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He has given Ireland a considerably greater degree of self-sufficiency. Last week, comparing the Irish economy of today with that of 1914, he told the world what he was doing: "Under our native Government, we have greatly extended our tillage area. For instance, today we come near producing all our sugar and more than one-third of our breadstuffs. In both these commodities in the last war we depended almost entirely upon imports.
"In industrial production also we have made remarkable progress. We now make for ourselves a large variety of goods which formerly we had to secure from abroad.
"Financially our position also is strong. We have a relatively small national debt, and despite a large expenditure for social services we hope in these difficult times, as in the past, to balance our budgets.
"As to agriculture, we produce far more than our own people need of animal products, and the better prices which the war insures will benefit our farmers. The Government at the same time is guaranteeing attractive prices for wheat and sugar beets, thus giving the agricultural community an economic urge to break more land."
In the direction of political freedom, too, de Valera led the way. His country remains a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, but does not recognize the British Crown. It has its own President—Gaelic Scholar Douglas Hyde. The status of Eire in wartime shows how far towards independence it has gone: it is still strictly neutral, and a German Minister stays on in Dublin. Not only that, but Prime Minister de Valera's protests were enough to make Britain refrain from applying conscription in Northern Ireland.
Eamon de Valera will not be satisfied until Northern Ireland is part of Eire and until all Ireland is entirely free from Great Britain. On his side is the fact that there are no natural boundaries between Eire and Northern Ireland—the border arbitrarily cuts farms in two, splits highways, divides villages. The religious difference has been greatly overemphasized. There are large areas—Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh, the districts of South Downs, South Armagh, Derry City—which Prime Minister de Valera claims wish to enter Eire. Besides, Northern Ireland is economically depressed and riddled with corruption, disfranchisement, electoral gerrymandering. The separation of Eire and Northern Ireland is a repetition of the British pattern, so familiar in India and Palestine, of Divide and Rule.
Eamon de Valera is likely to accomplish his end in time. World War II is on and if he chose he could again raise the cry: "England's extremity is Ireland's opportunity," yet like Gandhi, de Valera wants independence by peaceful means. The I. R. A., now his sworn enemies, want it as he used to want it, by force—are attempting it by terrorism. He or they may soon try to give destiny a push. But as the once violent leader pleads for reason,, nonviolence, legality, there rises from the hills of Eire and even from across the seas, the cry that de Valera has turned ''pro-British." He thinks it wiser when dealing with the English to plant ideas rather than bombs, and events are marching, World War II is not yet over.