The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-04-19
WHY HE WRITES STORIES.
The Skipper Furnishes the Public
With Egotistical ElueidatiOns.

With EgOtlstical ElucldatlonS'
MR.. EDITOR For the past two
days you have asked by what right
or fitness I am here as a correspond
ent I have not the least objection
to making answer to that question,
but YOU will excuse me from adopting
a style which, judging from leading
editorials, must be peculiar to the
Hawaiian Republic. My knowledge
of the strong and dignifed tone Of the
ADVERTISER in years that are gone
warrants this inference on my part.
First, is not the fact of my presence
something of a guarantee of my fit
ness? Would journals which publish
no sensational views, illustrations or
advertisements go to the expense Of
sending an individual 10000 miles,
paying him from the day of start to
the day of arrival home, giving him
absolute discretion as to quantity and
nature of communications, to wire
them or mail them as he saw fit, I'M
less the editors considered him the
man for the place? Yet, that is absO-
Iutely the truth of the action of the
Transcript and of the Post this year.
All letters and kilograms sent by me
last year have been printed in book
form; not a fact there stated, gave one,
was ever impeached with success;
this is the statement OF the editors
who received numberless private let
ters and communications, some of
which they published. Where one of
your citizens was aggrieved, he was
allowed column on the editorial page
for explanation. To illustrate the
difficulty of reaching fact in this COM |
munity, since my arrival, that chal- |
lenged statement has been repeated |
with such force that, were this my /
first visit, fear [ should fall into the |
error of printing it. Rightly or wrong |
Iy, it is believed with us that no gen
eral statements, ever reach us cave
those prepared by parties interested; |
a transient resident may blunder, but |
if a man of cool, calm Judgment, his |
writings must contain an impartial |
estimate of the situation.
Granting that any government |
must have it's faults and its fOibles, |
why, you may ask, should these be
photographed and exhibited at their |
worst? In the case of Hawaii, there
is the soundest reason for doing this. |
If q man wishes to marry my sister,
it is my duty to ascertain not the best |
but the very worst which can be said |
of his character. Your Government /
avows its intention to make alliance
with mine. To my view, no patriotic
American citizen can vote to admit
you to nearer union than reciprocal |
free trade. Yet, you are trying to in
troduce your domestic differences into
the United States. Is not this single |
fact sufficient apology for portraying |
to our people the innate despotism of
your aristocracy, the natural yet often |
unreasonable demands of your middle
class democracy, the perplexiDg prob
lens of race and religion consequent |
on your promiscuOus population, your
Acknowledgement of the race to whom
the Creator gave this island hOnae, |
and your financial condition? If you
succeed in entangling US these and |
many other questions must be trans
ferred for adjudication to Washington,
and some of US believe that we, like
most individuals, have trouble enough
of our own.
When I accepted the offer of the
Post to make a ninety days trip to
it was with the expecta-
ton that I would be an unwelcome
visitor, which inference is confirmed.
Yet, the most careful reader of my
4
sonal luminosity to your citizens.
have been gratuitously told that in
this they differ from other criticisms.
Your course as political party has
been criticised and condemned by my
words, but missions or missionaries of
whatever denomination have received
naught but praise from my pen. For
your commercial prosperity, I have
expressed the best good wishes, advo-
,ating in the press the construction by
The United States as an exclusive gov
work of the Nicaragua canal,
4 public subvention of at least half
million dollars without any financial
return to the Hawaiian cable, and an
act of absolute free trade with Ha-
Taii, so that there should be no duties
on cargoes passing be- |
ween the ports of both countries
Inder either national flag.
IF / have been unable to see that
he destruction of the native mon
Irchy was other than a misfortune
ince it was the humiliation of the
me point of union at which all lines
nave in the past converged, will ask
10 stronger and wiser advocates of
his theory than are to be found in
he past utterances and public records
# such men as the elder Judd, or
lis son, the present Chief Justice.
JULIUS A. PALMER.