Gentlemen,—There are few questions in political economy on which a greater diversity of opinion has prevailed, than the one which I have selected as the subject of my paper this evening.
Thus, some allege "that absenteeism is not prejudicial to the prosperity of a country; that Ireland, for instance, would suffer no detriment if all her proprietors should reside in foreign lands, and would derive no advantage from their return home to pass their lives, and spend their incomes in their own country." Whilst others contend "that the poverty of Ireland, the absence of capital and enterprize, her dilapidated resources, her unexplored treasures and unworked mines, her barren wastes, and, above all, her unemployed population, must be referred to the enormous sums of money withdrawn from the country in the shape of absentee rents;" in short, that absenteeism is "the monster evil of Ireland, from which almost all the evils that afflict the country either directly or indirectly arise." And between these extremes there are many intervening shades of opinion which it is unnecessary to notice.
Now, I believe that this diversity of opinion has arisen in a great measure from treating the subject in an abstract point of view, and from not distinguishing between the different classes of absentees. Absenteeism is spoken of as if it had only one cause; as if it always produced the same effects, and as if it admitted of only one remedy. Yet we shall see that there are at least three kinds of absenteeism, arising from distinct causes; that the effects of each kind are perfectly distinct, and that the remedies are entirely different. The want of precision in treating of the subject which I have noticed has led to that prolific source of diversity of opinion, ambiguity of language. Thus, absenteeism is sometimes used as comprising only one class of absentees, sometimes as comprising two classes, and sometimes as including every possible case of absenteeism.
But the only practical reason for investigating whether absenteeism be really the cause of the evils ascribed to it, is for the purpose of discovering a remedy for those evils. In this point of view, we shall find it necessary to consider the causes of absenteeism before we examine its effects.
