pread of agricultural co-operation has been without doubt among the
greatest and the most beneficial. It has never found a friend in Mr.
Dillon. In the movement itself and in the Irish Agricultural
Organisation Society, founded expressly to promote it, he can only see a
cunning device of the enemy to undermine Nationalism. In this matter Mr.
Dillon's attitude is also the official attitude of the Irish Party. Thus
Mr. Redmond (now reconciled with Mr. Dillon and become leader of the
main body of Nationalists), in a letter to Mr. Patrick Ford, dated
October 4, 1904, does not scruple to say of Sir Horace Plunkett's truly
patriotic work:--

"I myself, indeed, at one time entertained some belief in the good
intentions of Sir Horace Plunkett and his friends, but recent
events have entirely undeceived me; and Sir Horace Plunkett's
recent book, full as it is of undisguised contempt for the Irish
race, makes it plain to me that the real object of the movement in
question is to undermine the National Party and divert the minds of
our people from Home Rule, which is the only thing that can ever
lead to a real revival of Irish industries."

Those who have read Sir H. Plunkett's "Ireland in the New Century" will
hardly know which most to wonder at in these words, the extraordinary
misdescription of the whole spirit of his book, or the total failure to
realise the absolute necessity to Irish farming of a movement which not
only has its counterpart all over the Continent of Europe, but has since
inspired similar action in the United States, in India, and quite
recently in Great Britain as well.

NATIONALIST HOSTILITY.

Nationalist hostility to the I.A.O.S. has not been confined to words.
When the Agriculture and Technical Instruction Bill was passing through
the House of Commons, Mr. Dillon endeavoured to secure an undertaking
from me that public moneys should not be employed to subsidise the work
of the Society. I naturally refused to give any such undertaking.[73] I
had followed the efforts of the Society very closely; I was deeply
impressed with the value of the results which it had accomplished; but
its field of activity was limited by the narrowness of its resources. In
my opinion, a subsidy to the Society from the Endowment Fund of the
Department would be a useful and proper application of public money. At
the same time I pointed out that if the Agricultural Board, which in the
main r