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Show HALF OF IRELAND BELONGS TO TILLERS. "The American mind can hardly conceive that less than thirty years ago," said Michael J. Ryan, president of the United Irish League of America, in a recent lecture, "half of the land of Ireland was owned by absentee landlords and companies, and the other half was in the hands of 3,000 owners. The land of 5,000,000 of people was in the hands of about 3,700 persons. There are today 301,000 tenant farmers farm-ers in the island, and more than half of the land has passed into the possession of those who till it. "The penal laws have been repealed and the tithe system has been abolished. Every tenant that has been evicted in Ireland during the last thirty years has been restored to his old home, and the arrears of rent charged against him have been canceled. The land courts have adjusted the rental of 360,136 farms and have reduced them more than $7,500,000 a year. More than 126,000 families have been enabled en-abled to purchase farms with money advanced by the government, to be repaid in sixty-eight years at nominal interest. Several thousand families have been removed at government expense from unproductive unpro-ductive farms to more fertile lands purchased for them by the government, to be paid for by the farmer farm-er within sixty-eight years." |