Willmar Tribune

WILL APPROVE LAND BILL
Test Vote Before the National Convention at Dublin Called by United Irish League.

2,000 DELEGATES IN ATTENDANCE.
Motion to Reject Measure as Not Meriting Support Defeated by Overwhelming Majority, Insuring Conference's Approval of Bill in Principle at Least.

Dublin, April 17.-A motion to reject Secretary Wyndham's Irish land bill as not meriting support was defeated by an overwhelming majority. This insures the conference approving the bill in principle.

Party Empowered to Act.
Dublin, April 17.-The convention unanimously adopted Mr. O'Brien's motion to intrust the parliamentary party with the power and responsibility of eventually dealing in committee stage with the amendments and adjourned until Friday.
Dublin, April 17.--The national convention convened by the United Irish league met Thursday in the historic round room of the Mansion house. About 2,000 delegates assembled in the crowded rotunda, which was incapable of holding all who had come from every part of Ireland to discuss the Irish land bill. On the platform sat almost every nationalist member of parliament, with a scattering of prelates. In the body of the rotunda was a gathering seldom equaled in representative capacity, farmers from Clare, in top boots; laborers from Dublin county, landlords from Cork and priests from all parts, the latter's somber clothing and tall hats contrasting pleasantly with the bright homespun apparel of the majority. It was essentially a convention of the soil, though a lighter touch was given by the presence of the well-dressed women who filled the galleries.
Lord Mayor Harrington and Michael Davitt inducted John Redmond into the chair, and the delegates rose to their feet, cheered and waved their hats.
Cable messages were read from various Irish organizations in New York, Baltimore and other cities, wishing the convention success.
The notable absentees were John Dillon and Edward Blake, who are both ill.

Redmond Presides.
John Redmond opened the proceedings with an impressive speech.
"This convention," he declared, "is the most solemn, the most momentous event in the history of living Irishmen, with the exception of the introduction of the home rule bill. There are in the lives of nations, as there are in the lives of individuals, opportunities which once lost can never be regained. Such an occasion I believe the present to be."
Mr. Redmond begged his hearers to remember their tremendous responsibility. If they rejected the bill, it was dead forever, and the greatest prospect of freedom since the "infamous act of union was passed" would disappear.
Continuing he said:
"Whatever defect Mr. Wyndham's bill has, and I am inclined to minimize them, its object is the complete and final abolition of landlordism in all its essentials."
Early in the morning Lord Dunraven, who is simultaneously presiding at a private meeting of the landlords' committee, sent word to John Redmond, the Irish leader, suggesting that the land conference reconvene Saturday after the opinion of the national convention on the land bill is known, so that both landlords and tenants may then discuss their mutual objections.
Mr. Redmond will be unable to decide on the proposition until after Thursday's proceedings, for which lengthy agenda had been provided.
These consisted of many proposed amendments to the details of Secretary Wyndham's proposals. The chief movers were William O'Brien and Michael Davitt. The former, while congratulating Ireland on the fact that the British ministry had introduced a bill accepting in principle, after centuries of struggle, that the land should be restored to the people of Ireland, urged the delegates to press amendments enlarging the financial scope of the bill.
Mr. O'Brien, however, asked the convention to intrust to the parliamentary party the power and responsibility of eventually dealing in committee stage with the amendments.
While begging the delegates to let their parliamentary representatives settle the matter, Mr. O'Brien attacked the landlords, Irish judges and British rule with the same virulence as has always marked his speeches, to the intense delight of the audience, which, swayed by his eloquence, hissed and cheered alternately. He concluded with saying that if properly amended Mr. Wyndham's bill would "make the peasants as safe as the king on his throne in the possession of their land."
They would never again have to stand trembling in the rent office.