The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-19
LAME EXCUSES.

In the Gazette of yesterday Messrs.
Bishop & Co. endeavor to reply to
the article entitled GA Review of the
Currency Question:" in which we
arraigned them and certain other
business houses before the bar of
public opinion as mischief-makers
and as having an eye to the profits
rency might throw into their hands.
In great many words they repeat
the story which we ourselves gave in
the article in question as to the ex-
cuse they gave for depriving the
Treasury of the gold they had under
taken to supply to it, and the only
emendation they make is in showing
that the amount was $4,000 instead
of 100000, as we, speaking from
memory, had stated. This only
makes the matter ten per cent worse.
If Messrs. Bishop & Co. interfered
to satisfy with exchange" persons
who were supposed to be about to
make run on the Treasury for gold,
is it not quite clear that the loss of
their profit On that exchange, which
would have occurred in case the gold
had been shipped in lieu of the ex-
change being bought was what they
were trying to avoid. Why should
they be so anxious to protect the cof-
fers of the Government? Neverthe-
less, let it be supposed that the cause
of their action, which we now suggest
is not the true one-that they really
thought they were going to do the
Treasury a service. Was it not a
very foolish and a very false position
to put themselves in; to be the first
to raid the Treasury of gold ? What
they did was well known in the city,
and did more to weaken confidence
than any other thing that could
possibly have happened, simply be-
cause it was Bishop & Co. that did it,.
If they became aware that $50, 900
was to be drawn from the Treasury
and by their action they could only
avert the drain to the extent of $751;
900, why did they not confine their
operations to that $4,000 and leave
other people instead of themselves to
begin the mischievous denudation OF
the gold reserves of the Treasury
They were in delicate position as con-
tractors to supply gold to the Treasury.
It would have been better to have
kept their fingers clean in the mat
ter, and let others take the odium.
No one could have got such a guam
tity of gold out of the Treasury in
time to ship it by the Alameda, and
there would have remained another
fortnight in which to "satisfy with
exchange" those who did draw gold
from the Treasury, and the Bank
would have got the gold after all in
q way that no one could impugn, if
but ''there's the rub''--if it had been
drawn. AS we have already said, we
do not believe it would have been
called for in any quantity, simply be-
cause the reason for calling for il
would by that time have vanished
That off" must have been the cause
why Bishop & Co. interviewed and
took the matter into their own
hands. They did this thing in pre-.
meditated way, and never from the
time they deposited the certificates as
security for the return of the gold
had any idea of carrying out theil
undertaking, else why was the
gold they meant to keep ordered
beforehand to be shipped to them
instead of to the Government Thai
off" meant the chance of their loss
of the profit on so much exchange
for if the gold had been withdrawn
by those who wanted to remit they
might either have shipped it them.
selves, or used it to buy exchange
from other sources. Twist it or turf
it how we may, the thing will no
bear the light of day. Either it wa
a great wrong, or a great mistake
and everybody knows that a mistake
in human affairs is worse than {
crime.
We accuse the Bank of being, by
their obstructive course, the chic
promoters of trouble in connection
with the change of our Currency Law
from first to last. AS soon as the Law
came into operation they hampered al
their customers by refusing to becom,
the medium of exchange between
those who wanted silver and thos,
who wanted to get rid of it. Rattle
than do this, they ran to the Treasury
for silver to the extent of $4,000 o,
$4,000 during the first two days tina
the gold law was in operation. II
the statement made for Bishop & Co
in the Gazette, there is a sentence
that insinuates that they had plenty