The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-08-09
THE DAILY BULLETIN.
Pledged to neither Sect nor Party,
But Established for the Benefit Of An.
TUESDAY, AUG. 8, 1892.
THE MILITARY VOTE.

The Advertiser is distressed to the
extent of a column and half of |
lamentation over the passage of the
vote of $4,000 for the Queens |
Guards. 1t calls it a foolish and |
extravagant appropriation" and says
the force of men is absolutely use
less" Messrs. Bush, Wilcox and Bi-
pikane, whom the Advertiser has
ever been wont to treat with nothing
but contumely, are praised as among
the five Hawaiians who voted
against the item. Our contemporary
all through the discussion puts as
sertion in place of argument, while
some of its comparisons are badly
off their legs. The appropriation is
neither foolish nor eXtravagant COM
pared with the military expenditure
of any period over long range of
years. A military force is neither
useless nor unnecessary here, having
on different occasions afforded signal
service to the interests of law and
order. The hurrying of a company
to the scene of a Chinese riot in Ho
nolulu one time saved nobody can
say how much of turmoil and blood
shed. There was the suppression of
| the Kona rebellion also, mentioned
in the late Marshal Parke's "Remi-
niscences." Policemen's ordinary
| duties are of nature that make it
difficult to train policemen for sol
diers' duties, and for such emer-
gencies as those before cited you
would not have enough policemen.
If the police force be increased to
make up for the loss of the soldiers,
you have in all ordinary times a
surplus of drones on the force, without
the expense to the country reduced.
1t is mistake to hold that, even
if our modest military force might
never be needed to do serious ser
vice, the expenditure is total waste.
In the first place the money is near
ly all spent in the country, the ex-
ception being when new equipments
are required. The pay of the force
goes right out into the channels OF
trade, doing its part in keeping
things moving in business. Then
the military, when kept in an eff
cient state for it's size-the men well
dressed and drilled-has distinct
value for ornamental purposes alone.
Those who would shear the royal
dignity of all concomitants, except
ing barely decent living for the
Sovereign, forget that the Palace has
always been one of the most attract
i've cynosures for the eyes of visitors,
whether of mOnarchical or demo-
cratic nationality, which these Isl
ands possess. Overthrow all the
pomp and circumstance about the
throne, modestly maintained though
at present they be, and Honolulu
will be metamorphosed from royal
capital of rare interest to dull and
dismal commercial town, with a
moneyed aristocracy vainly trying
to cover itself with the pomp and
show taken from royalty. We are
having great talk now about ad-
vertising the country and its attrac-
tions abroad, yet here are people in
the name of economy striving to
destroy one of the chief centers of
attraction the country has to ad-
vertise!
The Advertiser is unfortunate in
its illustrations. When it describes
armies as an evil none will object,
but they are necessary evil so long
as evils of other kinds rule in the
world. A reference is made by our
contemporary to the little army OF
the United States, which it regards
as "the nucleus for larger force in
time of war" The United States
has little army only in name. The
United States is in reality almost as
much of an armed camp as any OF
the countries of Europe. There are
the militia forces of the several
States, generally fully armed and
well drilled, and there is the Nation
al Guard with its palatial armories
in every large city-a recent illus,
, trated paper of New York gives pic
lures of three of these vast edifces
lately built in Brooklyn. And these
great militia and volunteer forces
ara NOT idle branches OF the army