The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-08-30
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE?

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE?
Not only the inevitable, but the
best power this side OF the ocean is the
unfettered common sense of the
masses. Institutions, as we are accus-
toned to call them, are but paste-board
and intended to be, against the
thought OF the street. Statutes are
mere mile-stones. telling how far yes
terday's thought had travelled; and the
talk of the sidewalk OF today is the law
of the land You may regret this; but
the fact stands; and if our fathers fore
saw the full effect of their principles,
they must have planned and expected
il. With us. law is nothing, unless be-
hind it stands a warm, living public
opinion. Let that die or grow indif-
ferent. and statutes are waste paper,
lack all executive force. You may
frame them. as strong as language can
make them; but once change public
feeling, and through them or over
them ride the real wishes of the peo-
pie The good sense and conscience of
the masses are our only title-deeds
and police force.
These are the words of a great
American orator, who predicted the
fall of Slavery and was laughed at
for it. The South, secure in the
control of the government, smiled
and defed him. The Northern
Democracy with business interests
behind it, the old Wing party
now the Republican party, said,
"what rawlings, what an impracti-
cable man." He, standing on the
hill top, saw the silent gathering
of the masses" and the bayOnet
glittering among the wheat blades.
Who then make up the 'masses,"
In any State or community! Are
thew the selected few, who by supe-
rior energy, contrivance or even
force, manage to rule? Not in a
democracy, for its pendulum OF
opinion swings from the perfect
man if there is one, to the most ig-
norant. In America the most de-
PRAYED, ignorant, fetish worship
ping negro, living like a muskrat
on the banks of the Mississippi,
makes up, in common with Presl-
dent Mckinley or John ". Foster
the "mass" of American citizen
ship.
What statesman here, during
the last thirty years, believing in
this simple axiom of wisdom, pro
claimed the truth that here, the
masses, however made up, must in
the end, rule the country! That
in the end, nationality or color or
religion do not count, and that
Limitations" and "expedients"
and provisions must, in the long
run, even though it be century,
90 down before the masses! Did
he forsee that the immigrants of
every nationality bound by contract
labor, would be the law makers of
the future.
The Present, looking only for
gain, sees peace and prosperity and
is contented. The old farmer,
watching his mill dam, and the
peaceful pent up waters said,
''there is no danger, it has stood for
years" But the water had, for a
quarter of a century, been sending
out It's rills, like silk threads,
through the crevices, and these
piloted the great volume through |
the barrier, and it gave way. The
farm changed hands"
The masses" here, like the
peaceful pond, quietly and uncon-
sciously sends our little rills of poll
teal thought through the crevices
of the barriers, and contrivances,
which the superior race" has CON
structed to keep them back. In
the end. the distractions or CON
trivances fail, and the masses break
the barrier That is, they then
rule. Who are the masses" here?
1t Is a curious question.