The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-06-01
THE PRESIDENT AND THE
CHAIRMAN.

MI. >. VI. w lltter is IreSluenU OF
the Legislature. The President has
the appointing of Legislative commit
tees. The committees have been
appointed, and the President has
blundered. 1t is a pity, q sad pity.
The President is a man of expert
ence, and supposed to know the ma
terial of which the House is COM
posed. He should have known bet
ter and have done better than to
have appointed Mr.. c. Brown Chair
man of the Judiciary Committee.
Perhaps neither the House nor the
community would ever have dis
covered the Presidents mistake
because neither the members nor
the people are particularly keen
in such matters-had not the sharp
eyed Advertiser" detected and eX-
posed it.
Mr.. Cecil Brown is a lawyer and
San able man"-just the right man,
one would suppose, to be head Of
the Judiciary Committee. But he is
not, all the same. The gentleman's
profession and ability might have
been positive qualifications, were all
other things equal. But all other
things are not equal. Mr.. Brown,
according to the ADVERTISER, ''es-
tablished himself by his record in
the last Legislature, as not in SYM
pathy with the declared policy of
the reform movement" This was
fatally false step, and irredeem-
ably disqualifies the gentleman for
the honorable and responsible, but
purely honorary, position to which
he has been appointed.
Here we have two men, both
members of our honorable Legis-
lature, holding prominent offices in
that honorable body, of which they
have shown themselves unworthy,
utterly unworthy. A private men,
Der who has disqualified himself for
the craftsmanship of any legislative
committee, in the way that Mr..
Brown has done, as before speci-
fed, and q president who allows
considerations" of ''private ma
ture" to induce him to appoint such
q man to office, are both censurable
by the Advertiser" 1t matters
not what the public may think.
There is this, however, to be said
for the President, she is either ig-
norant of or has purposely ignored,
the customary rules in such mat
ters," which provide THAT the
chairman and majority of the stand
ing committees should represent the
dominant party" The first assump-
ton, ignorance, is possibly pallia-
tive circumstance in the eyes of our
contemporary; the second, pur.
posely ignoring rules which are in
appropriate to our Legislature as a
present constituted, is commend
able act according to our way o
thinking.
Up to the concluding sentence o
the preceding paragraph we hav
been looking at this little circum
stance through advertiser" spec
tacles. We now exchange them TO
our own.
Mr.. Brown was the chosen candi
date of the reform party, and wa
elected to the Legislature, becaus
of his being sin sympathy with tn
policy of the reform movement" a
"declared" before the elections
So was every member of the House
except perhaps one or two on tn
Island of Hawaii. Then he wa
elected with the majority, major
ity which embraced very nearly tn
entire Legislature. How then cal
he be said to be sin minority.
One party was elected, not two, an
Mr.. Brown is one of that party
Has he since deserted the party
Or has he shown "by his record i
the last Legislature" that he is nc
sin sympathy" VITA the policy o
which he was elected? Does th
fact that he opposed some measure
;n +ha avtra session DrOYe that Ii