The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-08-23

need the Cabinet have tried to
get along without any policy, but
in spite of their energetic efforts to
do nothing, say nothing and be
nothing--eforts which in general
have been crowned with remark
able success-the perilous neces-
sity of voting has been trap for
them-and not for the first time.
There is no excuse whatever for
the course adopted by the Ministry
yesterday, and none of any plau-
sibility is attempted 1t is
generally understood that the
case is simply the vulgar
one of vote swapping" the
Cabinet bidding for the favor of
the native members and for the
support of the three Horners. To
the latter-these three wise men,
who insist on going to sea in a bowl
we can only say that if they
have sacrificed their convictions as
to the dement's of the Cabinet to
superstitious veneration for the
family fetisch, that uncouth idol
will gain little by the unrighteous
4
bargain. The damage to the coun-
try from the retention of a senile
Ministry will certainly accrue, but
the Hawaiian Banking Act will
not become law. To the Ministry,
on the other hand, the warning
may be given that if they really
assist in good faith at the birth of
the Homer monstrosity, they will
have their labor for their pains,
for the majority which builds it's
hopes of salvation on this Act will
never leave the great undertaking
of putting it into operation to an
incompetent and doubling Minis
try. The ccse is plainly one where
neither party to the vote transfer
will gain anything, while the whole
country will suffer.
The attitude of the Cabinet from
the beginning of the debate has
been pitiful. The measure is one
of most wide-reaching conse-
quences, for good or evil. 1t does
not deal with some abstraction of
municipal law, with the defni-
ton of private rights. 1t is an
administrative measure. 1t i'm
poses vast duties upon the Cabinet,
provides for a Government estab-
lishment of enormous Importance
and complexity, which the Cabinet
| itself would have to call into being
and organize. There is not one
shadow of q justification for any
attempt to evade taking a stand
upon it. Yet the Ministry have
been silent, listless, inattentive and
absent. When forced to declare
themselves, the spokesman of the
trio finds just breath enough to say
that he and his colleagues have not
yet made up their minds ! tits ques.
tionable whether a more extraor.
binary, as well as more ludicrous
exhibition of Ministerial incompe.
tency was ever witnessed in any
Constitutionally governed country
The spectacle is almost enough tc
make one ashamed of ones spe.
cies.
It is melancholy that man Of
the Hon. III. A. Widemann's quail.
ties should stand at the head of a
Cabinet which, in these critical
days, SO weakly, so disgracefully
trifles with its own solemn
responsibilities and the urgent
needs of the country. A mar
of Mr.. Widemann's ability and
business experience must know
that there is no element of value Oh
soundness in the bill. He is not g
fanatic on the currency. He does
not share Noble Horner's delusions
He is without that excuse. He
knows perfectly well that the pas.
sage of the measure to which he
voted yesterday further lease O
life, must mean disaster, and no
thing but disaster, to the nation
He had the opportunity yesterday
to nail his colors to the mast, BY
a resolute and uncompromising
course to win the alienated confd
ence of the public, and if such {
course had cost him his office il
would at least have shed some lus
tire on the close of his public career
He has chosen instead to bring
down his own gray hairs to a grave
of political dishonor.