The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-01-12
LETTER FROM MR.. VI. A. KINNEY.

EDITOR BULLETIN :-1 our weekly |
Summary of December 11th is at
hand, and contains letter from
Mr.. Hartwell, which with your per-
mission, | would like to answer.
But first, let me say that l notice
some anonymous letters in your pa
per, and the meaning of which |
would not have understood had |
not received information from pri-
vate sources as to what was prob
ably intended. All l wish to say is,
that when these parties will say
what they mean clearly enough so
that after it is said they cannot get
out of it because it is not clear
enough what they did mean, l will
see what l can do to give them salts
faction; meanwhile rs long as they
see fit to fire ut persons character
from behind the double barricade of
masked identity and lnuendoes so
framed that while the reader is left
to fill in whatever bad his own feel
ings or street gossip suggest, the
author if confronted by the law can
claim any trivial intention and
meaning that suits him, | must per-
force leave to him whatever advan-
tage comes from such warfare. And
now, to turn to Mr.. Hartwell, it is
always i'll order, L supwose, to see
how far you can agree with another
before coming to what you cannot
agree on, and in this connection /
wish to say to Mr.. Hartwell, that
while utterly dissenting from his
ideas on the Chinese question, / be-
licve substantially in his views on
the missionary in politics as express
ed by him in the BULLETIN some
time ago. | believe with him that
the missionaries and their descend
ants and church people in general
shonld be subjected TO criticism
precisely as other people, but what
ever criticisms they deserve and
therefore should receive, require no
party organization to present them,
and when the princi pies Of 4 party
are so dominated by its feelings
that it is known by its own follow
ING AS the anti-missionary party, it
suggests Il dearth or disregard Of
party principles and a superabund-
ance of fractional and personal feel,
ing that augers ill for any real, or
any success.
But what is often mistaken for
anti-missionary auimus, and too
often mixed up with it, is not in
tended as such, but is a genuine
political grievance, and requires
the organization OF Il party to cor
rect, namely, the fact that the for
eigners, who have for the past thirty
years controlled the Government
and the judiciary, have come almost
exclusively from among the class
representing land and capital rather
than labor.
This has resulted rs might be ex-
pected in legislation, which while in
the main conforming to liberal
institutions, has still, when there
was occasion TO lean, leaned per-
ceptibly in tayer of the interests of
that class TO the exclusion of others.
1t has resulted in administrations
which, while they were economical
and pure in detail, still in quiet
and respectable way gave Queen
street what it wanted, and whose
careers are marked by an absence OF
the presence and iorce of that Gle.
ment which you might call the mid
die laboring classes, who form /;
commanding element under other
constitutional governments, and who
came to the front at the islands fol
the first time (what there were OF
them) on the 30tli of June.
The most pronounced evidence ot
this bias of past administrations anC
of its disastrous effects was not (lel
us say) in the fact that cheap labo
was introduced by that class, but il
the manner it was done, for while
their compunclions in favor of fre,
institutions did not seem to proven
them from stretching point fol
their own interests, and tetherins
that labor with contract ~ stem
hardly suggested by free inslilu
tons, on the other hand rs far a
the protection of other CLASSES
was concerned, they neglected
even average ecautions, and lef
that labor unhridled license to tax,
and possess the land, an opportunit,
which they have improved so rapid,
that it is already an open question
whether they have not carried them
selves past the last turn in the roaC
where they could have been eallet
to a halt.
1t is not for us to say THAT w
would have done better if we ha'
been in their places and had hat
similar interests To serve; in fact
we would have been pretty sure I,
have done the same on worse; bu
this we can predicate with cerlainty
that if there had been fair intelli
gent representation ia ,he Legislature
and Government, of those whose in
terests were likely to be menaceC