The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1894-04-12
The Problem of the Age.


greatest Republic on Earth" con-
tains at least million Of unemploy-
ed workmen-men who are clamor-
ing for the right to toll that they
may live. With characteristic dis
honesty in dealing with facts, the
Republican leaders, as usual, are
not slow in trying to make party
capital out of the situation, and,
pointing to Cleveland as the cause,
indicate that he is the high priest of
misrule. In this connection it is re-
markable that much the same con-
dition of things exists in the British
Empire, and especially in that por-
ton of it known as the Aust ralian
colonies, hitherto the equal, in pros
perity for the worker, with any coun-
try.
There is, it must be admitted,
something dangerously wrong in the
social conditions which permit hun
dreds of thousands Of willing work
ers in the two most literally govern
ed sections Of the world-the British
Empire in Australia and the Ameri-
can Republic-to be clamoring for
work. The problem this suggests is
one that cannot be settled of-hand
by any chimerical scheme of Bella
myism, of socialism or labor party
ism. A condition Of things which
is evidently the outcome Of years of
misdirected government, is too deep
ly rooted to DO remedied in decade
or by any single panacea. There
must be something radically wrong
in Anglo-Saxon Legislative methods
as exempli6ed in the United States
and Australia, and a rational under
standing OF causes is a matter Of the
first necessity. Men OF common
sense, ability and patriotism are not
wanting in both countries; but to a
large extent they keep out of politics.
The economic history OF the last
century or more is full Of practical
teaching, but the cardinal object les
sons are not visible to the average
legislator, and the very few whose
intelligence rises above that OF the
ignorant public seldom make them
selves heard. The moral of the un-
employed is that we are passing
through an economic evolution
which is practically independent OF
our desires or prejudices; an evolu-
ton which has changed aud will fur
ther change for us the whole social
problem by changing the conditions
Of material production, and which
ipso Jacio effects a revolution in all
our modern, and especially our in
dustrial, life. II is but q few years
since there was neither capitalist nor
wage. receiver, aud the industrialism
OF our neutrality-suspicious. knew
neither the Iron law OF wages" nor
the unemployed question.
In the early days OF republican
Rome there was restitution, and the
multitude in those days were appar-
emily as sagacious, as to cause and
effect, as the horny handed citizens
Of America are more than two centu-
ries later. The Romans saw the evils
Of land monopoly and an sgita' ion
procured the enactment OF the Lici-
MAN laws under which - Sbman
citizen could hold more than 800
acres Of land. All holdings over
that had to be- divided for the relief
OF the people who were landless.
Some reader will want to know what
this dissertation has to do with local
affairs, to which | reply that. lessons
Of history are for universal instruc-
ton. We have our own indust rial
problem and land question. The
questi n Of whether this country
shall be overrun by Chinese and
other Asiatics is no longer matter
for speculation; il is an accomplish
ed fact. A recent attempt to legis.
late so as to restrict the Chinese
within business and residence limits
has been detied, and the proposal Of
the Provisional Government in the
matter, in consequence OF the defiant
attitude OF the Chinese, is aban-
doned, and the Rke has gained his
first victory over constituted power
in Hawaii, and a Hawaiian Govern
ment for the first time in history has
been defied and defeated by a single
foreign nationality. The willy China
man we'll knows that the govern
ment is as house divided and I'M
able To strike him, aud the effect OF
the whole business is demoralizing.
No government worthy OF the name
would lift its mailed hand to act
unless it was prepared to do so.
The spectacle OF the strongest and
best" government We ever had, retir-
ing to the wall before a Mongol
specter is not Gathering to our eau
casian sense Of dignity and man
hood, and il would have been inf-
nitely better il the learned Attorney
General aud his colleagues in the
Councils had first gagged the cali
Der OF the men before whom they
threw down the gauntlet which was
SO promptly picked up. 1t is severe,
however, to blame men for want
OF perspicacity which heaven has
denied them.
The section OF the American Union
Party who pin their faith to the
fifth plank OF their platform ought
to receive much comfort from it, in
view OF the foregoing facts, espe-
cially when they remember that the
members Of the Provisional Govern
ment who were in the last aud pre-
yious legislatures were the unflinch-
ing champions OF Asiatic immigra-
ton, and will remain SO while the
bayonets OF foreign mercenaries up
| hold them