_The insignificance of these plants may be realized
from the fact that at the time the armistice was declared there were only
2,250 workers in them._
As to trade increase:--when I was in Ireland in 1919, the last export
statistics given out by the government were for 1916. In 1914 exports were
valued at $386,000,000; in 1916, at $535,000,000. But, according to the
Board of Trade, prices had doubled in that time, so that _if exports had
remained stationary, their value should have doubled to_ $772,000,000.]
[Footnote 2. That England controls this industrial situation was made clear
during the war. Then ship tonnage was scarce, and England's regular
resources of agricultural supply were cut off. So England called on Ireland
to revert to agriculture. Ireland's tillage acreage jumped from 2,300,000
in 1914 to 3,280,000 in 1918. This change in policy brought prosperity to
some of the farmers, and Ireland's bank deposits rose from $310,000,000 in
1913 to $455,000,000 in 1917. But England is reestablishing her former
agricultural trade connections. According to F.A. Smiddy, professor of
economics at University college, Cork, a return to grazing has already
commenced in Ireland, and _"prosperity" will last at most only two
post-war years._]
[Footnote 3. British taxation saps Irish capital.
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