r our houses, quarter troops upon us, take possession of our horses,
motor-cars, cows, pigs, and pigeons. They may commandeer schools,
factories, warehouses, farms, or any other kinds of public or private
property. Strikes may be declared acts of treason, Trade Union officials
arrested and tried by courts martial, and soldiers used as
blacklegs--and no knowledge whatever of these happenings, not even of
the existence of strikes or trade disputes, may reach the general public
at all if the authorities so determine...."
A phrase that seems to have done great harm, and was specially singled
out by the men of Liberty Hall, was "Shoot him!"--as a form of argument
employed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry orator, on every conceivable
subject without the slightest constitutional authority; but it must be
said it was one used by all parties.
During the Home Rule controversy, for example, the Nationalists were
just as fond of employing the phrase towards Carson as during the Welsh
coal strikes Conservatives were of using it towards the miners.
The danger of such doctrines in Ireland is this, that whereas in England
it is the upper class principally that is militarist, in Ireland it is
principally the lower class, and whereas it is the Castle authorities
who are always preaching the iniquity of physical force, it is the lower
classes who mainly admire it.
Realizing this, as any student of Irish history would, there should not
have been the slightest doubt about the danger of employing force to men
who not only had the principle of active resistance but the arms
necessary to make it effective, and it has always appeared to me as the
most marvellous thing the Liberals ever did that they were able to allow
Ulster the full possession of arms without once provoking an occasion on
which to actually put them to use.
The result of this fatal misuse of the words "Shoot him!" as a form of
argument--which unauthoritative should be made a penal offence--was that
the workers really feared that such irresponsible individuals if given
the power would really carry out the threat, and determined to
anticipate the danger by a protest in arms.
Another contributory cause was undoubtedly Castle rule, and the fear
that with the holding up of Home Rule it might continue for ever, unless
some effective protest were made.
The Chief Secretary was himself the foremost in admitting this to be one
of the contributory causes of the rebellion.
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