000,000.

This does not include the expenditures of the Congested Districts Board, which have been $440,000 annually for several years, and in the future are to be $1,250,000 a year.

Nor does it include several millions of dollars which have been expended under previous land acts, to purchase farms for the tenant occupiers.

Nor does it include the $25,000,000 appropriated several years ago upon the motion of James Bryce, now British ambassador at Washington, to build cottages for the agricultural laborers,—the farm hands of Ireland.

Mr. Wyndham, the author of the Land Act of 1903, stated in the House of Commons that 159,000 farmers had applied for the assistance of the government to purchase their holdings, and that 176,000 more would probably apply, out of a total of 490,000 farmers in Ireland. His estimates are not so high as those of Mr. Birrell; he believed that $600,000,000, or $800,000,000 at the outside, would be sufficient, instead of $900,000,000, as estimated by Mr. Birrell. He is convinced that 20 per cent of the 490,000 farmers in Ireland would not apply for farms, and that the average price of the farms purchased would not exceed $1,500.

Of the farms already purchased, the average price in Leinster province was £528 ($2,640); in Munster, £452 ($2,260); in Ulster, £242 ($1,210); and in Connaught, £211 ($1,055).

Connaught is the poorest of the poor provinces, and in 1908, out of a total of 29,000 farmers who applied, only 2,000 came from Connaught. Taking the most liberal estimate that he could imagine, Mr. Wyndham stated that $800,000,000 would be the maximum required.

The Wyndham Land Act is not the first experiment of the kind. It is not the first attempt of the government to break up the big estates of Ireland into small farms and homes for the people who are now working them under the present system. W.F. Bailey, one of the commissioners who are carrying out the provisions of that act, gave me an interesting sketch of the history of the movement from the date of the passage of what is known as “the Irish Church Act” in 1869, which was the original endeavor to create a peasant-proprietor system by the aid of state loans.

“Under the Irish Church Act,” said Mr. Bailey, “commissioners were appointed to sell to the tenants of lands belonging to the church their holdings at prices fixed by the commissioners themselves. If the tenant refused to buy on the terms offered, the commissioners were authorized to sell to the public for at least one-fourth and as much more as they could get in cash, and the balance secured by a mortgage to be paid off in thirty-two years in half-yearly installments. They sold farms to 6,057 tenants, and the government loaned the purchasers a total of £1,674,841 which was issued by the commissioners of public works.

“In 1870, the following year, what is known as the Landlord and Tenant Act was passed by Parliament, under which the commissioners were authorized to advance two-thirds of the purchase money agreed upon instead of one-fourth, to be repaid in thirty-five years with 5 per cent interest, and all agricultural and pastural lands in Ireland were included in its provisions. Under this act 877 tenants purchased their holdings for a total of £859,000, of which the government advanced £514,526.

“This act was amended in 1881 to provide that three-quarters instead of two-thirds of the purchase money might be advanced by the government on the same terms, and 731 tenants took advantage of it. The advances amounted to £240,801.

“What was known as the Ashbourne Act was passed in 1885, appropriating the sum of £5,000,000 to enable the commissioners to purchase estates for the purpose of reselling them to the tenants and others, and they were authorized to furnish the entire purchase money, to be repaid in annual installments extending over a period of forty-nine years, with interest at 5 per cent. In 1888 an additional sum of £5,000,000 was advanced for the same purpose, and 25,368 tenants on 1,355 estates purchased their holdings with £9,992,640 advanced by the government.

“These funds having been exhausted, Mr. Balfour in 1891 introduced a new system under which the landlord, instead of cash, was paid in guaranteed stock exchangeable for consols equal in amount to the purchase money, and running for thirty years with interest at 2¾ per cent. This stock was guaranteed by the Irish probate duty, the customs, and excise taxes, and certain local grants. The amount of stock that could be issued for any county was limited, however, and when that limit was reached the sales had to stop. The advances under this act were £39,145,348.

“The Act of 1891 was amended in 1896 in various respects. The annual installments were fixed at 4 per cent, 2¾ per cent being for interest and 1¼ per cent to create a sinking fund for the repayment of the capital. The number of purchases arranged under this act was 36,994, and the total amount advanced was £10,809,190.

“The following table will give the number of tenants who have purchased their holdings from their landlords with the assistance of the government under these various acts and under the Wyndham Act of 1903 from 1869 to the 31st of May, 1908:

The following table shows the number of tenant purchasers under the three land purchase acts of 1885–88, 1891–96, and 1903; the amount due from them annually, the number who were in arrears, and the amount of money unpaid on July 1, 1908:

This is an extraordinary statement. It shows that 116,992 Irish farmers have had farms purchased for them by the government, which they are under obligations to pay for by installments amounting annually to $7,240,000. Only 1,033, or less than 1 per cent, of them are in arrears in their payments, and the amount unpaid is only about $50,000. The statement shows that only 120 are in arrears for more than one installment. This is conclusive evidence that the peasant farmers of Ireland are carrying out in good faith the generous arrangement that has been made for them by the British Parliament.

In addition to the actual tenants, the estates commissioners have provided farms for 2,647 persons who are not tenants, but are the sons of farmers or laborers upon the farms. These are called “landless” persons, and they are the ones who are making the trouble for the government in several of the counties by driving off the cattle and otherwise annoying the landlords and lessees of ranches that are being used for pasturage while they are without farms. To such persons 70,326 acres, an average of 35 acres each, have been allotted and paid for by the government.

“The fortunes of the Irish peasantry will soon be in their own hands,” said Mr. Bailey. “Ireland is soon to be like Denmark, a peasant state; and the wealth-producing capacity of the country will be in the hands of small farmers who own their homes and will have the entire benefit of the results of their labor.

“It is often complained,” continued Mr. Bailey, “that the farmers of Ireland are not good cultivators, and perhaps that is true in a measure, except down in Wexford and other parts of the east coast south of Dublin and in the north of Ireland. But there are very good reasons for it. The Irish farmers never had any instruction until lately. Before the famine they merely raised enough to supply their own wants and, having no interest in the land, did nothing to improve it. Since the famine, however, and within the last few years there has been a very great advance in agricultural conditions, and as the older generation dies off and the younger generation comes on there will be better farming, because they will know how to apply their labor. One reason for the lack of good farming and the carelessness and neglect was that there was no fixed tenure for the tenants, and as they naturally hated their landlords, they were not willing to do anything to improve the value of the property. Another reason is that they have been raising cattle so long that they have forgotten how to cultivate the land. The area of pasturage in Ireland has been gradually increasing and the acreage plowed has been gradually decreasing, until now, of the 20,000,000 acres of land of Irish territory only 2,357,530 are devoted to crops, and no less than 14,712,849 are devoted to meadows and pastures. The area under cultivation has been growing smaller every year. In 1875 it was 5,332,813 acres, in 1895 it was 4,931,000, in 1905 it was 2,999,082, while in 1907 it was 2,357,530 acres.

“Another reason for poor farming is that the best element, the most active and enterprising of our people, have gone to America, which has increased the ratio of those who are physically and intellectually inferior. Then, again, it has become a matter of fashion to neglect the soil. Our people prefer to live in the towns rather than on the farms. The Irish are a social race, and, as has been demonstrated by the emigrants to America, they prefer a crowded tenement house to plenty of room on a farm.”

“That the farms of the tenant purchasers have largely improved in all parts of Ireland, as regards cultivation and general conditions, is unquestionable,” said Mr. Bailey. “The exceptions to this rule are so few and of such a nature as to emphasize rather than detract from the good effect of the land reforms, as shown by the general condition of the farms we have been able to visit. In the great majority of cases we found that the purchasers have devoted their energies and their savings to the improvement of the land and of the buildings. In many districts, especially those in the provinces of Leinster and Munster, the tenants have hitherto been more anxious to increase the productive power of the soil than to add to their comforts or the appearances of their homes, or to make permanent improvements. But we found improvements in fencing, draining, in the cleaning of fields, in the re-making of farm roads, and in other respects, as well as by increasing the fertility of the soil by manuring and top-dressing. We found also that the actual productiveness of the land in many cases had been increased since its purchase, by improved management.

“On some estates conditions have not improved, because of various reasons. Some lazy people, unfortunately, have no desire to change. They live a dull, commonplace life, without enterprise, energy, or ambition. Some of them are affected by their environment, as in the case of small farmers who are in the midst of a community of large cattle-growers. Again, the cost of labor is so great that many cannot afford to hire help to do what they cannot do themselves, and have postponed improvements until a more favorable opportunity.

“However, that the dwellings, outhouses, stables, and barns of tenant purchasers have materially improved throughout Ireland is certain. The testimony on this point from every part of the four provinces is uniform and conclusive. A considerable number of new buildings have been erected either by home labor or capital already in hand, and many farmers are taking advantage of the loans offered by the board of works. This is particularly true in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford. On some estates there is a great deal of rivalry among the new purchasers as to which shall have the best showing in the way of buildings. In other cases, I regret to say, the houses and barns continue in a very neglected state.

“It is also gratifying to be able to say that in the large majority of cases throughout Ireland the credit of the tenant purchasers has improved very considerably since they bought their holdings. Such is the universal testimony of local bank managers, shopkeepers, ministers of religion, and other representative persons whom we have consulted. And this improvement in credit is perhaps most marked in localities where farmers were worse off in former times. The explanation is that the farmers have now been started on new careers free from obligations, and are able to devote all of their attention and energies to improving their condition without being worried by financial and other troubles.

“The ‘Gombeen man,’ the money-lender, the Shylock, who has been the curse of Ireland, has actually disappeared from many districts, and in others he is rapidly losing his business. The men who have bought their farms under the Wyndham Act do not ask for credit. They pay in cash very generally, and wherever they do borrow, they are able to get better terms, because they have something substantial behind them and are not likely to be thrown out into the street at any time as formerly. Those who are borrowing money now want it for improvements, and not to pay off old mortgages or meet previous obligations.

“The first, and in many respects the most important, consequence of owning farms is the contentment that it has given to the people. Their minds are at ease. Their anxiety as to their future treatment from their landlord or his agent has vanished, and the misfortunes which often distressed them have disappeared. In their investigations the commissioners and the inspectors employed by them have met very few tenant purchasers who have any fault to find with the conditions under which they are now living. We have met several men who had lost their cattle by disease, and others whose crops had failed; but they seemed to be cheerful, and were confident that with care and industry they would soon be on their legs again.

“In the poorer districts on the west coast of Ireland little improvement has been made, and little more can be expected for a generation; yet there has been progress, and the Congested Districts Board is doing a great deal by its liberal policy. The people are very poor, but they do not complain of their poverty. They freely admit that their standard of living has improved of recent years, and more especially since they became owners. ‘Purchase has brought peace,’ said a parish priest. ‘People are more industrious, more temperate, more saving, and more cheerful.’ In many places which had formerly been troublesome, the constabulary report that quietness and order and a supreme feeling of contentment and satisfaction with present conditions prevailed. At Fermanagh the parish priest said that the consumption of liquor had fallen one-half since the farmers had purchased their own farms, and that the money which had been spent for drink was now being saved for improvements on the farms, and for better clothes, for implements, and for other purposes, which show an increased pride in appearances and a sense of responsibility.

“There is no question but that the standard of living in every respect has been raised since the people of Ireland have been allowed to own the farms they till,” continued Mr. Bailey. “This appears in their personal appearance as well as in the food provided for their tables. It is due to the greater self-respect that has been inspired by a sense of proprietorship. The most important and fundamental benefit that the Irish people are enjoying from the ownership of their farms is the elevation of their own opinion of themselves—the self-respect and ambition that a proprietor always feels. They wear better clothes, they take better care of their persons, and they require better food. On many farms in the west of Ireland, where the people lived almost exclusively on porridge and potatoes, they now use bread, eggs, American bacon, and tea. American bacon is used in preference to Irish bacon because it contains more fat and makes a better dish for a large family when boiled with cabbage. The improvement in clothing occurs simultaneously with the improvement in food and farming tools, and both follow immediately after the title to the land is secured. People often explain that formerly they ‘had to scrape together every penny to pay the rent, but now we can live decently.’

“But the sanitary arrangements throughout western Ireland still need a great deal of attention. The manure heap is still in unpleasant proximity to the dwelling place, and the practice of keeping cattle, pigs, and chickens under the same roof and often in the same room with the family has not disappeared as rapidly as one might hope. We inspected a farm in Mayo where the family and the cow lived in the same room, but it was kept remarkably clean and tidy. Every part of the earthen floor outside the corner that was alloted to the cow was carefully swept, and the ‘dresser,’ the chief article of furniture in an Irish cabin, showed taste and neatness, and was well stocked with very good china in which the owner seemed to take great pride. When we remarked on the presence of the cow in the cabin he replied, ‘Sure, I could not leave the poor animal out in the cold.’ The tenant purchaser of a farm in Galway said she had to keep the cow in the house because she could not afford to erect a barn, and if the animal died she would be ruined. But the practice is being slowly abandoned, and since the land act was enforced many people who formerly sheltered their cattle, pigs, and poultry in the same dwelling-place as themselves in their long and severe winters have been building separate houses for them. We were told that this was the exception before purchase, and that it is now the rule. The tendency is undeniably toward neatness, good repairs, and sanitary improvements, and although it is slow it is certain.

“The scarcity of farm labor and the high rates of wages that are now demanded are keeping back improvements that farmers cannot make without assistance, but the people are beginning to realize the advantages of co-operation, and are helping each other in such a way that it seldom becomes necessary to call outside labor. A holding that can only be worked by the aid of paid labor under present circumstances is not profitable, and a large farm cannot be worked to an advantage unless the owner has a son to assist him. Not only have the wages of farm labor increased, but its efficiency has decreased. Hired workmen now insist upon better food and better accommodations.

“There was undoubtedly ample room for improvement in the wages, the food, and the treatment of farm laborers throughout Ireland. The laborers cannot be blamed for demanding it; but a higher standard in each of these respects meant an increase in the cost of cultivating the soil and a decrease in the profits of the farmer. The labor situation is due first to the emigration of the young men to America, and second to the migration from the farms to the cities.

“The estates commission has received very little complaint of the regulations which require the punctual payment of installments and interest money to the government. Here and there a purchaser objects because he has to sell cattle or make some other sacrifice at an inconvenient time to raise the money, and asserts that under the landlord system he would have been allowed time; but such instances are extremely rare, and very few persons admitted that they prefer a private individual to the government as a landlord. The purchasers of farms almost unanimously agree that their annual installments due the government are very considerably less than the rents they were paying, and they now have to sell a much smaller portion of their produce than formerly to meet the rent.

“It is right and proper that I should speak of the almost invariable courtesy that has been shown to the commissioners and our inspectors when we have visited the farmers,” said Mr. Bailey in conclusion. “Very rarely has any suspicion been exhibited, and the fullest information has been given to us. This courtesy and good feeling was especially manifested by the smaller and poorer farmers in the west and south of Ireland. There was no spirit of cringing or cowardice. Both men and women spoke with dignity and independence, and almost invariably expressed themselves as gratified that a great department of the government should wish to learn how they were getting along. They were pleased that a government official should show sufficient interest in their welfare to come and talk with them sympathetically. Many of them inquired as to the workings of the new act in other parts of Ireland, and asked advice on various small matters, which to them were of importance.”