The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-07-25

hold their own against the power of
capital and combinations. All over
these islands, where once little,
thriving community had created a
pleasant and prosperous village now
there is not a single resident family
of foreign birth.
The same policy controls in our
new governmental organization. We
have a so-called constitutional gov
eminent; but its operations are not
political, so much as commercial.
The government is not managed for
the greatest good Of the greatest
number. 1t is not "a govern
ment of the people by the peo-
pie for the people" 1t is not a
democracy but u plutocracy, with u
constitution, ike the charter of
sugar corporation, securing special
privileges 10 the managers Like
the railroad systems of the United
States, that have come under the
control of some capitalist, who al
lows lesser moiety Of shareholders
to have 1.-THE name but not the
game" our cabinet ministers with
their present "indetermlnate irres-
possibility" act as does board of
railroad directors, managing well for
their own interests. Who is ''re-
sponsible" for the provisions of the
new constitution; that is, who stand
forward as the known authors of
that precious document? What pub
lie and popular authorization has
there been of the changes in the
Kings constitutional advisers? In
the adoption of the constitution
there was general acquiescence.
But it was no less forced acQui
escence on the part of the general
public, than when Jim Fisk by
sharp practices got control of the
Erie railroad, or Vanderbilt by q
stroke of his pen doubled the value
of his property. One must allow Il
pretty wide margin, when consider
ing the morality of many of our
modern enterprises. What is legiti-
mate in sharp financierlng is not
always the same as what is right in
sagacious thrftiness.
Again and again has this phase of
indeterminate responsibility appear
ed in our affairs, and been tacitly
acquiesced in, just as ministerial
responsibility" is in the present
| government. 1t is in the very air.
Smaller plantations are being forced
to give up their separate organiza-
tions that one controlling manage
ment may direct all affairs. There
may be much that is pleasant in
these dealings: but it is the hardest
head and the heaviest purse that
are the winners in this game, as any
one finds to his cost who enters into
1t, just as truly as the bank must
be the ultimate winner when people
play the game of faro. In school
matters, the same policy is notice
| able, and schools must be run to
suit the views of certain persons,
rather than adapted to the varying
needs of different communities. In
religious work it is not pleasant TO
have diverse interests, tastes, me-
thods: SO the smaller church must
be choked off that there may be one
strong, centralized organization.
And all this is going on, sprung
upon people, who acquiesce in what
they have not helped and cannot
hinder.
What is to he the outcome of all
this? Suppose this whole group OF
Islands turned into one big ring o.
sugar plantations. So many more
tons of sugar may be made eacl
year but what has become of TIT
manhood of the citizens? Their,
will be no citizens worthy of thu
name. but only employers and EN-
ployed. Suppose man can &c
10000 tons of sugar off of a piec,
OF land, where once hundred peo
pie had happy homes: does tina
sugar count Tor more in the balance
of eternal justice than the thrift
the love, the cares, the charms tina
made up once the possibilities ant
the prizes of life on that spot? l
man worth only the dollars tina
stand against his name on the asses
sor's book?
II is very easy to shift responsi
bility for any particular social con
, dtion or action, especially when on
loses his personal identity in tn
organization or business with whic
he is connected. But when Dive
woke up in world of torment to
realizing sense of how little he hat
made out OF life, his agony was in
tensitied, not only by the though
that he had found his supreme salis
faction in perishubIe earthly yani
ties, but by the remembrance that HI
had sought his own personal selds
qualification without any regard t
the possibilities or needs of Others
And to take no higher view than
prudential one, what is 10 hinde
some hitherto unknown blight, unde
certain new climatic conditions
from destroying the value Of ever
stalk of sugar cane on this islands
When one remembers how suddeul