The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-02-23
A DILEMMA.

The question of the Hotel stables is
the question of the hour. The action
or rather inaction of the Board upon
the matter has aroused the strongest
kind of feeling throughout the city and
the reasons for the attitude of the
Board have been very freely discussed
and commented upon. While a few
people have expressed their complete
confidence in the Board, large ma
jority criticizes then, very. severely, and
the Citizens Sanitary Committee has
addressed a communication to the
Board which points out the inconsist-
ency of it's conduct.
The Board is between the horns of a
dilemma. If it was right to burn
houses because of suspicion of plague,
such as the house on the corner of King
and Liliha, the Chinese store and cot
tage visited by Mrs. Franz, it certainly
would be right to burn down the Hotel
stables. If the Hotel stables need not
be burned down, but can be disinfected
after two cases of plague can be traced
to them, then it was wrong to burn the
above places, and they should have
been disnfected. 1t is far easier to dis
infect a cottage which can be easily
sealed up, than to disinfect a set of
stables which cannot be sealed up in
any satisfactory manner.
1t is unfortunate that this change of
heart should have come upon the Board
at the time when the destruction in
vOlved property in which certain
wealthy and influential firms were in
terested. The effect upon the minds
of people like the Chinese and Japanese
who have lost their all for the good of
the community will naturally be to
render them antagonistic and distrust-
full of the Board of Health. Where the
property has belonged to people of no
great weight there has been no hesita-
ton in destruction, and it is inevitable
that people who see hesitation when the
Pantheon stables and the Hotel stables
are in questionswill naturally think that
there must be Influence" at work.
The whole OF the Board of Health
should not be censured-for a minority
is in favor of treating the stables in
the same manner as other places have
been treated. President Woods posi-
ton, however, is peculiarly illogical.
He has stated that all stables are In
sanitary and open to suspicion, and
therefore the case of the Hotel stables,
responsible for two deaths, is peculiar
ly dangerous more so than the case
of the Boardman house which was in
a good sanitary condition, and yet the
BOardman house was burned.
Mr.. Canavarro points out another in
consistency in the Boards conduct
Clean Portuguese were put into a
building which at present is quaran-
tined, and which first gang of men
was placed in quarantine for having
been exposed to. 1t is an extraordinary
method of working and certainly de-
mands explanation. That there will be
explanation we all hope, because we all
feel the absolute necessity of giving
loyal support to the Board. But the
citizens are not enlisted men to be or
dered on their work blindly, they must
see why they are told to do things and
they must be convinced that those who
are conducting the campaign against
plague are acting in good faith and
from proper motives.
AS long as the Board is consistent, as
long as it shows neither fear nor favor,
it will have the support and the assist
ance of the citizens, but when it begins
to vacillate, when it begins to be timid,
when it shows favor by bowling to pres
sure ibrought upon it by wealth, by in
nueuca or bV fraternitias that instant
the Board ceases to have the support
of a United City. Dr. Wood has told us
in the past that there has been COM
mercial pressure brought to bear
upon him with regard to the. shipping
of goods. The whole community ap-
plauded him when he stood firm.
1t must be kept in mind that the SAM
tary Committee with its inspectors and
its sub-inspectors has spent a great
many hours in uncongenlal work, and
that the citizens have acquiesced in the
inspection with the idea that the Board
of Health was doing its part in being
determined and fearless in carrying out
the policy which it had announced, and
which it has carried out not only in
Honolulu but in. Kahului and in Hilo.
To go back upon that policy is really
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