i 8 ] 
Ex-President W. H, Taft is not less emphatic in 
his pronouncement — 
“We in the United States,” he writes, “are hoping 
earnestly for a speedy settlement of the Irish Home Rule 
question. It would much help to solidify and hearten 
American public sentiment in the great cause for which the 
democrats of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the 
United States are fighting shoulder to shoulder, and which 
they must and shall win.” 
lt is an open secret that the same view has been 
expressed by President Wilson to the British emis- 
sary—Myr. Balfour. 
The American response to the Irish appeal has 
been fervent and universal. At special interviews, 
or by speech and resolution at great public meetings, 
congressmen, senators, judges, and governors from 
every quarter of the States have urged the immediate 
settlement of the Irish question by the concession of 
self-goverment to an unmutilated Ireland. Quotation 
might be multiplied almost indefinitely from the 
pronouncements of Americans eminent in ability and 
position in favour of Home Rule. Let it suffice to 
quote the pronouncement which nearly two hundred 
members of the American House of Representatives, 
including the Speaker—Mr. Clarke—have addressed 
to the British Premier — 
“You are quoted as saying that the settlement of the 
Irish question is essential to the peace of the world and a 
speedy victory in the war. May we, the Members of the 
American Congress, suggest that nothing would add more 
to the enthusiasm of America in the war than a settlement 
now of the Irish problem in accordance with the principles 
announced by President Wilson in his address to Congress, 
asking it to declare war on aristocracy for the world-wide 
safety of democracy and of small nationalities.” 
The Times—Saul amongst the prophets—once the 
most bitter and effective of the opponents of Home