The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-30
COMPLETE IMPROVEMENT.

II is argued that because the colonial
Americans began their career as a ma
/ ton with complete self-goyernment
and thrived under it the mixed electo-
rate of Hawaii may be safely entrusted
/ with nearly the same powers. The
| cases, however, do not seem to us 10
afford parallel. Long before the CO.
lOnial Americans had gained their in
dependence they had, out of their own
| consciousness Of what was just and
safe, developed self-government along
ideal lines. They did not have 10 be
! tutored or watched as they went on
with the work, for by character, edu-
cation and temperament they We're fit
ted TO undertake the most urgent du-
ties of democracy. With their sturdy
moral code, their religious convictions.
their scorn of the base and unworthy
in politics, they formed the best mate
rial out OF which to make a State that
their age afforded.
But suppose they had been a mixed
race with the Angio-Sax0n element in
the minority? What then? The ne
grOes of the South have not been able
TO make good use of the suffrage in
these times, despite two centuries Of
white example; suppose in those times
they had Outnumbered the whites in
the thirteen new States and that the
oil rFgVss 4
had been able TO choose every official
but the one highest. In that case we
should now be considering a more per-
feet parallel. But this journal has too
much respect for the intelligence of the
Hawaiian Star. to whom these cOnsid-
erations are addressed, to think that
it would, in such event. find much his
tOrical cause in the annals of early
American self-gOvernment TO ask that
all the great Offices OF the coming Ter
ritory of Hawaii should be put at the
disposal of our voters.
Any one might have predicated what
the compatriots of Jefferson and
Franklin would do with their privi-
leges, but who can tell what the COM
patriots of Bob Wilcox and ]. w. Bipi-
kane might do with theirs? We hope
for the best but we do not know. The
natives will vote and they may out
vote the annexation whites 1t is so
vital 4 matter, this one of the outcome
Of our Island polling. that the trainers
)f the Territorial bill acted most wise
". as we think, in making the higher
officers of State appointive rather than
elective. We get a surer pledge of
safety than could otherwise have been
had.
The Star demands an opportunity |
for the voters to show whether they
are or are not Tit to exercise their priv |
ing TO judge of the capacity of the Ha- !
waiian voter for local self-government |
if no opportunity is given to him of
proving that capacity?" But is the OPP !
portunity TO be withheld? The voters !
will have all 70 say about municipal or !
county organization; they will also |
choose the Legislature. III they bear |
these esponsibilities well. it VIII be |
time enough then to ask in their name |
for wider ones. Those who are placed |
over the many things should first prove |
themselves faithful over the few. The |
process as applied to the Hawaiian |
electorate is fair to all; it involves no !
real hardship: it may save Hawaii j
from years of misrule and ill-repute.
In entering the portals OF the great /
republic" says the Star. we should !
also have accorded to us those privi- |
eges which our confreres have" So |
We should. But is it not intended that |
We should have them? Does our Ter
ritorial bill give us fewer electoral |
privileges than the people of other Ter
-itories enjoy? What the Star really |
asks for are the privileges, minus but |
1ne electoral right, of Statehood. That |
in the present condition of things is |
asking too much-more than Hawaii |
might be able to assimilate, or the |
United States find itself justified or re-
varded in comforting.