The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-11-15

MONDAY November 18th
PLAIN SPEAKING.

n newspaper winch resorts to dark
sayings" and parallels, as a public in
structor and moralist, at this time of day.
is an anachronism. This is the day and
hour for plain speaking, and not for
mods and winks or half-uttered sugges-
tions. If there are abuses to be cor
rected, wrongs to be righted, corruption
or misdoing in places high or low which
should be exposed, let the facts regard
ing them be presented without ambigu-
ity or hesitancy. Life is too short and
its duties far too pressing upon the aver
age bread winner to admit of his sitting
down to tread dreams or spell out and
unravel riddles. If a newspaper knows
anything which the people should know,
if such knowledge tends to the promotion
of good government, public morals and
social decency, its first duty is ''to do
good and to communicate. In other
words, it should make it's exclusive in
formation public if it would serve use
full end; if not, it should not allude to it
in any shape or way, lest it should
create the expectancy of a revelation
which may never come, and which if it
did come would be of no practical
value.
Our evening contemporary took us to
task the other day, in the mysterious
style it has assumed of late, for little
the ineffable meanness also to suggest
that business interests, outside our jour
nalistic duty, induced us to expose and
denounce a pestilent social nuisance.
As our protest, however, has had the
effect of making clean the outside of
the platter" referred to, we shall not ad-
vert to this incident further than to say
that the suggestion of such reason was
unworthy the occasion, and could only
originate in a mind lacking the attri-
butes of robust morality while seeking
to cover up something which could not
stand the test of honest investigation
and criticism.
Following in the same strain last Sat
urday the Bulletin" beats about the
bush regarding a matter upon which it
is probably better informed than any
other newspaper in town. If not, it
should not have thrown out the sugges-
lions it did. The oman on the
street - is not always a reliable
source of information, and it is I'M
safe to repeat what he says unless
it can be verified from other sources.
But what light is spread, what knowl-
edge communicated by the article in the
Bulletin" headed Talk at the Street
Corners ?' And what kind of a sum
ming up is it to say, after tumble of
suggestive rumors which point directly
TO the source of Executive authority in
the Kingdom "All this and much more
is the talk Possibly it is baseless talk
probably it has some foundation in.
truth the general impression is that it
is truer than it ought to be-" Is this
either plain speaking or straightforward
and manly? We say it is not.
We have been informed that the
Kings Privy Council of State has
licensed a secret society, which pro
fesses to be the revival of an ancient
mystic Order among the Hawaiians, so
ancient in fact, as to date from about
the time when ''the morning stars sang
together" and from which all mystic
Orders that have since existed borrowed
their signs, passwords and rituals.
We believe that our information is
true, and that a license or charter has
been granted by the Privy Council to
this society, the membership OF which
appears to be presently limited TO native
Hawaiians. And we deeply regret that
it is true, because it is a retrograde step
on the part of the Hawaiian Govern
ment, as represented by the Kings
Privy Council of State of which the
Cabinet are members, that must lower
it in the opinion of all civilized Govern
ments which have been encouraged to
think, from the prudence and wisdom of
its past, that this Kingdom aspired to be
in the van of social, moral and intellec
tual progress. How rudely that opinion
will be shaken when the fact OF this
action by the Privy Council of State is