The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-01-17

II Is SOMETHING GAINED in the right direction
when the G,l=efts, the accepted exponent of the
abstractionists and impraeticables who have here
tofore opposed the principle Of sanitary legislation
regarding the social evil, Is found 10 admit, how
ever charity and ungraciously even, that public
support ought to be awarded to measures which
tend to alleviate misery and heal disease. And
this concession is made, it may be remarked, in
commencing an article on " the Act 10 Mitigate,
the unwarrantable and injurious suspension of
which in the summer of 1872, by the then Minis
ter Of the Interior, has been more than once
commented on in these columns.
But, after starting thus fairly, the Gazette
writer proceeds to attack the law in question with
some Of the thread-bare arguments that have SO
frequently been reluted, prominent among which
is the utopian idea that it " was partial in its OPP
Grafton, as it reached only females" The law
was distinctly declared by Its provisions to apply
TO that class of the community who professedly
follow n certain course Of life,-a class which is
certainly not recruited from the male sex. All
general rules have exceptions, and we assert, in
contradiction of the statement of the Gazette
writer, that it Is quite susceptible Of proof that the
operation of the a ,-admItting that 1t was in
some respects defective in details-was generally
highly beneficial on the public health. \ re-
markable and incontrovertible fact in support of
this assertion is found in the great diminution of
certain diseases in the Hospital while the law was
in force, and their sudden increase-like a freshet
following close on a rain-storm-which was so
plainly seen Immediately on it's SUSPENSION, and
which has ever since continued to increase,
blasting the lives and Fastening the extinction of
the race.
With all due respect for the sincerity and APP
probation of the industry of the sanitary commit
tee OF the last Legislature, we confess that we
failed to perceive anything very startling in the
report presented by them on the subject of the
Act in question although the statement % that
the law had been actually used to aid prostitu-
ton should constitute a very grave charge
against the police, under whose direct supervision
it was executed. But that is a charge which we
do not seriously entertain. Considering the fact
that the weight of the testimony against the law
was from the abandoned women themselves
Nc rogue e'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion Of the law -
and remembering with what keenncss the average
native witness will detect the slightest inclination
to bias in a questioner, and frame his answers
accordingly, there was nothing very startling in
eHO hN"NS5 "NA thCJ Jul W ICSCiNC
and weighed very cautiously. An equally start
ling story can be got up out of whole cloth
among people Of that description on very short
notice. 1t is a sweeping assertion, and the con-
trary is capable of proof, that " the law had
produced little or no good and that its general
effect had been pernicious." The application of
similar laws in other countries is in those days
beginning to be fairly appreciated, but not,
however, until thew have passed through much
the same ordeal of opposition that has been expe-
rienced here. The Supreme Court of Missouri sus-
tanned the Constitutionality and validity of the So
cial Evil Ordinance, in a late decision. Suit was
brou5ht to Get Il aside, ON the ground that it was
injurious to morality, contrary to public policy,
a violation of the rights of the women licensed,
subversivc of the common law, and inconsistent
with the general legislation. The plaintiff was a
Dr. whether a doctor of divinity, whose ideas
of morality were wounded, or a doctor of medi-
cine, whose practice was diminished, the papers
do not say. At any rate, he did not sue in behalf
of the women subjected to police supervision. On
every point the decision is in favor of the ordi-
nance.