The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-04-06
Hawaiian Star Newspaper
Company, Ltd.
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1898.
THE EQUAL RIGHTS ISSUE.

liz bllllol ouOISItS WIZ are III NOlk
in the privacy Of the Bulletins columns
to convince the natives that union with |
America would mean loss of civil rights,
are hard pressed for fact and argument.
They start with the postulate that Haw.
alians would fare, in the event of an
nexation, as badly as "Alaskans and
Californians" did; but when one comes
to look into this plea, particularly where
it touches the Californians, its utter alb
surdity appears
The Alaskan native bears about the
same relation to the Hawaiian that
bushman Of Australia does to a Span
lard or a Greek. He is a blubber-
eating savage who cares nothing about
civil rights and would not use them if
he had any. He has never sought the
suffrage nor could he, if asked, tell its
uses or its value. To say that because
such a creature was not made to vote
against his will, when Alaska was
bought by the United States, the civil
lied and Christian Hawaiian would be
put on his political level by union with
the same country is to insult the
natives of the Sandwich group and to
appeal to the instincts of the dema-
gogue.
As to the Californian he was never
denied the suffrage and has always,
since his country was annexed, voted
freely. Even the Bulletins special
pleader admits this fact and leaves a
hoPleSS reader to wonder why, if he
wanted to establish a falsehood, he
should have built up so complete a ref
utation of it. The Hawaiian may well
ask himself if there is likelihood that
he would fare worse than the Califor-
Man did and he may search the BuIIe-
tins tedious columns in vain to find why
such should be the case. If the Cali
fornian was especially provided for by
America can not the Hawaiian be taken
care of in the same way? What is to
prevent
1t has always been the plan of the
United States to enfranChise those who
come into its body polite with a pur,
pose to become good citizens. All
European nations are included in the
circle of this benefcent policy. The
Mexicans of California, the Creoes of
Louisiana, the Africans of the South,
the semi-civiized tribes of the Indian
Territory exercise the voting privilege.
Only the Mormons who break the laws,
the Indians who are untamed and muir
derous, the Esquimaux who are sodden
brutes and the Chinese who do not
assimilate with the Anglo Saxon, fail of
suffrage. Into one of these classes the
annexed Hawaiian would fall. We leave
it for the Bulletin to class him with
the inhibited barbarians, law breakers
and heather. As for the STAR it places
him where he belongs, among enlight.
ened peoples to whom the door of
American suffrage is Hospitality open.
One thing more. The only danger
that ever menaced Hawaiian suffrage
under the American flag was the de-
mand of the whites in these islands that
it should be withheld. This demand
no longer exists because its unwisdom
is clear from beginning to end The
consent of the whole annexation party
will freely go with an Americanized
native to the ballot-box; and he will be
welcomed there by power which prides
itself in the thought that it is an asy.
lum for the down-trodden and Cypress
ed who come to it in good faith to Sc
cure its equal blessings.