The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-08-01
(Conclud

Exercises.
Concluded
'The want OF education for citizenship
burdens society with ineficiency and
corruption; with unnecessary debt and
taxation; with sorrow and shame and
anxious forebodings for the future. I"
These words were written for another
land, but they are as true of Hawaii, as
though written for Us. Is it no much to
ask and insist that your teachers shall
| instruct by precept and not annul
that teaching by example? Why not
insist that they teach patriotism as truly
as they teach language and mathema-
tics? 1t need not silence just criticism
OF bad government; it certainly will not
be understood that | would have them
indorse corruption in low places or in the
highest; but our laws are not corrupt !;
the principles OF this government are
pure. its standards high; and whenever
or wherever there is q failure to realize
good government it can be justly and
rightly pointed out, and the warning
given. AS l have already indicated, We
teach these principles in only few OF
our higher schools; to the very few
who reach our higher classes in these
schools. What l plead for is that sys-
TEN OF elementary instruction in civics
be prepared, and those fundamental
principles that pertain to the training up
Of law-abiding, law-respecting citizens
be taught in all the primary and gram
mar schools OF the kingdom, public and
private; that spirit of loyalty to the ma
ton may be developed, and such knowl-
edge OF good government and its needs
10 CHI fall.
upright voters, who from a sense OF duty
will always be found at the polls casting
their ballots Understandings. To do this
the voter must be educated SO as to COM
prehend the nature oil our institutions,
the meaning and power of the ballot and
must have just appreciation of the
honesty and integrity required of one
who would worthily exercise the duties
of citizen in free land. And when
can he learn these fundamentals better
than along with his reading and multi
plication table or his language work be-
fore his mind is corrupted, while it is
open and appreciative of the truth, as is
the mind of the boy or the girl.
In no land is there SO great need of
this kind of instruction as in ours. In no
other land do SO few votes combine to
choose the members of Its highest legis-
lative body. In no other land does the
individual voter count for so much at the
polls. Hence the imperativeness of this
need if Hawaii is to be preserved free
land having an autonomy that is respect
ed by all the great powers because of its
high and noble realizations. Our position
is unique in more ways than one, but in
no particular is it more so than in the
attempt to place upon a people just en-
tering into civilization the high preroga-
tive of the elective franchise and full
citizenship. The experiment is not
ended. Ii the hope of America lies alone
in the intelligence and morality of its
masses, there with greater homogeneity
and centuries of training back of the
exalted present, what is the hope of Ha-
waii, with its heterogeneous population,
and history in civilization that can be
comprised by the lives of some we know
among us, and an experience in self-gov-
eminent of less than fifty years FL answer
that it lies in measures SO earnest, and
on education so comprehensive that the
masses who stay only a few years in our
schools shall go out with as much know
ledge of the duties of citizenship as they
have of reading or mathematics. A
chain is no stronger than its weakest
link, cable than its poorest strand, and
a government is no more stable; the
power of a nation is no greater than the
stability or strength of the weakest ele-
ment in it, if that element is an active
factor in it's administration. To restate
the question in another way, it is, how
can we make good Hawaiian citizens
not good English or German or Portu-
guese or American citizens-but good
Hawaiian citizens out of the English,
German, Portuguese, American, Ha-
waiian, half-caste and all other children
growing up in this land? He is wise
man who can tell whether existing condi-
tons are those of crisis or of preparation.
The present is almost sure to be either
overestimated or underestimated. But l
venture to suggest that this nation is, in
very real sense, In state OF crisis at
this time, while l urge that we do not
forget that we are sowing now for the
harvest of the most distant future.
In representative self-government
the character of the citizens determines
the character of the government at any
given time. This character, however, is
not stable or fixed, and as the character
OF the citia Ems changes, the change will
be registered in corresponding modifi-
cation of the Government. Let me pause
moment to illustrate this from the
history of the great republic. The con-
stitution of the United States as adopted
by the thirteen colonies in 1889 stands as
the register of the character of it's citizens
at that time. But these colonies had
suffered from what they felt to be too
highly centralized government in the
mother land, and their sensitiveness to
this sentiment is clearly reflected in the
haste with which constitutional safe
guards were thrown around the individ-
ual and the posltivenesS with which the
doctrine of state rights was enunciated,
all of which is registered in the first eleven
amendments to the original constitution,
adopted within four year after the nation
was founded. Then followed, as might
have been expected, IAN excessive and ex-
travagant development of this doctrine in
connection with the increase of slavery
and the efforts made for its protection.
But, as we have heard this eve, the
time came when the character of the
people was changed; still this principle
that had been fostered and had grown so
aggressive continued to assert itself, and
in a vain attempt to establish the doc
trine by force of arms, it persisted, and
its loved and cherished. institution was
destroyed and the Constitution amended
SO as to abolish it forever. But the war
had developed the tendency to centrali
cation of power in the national govern
ment and amendment has followed
amendment to that end, defining federal
citizenship and prohibiting the states
from interfering with or limiting this
right, and finally conferring manhood