The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-03-23
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P2e6ged 10 meit4cy Seer no, PAW,
But eSta6hSked for the 6eaenH Of ell
MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1891.

the leaders OF the reform party should
attempt to give the utterances of Colo
mel Claus Spreckels any other inter-
probation than the language used bears
upon its face. A few days ago the
BULLETIN republished from the North
American Review an article from Colo
mel Spreckels' pen, upon The Future
of the Sandwich Islands" The arti-
Gle has been commented upon by one
OF the leaders of tie Reform party
in most factional spirit. In fact
the writer in question has attempted
to drive peg into Colonel Spreckels'
article, upon which he might hang
his political hat and cry bravo!
We are not at present in the heat
of political fight and, happily for
the country, will not be for some
time. 1t is, therefore, somewhat of
conundrum, why the leaders of
defeated fractional fight should at
tempt to read into Colonel Spreckel's
well considered article, in the North
American Review, conclusions which
he never thought of and did not
utter.
1t is true Colonel Spreckels used
the term "reactionary party" but
he used 1t in describing a clique of
political extremists who attempted to
initiate the Reform or revolutionary
party of 1887. Since that unfOrtun-
ate period great changes have taken
place. Most of these have been for
the good of the Kingdom. The po-
lltlcal party, or faction, which
brought into existence, in Hawaiian
politics, the term "reactionary" was
the moribund Reform party of 1889
80. They were defeated but refused
to die. They were defeated but re-
fused to shift the defense of their
weakness to an appeal to the facts.
Such an appeal would have left them
without political foundation. The
case has not altered today. The
leaders of the remnant of the Reform
party still cling to The hope that by
calling "reactionary" all who do not
agree with the methods of force and
'close- corporation" politics, preced-
ing the year 1890, they will be able
to make party showing in the
future.
1t may be that other political par
ties and factions are pretty much in
the same fix, but this is not under
discussion. No overt act nor pre-
tence of any party, on this point, has
yet been made public.
Since the election of 1890, the Re-
form party has become reacti0nary
in the same sense that it then ac-
cused and now accuses other parties
of being so. 1t refuses to concur in
the decision and expressed will of
the people, as written in free ballot.
ln the years 1SS9-9O it went so far
as to declare, through its acknow-
lodged organ, that all who did not
acqulesce in revolutionary measures
were "rcactionaries' (sic). Not
withstanding all this, the organ of
that political faction, unmindful of
the interests of the country at large,
still brands those as reactionary who
have not thus far fallen into the Re-
form party's inconsistent way of
thinking.
OF course, the idea of a republic
in Hawaii is absurd, but neverthe-
less the leaders of the Reform Party
were the first to lately attack the
"Queen and the Cabinet when the
conservative elements of the country
were silently hoping for better things,
which have now come to them.
This spirit of political haggling
and party revenge has done much to
injure Hawaii thus far. Ii is pity,
but the pity is, tits true" 1t is
also true that counter political ex-
trcmists have, from time to time.
pursued the same nonsensical course
as have the leaders of the Reform
Party, viz, to use every occasion
and pretext for wide hing the breach
between the masses of the people
and political parties, by factions
striving after power or personal pre-
ferment.
Since the establishment of the late
and present Cabinet, there has been
no political faction in Hawaii which
has been of 'reactionary" cha
ter, except, perhaps, that including
the leaders, not the members, of the
late Reform Party. Like a savage
nation, the Reform Party leaders