The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-08-05

policy which has put large sums of
money into the purses of a great
many persons who should, by their
position and surroundings, be above
engaging in this dirty business"
The prohibitionists did nothing of
the kind, directly or indirectly. The
Inauguration of all the scoundrelism
connected with the contraband
trade" is due to the lawlcss cupidity
of the very class of people to whom
ga great newspaper y has doffed
its hat in obsequious servility.
Our contemporary says that the
law works to the degradation of the
miserable tools of an organized
gang OF smugglers." We are of
opinion that persons or newspapers
who give themselves away as :" the
miserable tools" of smugglers or
political wire pullers are incapable
of deeper degradation than they
have already reached: and law that
works to the punishment of all such
"miserablc tools" is the very kind of
law that is needed. 1t is such law
that every man with shred of
moral fibre in his constitution will
uphold "to the last of his blood
and his BREATH When the .iducr-
tiSer asserts that the present law
"tends to demoralize the entire
population,' it simply pronounces
gross libel on not less than three
fourths of the people of this city.
He forgets that there is fair pro-
portion of the inhabitants above the
temptations of "t this dirty bust
ness" and whose only interest in it
is to see that prohibition is made
more prohibitory, and the majesty of
law sustained on precisely the same
grounds as our self-trumpeted "great
newspaper demands it's repeal,
g first, upon moral grounds; second,
upon grounds of public policy"
The remedy for the abuses of illicit
traffic prescribed by our contcm-
porary, if it fails to admit him to
the society of the "party of moral
idears," will surely win for him Il
prominent place in the party of WON
derful ideas. He will sweep away
this dirty business of illicit
traffic with the colossal broom of the
giant monopoly Thus reads
the prescription. LET OPIUM BE
IMPORTED FREELY, dispose of THE
RIGHT OF SALE within the Kingdom
TO TIE HIGHEST BIDDER, first fixing
a minimum sum at which the mono
poly would be sold" Notwithstand-
ing all the Difference with which the
Oracular utterances of "a great
newspaper" ought to be received,
we unhesitatingly pronounce the
10UertiSer's remedy to be sheer
quackery. "The present law" he
says, is a temptation to men of
capital to embark in Il contraband
trade. Be it so, then the law pro-
| posed to be substituted for it is a
temptation to men Of capital to en-
| gage in n diabolical trade. That
the prohibition of any noxious arti-
Gle is an indirect temptation to I'M
principled men to engage in contra
band traffic is true of every law on
the statute book; but to say that it
is temptation to men of capital
Unfortunately is paying a compli-
ment to the heads of commercial
houses in this city that many of
them will, no doubt, appreciate to
its fullest extent. Our contemporary
after demonstrating, on paper, tc
his own satisfaction, after the fashion
of a patent medicine advertisement,
the cure-all properties of his spcci.
fic, proceeds to analyze the motives
of "men who oppose it on moral
grounds" and thinks they evil
find great difficulty in persuadine
an unbiased public that they are
not actuated by very different mo-
tives." If San unbiased public y
means the sick men who swallow tn,
-1dceniser's pills, we admit the diff