The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-12-21
PLAIN TALK.
The Washington Star" on the
Present Situation.

Aside from the commercial and
political considerations which have
been discussed in connection with
the Hawaiian disturbance, there is
one phase of the imbroglio that has
received much less attention than
it deserves. Ex-Minister Stevens
touched upon it when he said that
sail that American piety, American
benevolence, American schools and
American patriotism have accom-
plished in Hawaii in the past sew
enty years are now centralized in
the Provisional Government, and
stand in its support. 1t is a govern
ment honestly and ably admins
tered, and the best government that
Hawaii ever had" 1t is just such
government as might have been ex-
pected of men whose intelligence
and moral strength are direct re-
suit Of the Outstanding influences
set in motion and sustained by the
religious liberality of American
philanthropists. Missionary effort
alone has brought a considerable
proportion of the Hawaiian popu-
lation out of the darkness of
heathendom into the sunlight of
civilization. Missionary teaching
gave to the best native elements
the virtuous and self.respecting
sense that rebelled against Liliuo-
kalani's RIGHTEOUSNESS and tyr
amy. Missionary energy set the
example by which so many of the
missionary educated kanakas
achieved business success. And
now it is not merely proposed,
but deliberately planned by
the Government of the United
States that all the good done in
many years of earnest Christian
endeavor shall be shocked even to
possible destruction that the vici-
Gus and lawless are to be set up on
high and that honesty is to suffer
humiliation and venomous persecu-
ton.
That the conspiracy against the
good government of Hawaii may
be frustrated is the fervent prayer
of millions of Americans. With
Liliuokalani or any other cancan
monarch on throne at Honolulu,
there would be no peace for those
who have undertaken to give a
good government to the Islands,
and as these men-native and
American-own most of the prop
erty and control nine-tenths of the
commerce, they need no excuse for
offering forcible resistance either
to the official piracy that seems to
have been ordered by our national
administration, or to the expiring
effort of thoroughly disreputable
aggregation of swindlers headed
ostensibly by the discredited
woman whom our government
has endorsed. Bishop John P.
Newman of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, visited Hawaii in
his official capacity shortly before
the dethronement of Liliuokalani.
He is satisfied that the people of
the Islands will not permit Presi-
dent Cleveland to restore the mon
archy. He says that at the time
of his visit the people were "ripe
for independence" and that the
'leaders of the revolution were the
cream of the intelligence and dig
nifty of its residents" Bishop New
man declared in the interview
printed recently in the Star, that
but for American influences the
islands would now be in state of
mental and moral decadence; a
conclusion easily and naturally
reached by any one who has
studied Hawaiian tendencies and
watched the degrading efforts of
the so-called monarchy. The testi-
mony on this part of Correspondent
Nordhoff himself, given disinterest-
edly, before his services were or
dered by the New York Herald in
behalf of the opponents of the mis-
sionaries, is printed elsewhere in
the Star. This testimony, like that
of Mark Twain, who is not to be
suspected of any ELUSIVE admira-
ton for missionaries in the abstract,
is heartily and unreservedly in their
favor. But all these facts and this
reasoning are not taken into &C
count by those who would inject
partisan considerations into our
foreign policy. A blow is dealt
both to Christianity and patriotism,
a century of soul-saving and edu-
cative effort is rebuked by force of