"Moral Majority"

Smoking election torches marched through Dublin streets by night last week. "Up de Valera!" roared the torch bearers, and Ireland's hero was carried shoulder high. Excited Irishmen swore on every hand that Eamon de Valera would soon succeed William Thomas Cosgrave as President of the Irish Free State. With a third of the votes still to be counted, Mr. Cosgrave conceded grimly, "It looks as though my Government would go out."

All over Ireland the election was proving every minute that what the Irish want is a hero--in which respect they differ from the English.

There was no landslide away from Mr. Cosgrave to Mr. de Valera. Wherever a Cosgrave candidate was the local hero he won, no matter how the vote in general was going.

Cork city went with a pop for her hero, President Cosgrave. County Clare whooped in Mr. de Valera. And Tipperary! Sure and in Tipperary they elected who but Dan Breen himself.

Dan was living only last November in New York City (where Eamon de Valera was born). American money in a grand old Irish way makes Irish history, has made it for 90 years. But Tipperary elected Dan Breen last week just because he is such a rip-roaring ould bouchal. Twenty actual times the British have put actual bullets into him. On Dan's head His Majesty's Government once had a price of -L-10,000 ($48.600 then) for his capture.

When they got Dan into prison at last, the British tried to change him from one wing of the prison to another. But Dan would not go. Not until they lugged in a machine gun and trained it on Dan. That decided him to walk. In jail he was elected a Deputy in 1923, so why should not Tipperary elect Dan Breen now?

"Old Men." Seasoned diplomats, accustomed to premiers who are well over 60, have been simply astounded to find on visiting Ireland that the average age of President Cosgrave and the members of his Cabinet is only 45.

Yet these young men seem "old" to the Irish people--old not in age but in the length of time they have held power. Mr. Cosgrave has been President uninterruptedly since 1922--nearly ten years. Such a thing is not tolerated in the U. S., and the Irish people were not in a tolerant mood last week. The record of Cosgrave who was born in Dublin and the record of his Government--both excellent records--did not matter. Ten years is too long for a man to be President.

The great fact of these ten years is that southern Ireland, called "The Irish Free State," has enjoyed far greater freedom than ever before. It has "dominion status," is therefore technically as free as Canada. It has even enjoyed greater prosperity during the decade than almost any other part of King George's realm.

But His Majesty is precisely the fly in the Irish unguent of freedom. King George may seem a mere emblem to the English, to the Canadians and even to

American women who curtsey three times at Court. Yet in at least half the hearts in Ireland burns a fierce hatred of the Emblem of Monarchy. To uphold this mere emblem Canadian Premier Bennett has not had to use bullets; but Irish President Cosgrave has, by due process of law. Every year of the past decade batches of Irishmen who wanted a republic badly enough to fight for it have been shot. Spattering lead creates the practical difference between Canadian "dominion status" and Irish, for there is no legal difference.

Few honest Irishmen denied last week that in ten years the Cosgrave Government has put the country on a firm budgetary foundation (which it had to construct) ; has introduced important agricultural reforms; has overhauled the Irish cattle and dairying situations (with the result of improving Irish quality) ; and has helped to launch Ireland's industrial revolution. To this Mr. Henry Ford and the Shannon River Power development (by German engineers) have contributed most. But Ireland's young "Old Men" have done extremely well.

De Valera Platform. The British public assumed last week that Mr. de Valera would win, if he won the election, a number of seats only sufficient to make him President (premier) in coalition with the Irish Labor Party. This, London thought, would "tie de Valera's hands."

The count, with twelve seats still in doubt, gave Mr. de Valera 66 seats compared to President Cosgrave's 50 (with 24 Laborites and Independents also elected). This meant that a sworn enemy of George V would soon be the Irish President.

Promptly prospective President de Valera said "The oath of allegiance to King George is obligated by Article XVII of the [Irish Free State] Constitution. We propose to remove that article." Said President Cosgrave, "I hope the new Government will be an honorable one and that if the oath of allegiance to King George is done away with it will be by negotiations." Thus there seemed small doubt last week that King George, the fly in Irish freedom, will be swatted.

Eamon de Valera used to teach mathematics. Teacherish in appearance, called "impractical" by his enemies, he is a Messiah of Freedom. In 1916 he was sentenced to Death for commanding insurgents against King George, but his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and the General Amnesty of 1917 made him free. Elected to a seat in the London Parliament, he refused to sit, was "elected" by his Irish friends "President" of the "Irish Republic" (illegal) and as such rejected the Treaty of 1921 which, nevertheless, set up the Irish Free State. Later, Mr. de Valera resigned as "President" of the "Irish Republic," which vanished.

When the new Free State Dail meets, President Cosgrave (really a Premier) will go out of office in the same way that a British Premier goes; and Governor-General James McNeill who represents King George in the Irish Free State will doubtless shake the hand of Mr. de Valera (actually Premier). What will de Valera do then?

"The one ultimate object of my Fianna Fail party," said he last week, "is the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state. . . . Regarding separation from Great Britain: our objective is independence. . . . The first step is removal of the oath of allegiance."*

*The official name of what both. President Cosgrave and Mr. de Valera called the "oath of allegiance" last week is the oath of fidelity. Other confusing names and facts permeate the Irish Free State situation. Thus the "President" is in official fact the President of the Executive Council. Moreover, as Irishmen say, "The Irish Free State is not Irish, is not free and is not a state." It is certainly not a sovereign state. But Mr. de Valera says he is going to make it one.

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