The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1890-03-18
Mr.. KINNEY AND THE BULLETIN.

which we have already had occasion
to notice the Bulletin took occasion
to make savage attack on Mr.. Kin
ney. The charge made is SO unjust
and so ill-founded, that it would
hardly seem worth while to notice it
at all, were it not that the public is
apt to be hasty and indiscriminate
in its judgments and take anything
it sees in print for truth.
The charge made and repeated
ad nauseam against Mr.. Kinney is
simply that he led an agitation on
the Chinese question during which
his hostility to the planters and
others influential in the Reform
party was pronounced, and that in
spite of this he was found few
months later working shoulder to
shoulder with the very planters and
plutocrats whom he had denounced,
and who in turn had showered male
dictions without number upon him.
Malice gives this the air of political
inconsistency and of an abandon
ment of workingmen's interests.
If the truth be told Mr.. Kinney
was never so thoroughly consistent,
never SO truly the workingman's
friend as when he took his stand in
the late campaign. The agitation of
which he had been the leader in the
summer, had been brought to a sue
cessful issue. The Reform party
through the ministry and in its plat
form had pledged itself unequivo-
cably to carry out the specific legis
lation which has been asked. The
planters had been compelled to
yield, whether they liked it or not.
The crusade had succeeded as thor
oughly as the circumstances would
admit, the public sentiment had
been brought to the point of recog-
nizing the necessity for prompt and
decided action.
Mr.. Kinney took the field in favor
of the Reform party, not merely for
the reasons already indicated, but
because that party was endeavoring
to secure closer commercial relations
with the United States. He recog-
nized, as every thinking man must
recognize, the fact that the prosper
ity of the workingman is more abso-
lutel y dependent on the continuance
of the Treaty than that of any other
class, more than that of the planters
themselves. If the Treaty goes, if
the Tariff is wiped out, the white
workingmen of these Islands will be
wiped out too, so quickly and thor
oughly that they will leave no trace.
But the planter will still go on, with
the cheap coolie labor which Asia is
waiting to send us, in numbers like
the sands of the seashore.
Mechanics and others at the recent
election, let themselves be led gently
by the nose by such men as Mr..
Crowley, stupidly ignoring their own
most precious interests, their own
preservation in short, and voting to
cut their own throats. They did not
see that they had anything to gain
or lose by the Treaty. They thought
perhaps that the planters were the
persons chiefly if not entirely con
cerned. They were Indifferent or
hostile to the attempt of the present
Government to enter into closer re-
lations with the United States, and
did not seem to care whether that
country gave us any special advan-
tages or not
Whatever may be said of the wis
dom or unwisdom of the mechanics
attitude, it cannot be denied that
their interests are mostly intimately
bound up with the fate of the Treaty.
This is a subject the importance of
which cannot easily be overesti-
mated. 1t was not overestimated
during the late campaign. Closer
treaty relations with the United States
with an agreement that our sugar
should be placed on the same basis
as those raised in America, would
have been a priceless boon for this
kingdom. Such a treaty would have
amounted to permanent guarantee
of our commercial prosperity. VIII
anyone answer and say who had a
deeper interest in the matter than
the workingman? No one, and every
one promoting this treaty was a
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