Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-01-19
mLsr INn nInpRmIsr

uTsE .fNB oTHpRnfsp.
How's the Advertiser going to
stand Z Is one of The questions of the
hour II may be idle to try and an
swcr The question But people are
talking and thinking about it and 'twcrc
Otherwise to ignore the topic In
one sense it IS no ones business but
in thc highest sense it is for news
paper is q quasi public institution and
has obligations to the public rccip-
rocal, it IS true. but none the less
obligatory We have already expressed
our individual appreciation of the new
proprietor We think the public cx.
poets q good deal from him.
\ person signing himself Grow
quill writes to the Advertiser Of last
Thursday on politics He attempts
satire and succeeds in being silly.
Here is q specimen "This is a dread.
fully misgopcrncd country we all
know that Ministers and heads Of
and minor officials, down
TO the very gaolcrg and policemen, are
a corrupt, bad lot, who cat up the sub
stance Of the country Ike locusts and
give the vericst nothing in return for it.
We hear this so often that wc are
bound to believe it.
If Crowquil ever heard that sort OF
stuff he heard it from a fool or it was
in echo Of his own braying. None but
fools make wholesale and unsubstanti-
ated charges of corruption against
office holders. No such charges have
been made during the life Of the Glib
son administration by newspapers or
by responsible persons. That there
have been and are corrupt or brainless
cabinet ministers here, as in all govern
ments, is maintained by all honest
Hawaiians who are able to form intelli
gent judgment So far as the civil ser
vice goes, however, there is much TO
commend in every department as
we'll as something to censurc. Every
one knows this, every one admits it.
sse
The struggle going on here in Ha-
wail is as old as history. II is a fight
between those who believe in justice,
honesty and painstaking study of the
worlds experience, and those who be
lieve in "every man for himself and
the devil for us all" 1t is very true
that this is a fight of the "outs -
against the ms. And it is also true
that many of the "outs are just as
venal as the worst Of the Gins" But
behind this fight is an idea worth fight
ing for worth dying for "The idea
that government ought TO be OF the
people, by the people and for the peo-
pie. Not a government for kings or
cabinet ministers or capitalists or stump
orators or partisan newspapers, to fatten
under at the peoples expense but an
honest and economical expenditure of
the common revenue for the common
good government grounded in law
builded by intelligence, secured by
patriotism. Have we such a govern
ment? If no, is it honest TO call this a
mere quarrel Of greedy men over the
loaves and fishes of office?'
No body expects of Mr.. T.. C..
Maciarlane that he should Immediately
blossom as full-hedged anti -Gibsonite
But everybody who knows his recent
newspaper record expects that he will
study Hawaiian affairs patiently and
exhaustiveIy, and then say if Gibson &
Co. have been spending the millions
that have slipped through their fingers
either honestly or intelligently. Ned
Maefrlane began his newspaper career
in these islands by. some severe criti-
cism of former administration. For
the past three years he has owned and
controlled the San Francisco Wasp,
edited by the boldest, most unsparing
and most vigorous censor of public
dishonesty in modern journalism. The
knave civic, the rogue judicial the
thief literary, the imposter of high and
low degree in every department of
Californian life, have learned to fear
the terrible invective of Ambrose
Bierce. No man since Pope has so
nearly exhausted the possibilities OF
satirlc verse. Yet no man living has
invested satire and denunciation with
such terrible truth-for he has spared
no one that events made worth his
notice and careless alike of friend
and foe laid both upon the altar-ior
truths sake.
This is not the place to go into the
question of that in Bieroe's writings
which puts him out of sympathy out
ofallpossibilityo agreement wilhmost
protesting Christians. These para
graphs are written TO show that Bicrce's
unflinching devotion to the highest
ideal in public morals Ideal honesty
has been with the manifest co-opera-
ton of Ned Macfarlane If that be
true, we do not see how the proprietor
OF the Wasp may wink at state of
things here which the editor of the
Wasp would be the first to puncture
with his pitiless pen were he editing
the Advertiser.
1t is significant that the twaddle OF
Crowquill was not published as editor
ial. The non-partisan lines laid down
in the editorial of last Monday are
quite possible of fulfillment, ii the
editors are mtslhgenfly independent.
But Crowquillism must not be per