I rise to move the Motion standing in my name that Deputy Eamon de Valera be nominated President of the Executive Council.
No doubt there are people who would deem it a high honour even to have their names proposed for that position. It is not with that thought in mind that I am making this proposition. I propose the name of Deputy de Valera as President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State because I think that only a man of his great capacity can with any promise of early success show the portion of our country which the Free State Government is permitted to control a safe road out of the dangers and difficulties that at present confront it. I propose Deputy Eamon de Valera because he is the outstanding figure in our generation. No man of our time has proved himself more fitting to be the leader of the Irish people, and no man in this House is as likely as he to restore to our people that confidence in themselves, that pride in their race, that enthusiasm, that hope, that spiritual outlook, that determination to retrieve the fallen fortunes of their country and that will to victory that is essential before any progress can be made on the road to real freedom and prosperity.
Since first he dramatically entered Irish public life, Eamon de Valera has been looked to in times of greatest danger and difficulty to save the country from perils that threatened. His first great achievement as leader of the Irish race was to save the manhood of the nation from decimation, and at a later crisis it was he who, throwing all thoughts of place and power, personal advancement and popularity aside, stood with the virile youth who remained true to the national faith and tradition and fought to save the nation's honour.
He is the man under whose wise and courageous leadership the good name of Ireland was raised to heights unknown before, even in our history of great achievements. Under his guidance the fame of the Irish people for steadfastness to principle, for courage in facing fearful odds and for self-sacrifice in the national cause, became known in every city and town in the world, as well as in sparsely populated places in the less known continents. With him to lead us, we witnessed, in our own day, our national aspirations brought closer to complete realisation than at any time since the days of the great Owen Roe O'Neill. The name of de Valera, in fact, became synonymous, not alone with Ireland but synonymous with the freedom-loving, courageous and high-minded race that he represented.
To my mind we have to-day to face a situation which requires the ablest men of our race to deal with. During the régime of the late Government our country has been going from bad to worse, largely through want of proper leadership. Our green isle, one of the most fertile countries on the earth, sparsely populated as it is, has thousands of families in our cities, in our towns, and in our rural areas whose daily lot is hunger. Hundreds of thousands of our ablest and best young men and women have been forced to flee the country to search in the overcrowded cities of England, Scotland, the United States, Australia and Canada for the sustenance that is denied them at home. Many thousands of acres of fertile lands have gone out of cultivation, our industries are either declining or being allowed to be bought up and controlled by foreigners in the interest of foreigners. Despite the widespread unemployment in all classes of trades, vast numbers of our people are without proper housing. Sickness, disease, and a high mortality among our infants is the daily report from all quarters. In fine, the condition of the country is such that a radical change is necessary and must come soon if the nation is to be saved and if the people are to be afforded an opportunity to live and bring up their children with any prospect of even modest comfort in their own land. That change is not alone due—it is overdue, and I propose Eamon de Valera as President, because I believe that he is the man, and only man, in public life here to-day whose ability and whose personality will enable the Irish people to face the future with confidence.
As Eamon de Valera was the man, who, in the not so far off past, led us successfully through dangers and difficulties, and did so without in any way tarnishing our honour, so I believe he is the man who is best suited to be our guide to-day. If the grave unemployment problem is to be solved, if our lost industries are to be revived, if our remaining industries are to be saved for Ireland and developed for her benefit, if the land of Ireland is to be restored to tillage and the people of Ireland provided with a proper living in their own land, if the homeless and houseless thousands of families are to be given proper and sanitary shelter and the thousands of infants who die yearly be given a chance, under proper healthy conditions, to live and thrive, I believe it is under his talented and courageous leadership that this can best be achieved. As he has brought honour and credit to the name of Ireland in the past, so I believe will his ripe scholarship, his prudent statesmanship, his simple faith, and his ardent patriotism enable him to face unflinchingly the grave and pressing problems that confront our people. I believe that not alone will he face these difficulties with courage and capacity to solve them, but that he is the man who will, at the same time, successfully restore among Irishmen that unity of aim and of action which unfortunately has been lost to us in recent years. I am satisfied that he, more than any other man, to-day, will make it possible to see the national ranks close up once more and the men of our race who stand always for Ireland first, again massed shoulder to shoulder in a great all-embracing national movement whose object will be the restoration of the prosperity and the unity of our motherland through the attainment of that sovereign independence which is Ireland's God-given right.