The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-29
A kEJEClED OLIVE BRANCH.

response to the Advertisers proposal
that the two divisions of the Repub-
lean party should come together and
take equal share in political responsible
ity is challenge to further discord.
Witness this outlet from the Bulletin:
Whatever strife has arisen in the Re-
publican party is due directly to the Adj
vert sers personal attacks upon individ-
uals against whom it harbors personal
spite or who have the temerity to differ
with it's ponderous attempt to rule or
ruin.
People who have read all the daily
papers for years past are aware that
the attempt to disrupt the element
which was to form a Republican party
when these Islands came to be annexed
began with the Bulletin itself. AS soon
as that paper ceased to be Royalist and
anti-American it called itself too Re
publican in it's views to support Mr..
Dole, Mr.. Hartwell or any other of the
annexation leaders; and day after day
and week after week it assailed them
by name and with epithet. This, we pre-
sumo was it's idea of harmony. When
the Territorial bill passed, the Bulletin
and it's friends undertook to form a
close corporation called the Republican
party from which all but a few COM
paratively new leaders were to be ex-
Guided. 1.-The old crowd" comprising,
as the vote at the first organization
meeting showed, six-sevenths of the
white Republicans of Honolulu. We're
given to understand that they We're not
wanted in party fellowship. At the or
ganization meeting spoken of, the
chairman, who had been previously Sc
lected in a close corporation caucus,
was an enemy of Mr.. Dole; the prin-
Icipal speaker was Mr.. Dole'S rival for
the Governorship; the other speakers
were new men, comparatively, and but
one of them turned out to be an oppo-
nent of factional methods. Everything
was done then and at the subsequent
primaries, which the minority carried
with the help of natives who are not
the so-called missionary Republicans"
the object being to fill their vacant
places in the voting ranks with Hawaii
ans. In all that period as for months
and years before, the leaders and mem
bers of the old Annexation party were
attacked daily by the Bulletin with
such forms of insult SIS it's small wit
and smaller vocabulary could supply
Confronted with the threat of politi-
cal ostracism for siX-sevenths of the
Republican rank and file the Adver-
tiser took a decided stand against the
factional conspiracy. 1t did not act
until the party had received a cumula-
tive provocation. Word had been pass
ed among the active minority to turn
the easy-going majority down by hook
or by crook; the majority, on it's side
did not intend to be turned down and
the Advertiser said as much. Nor was
this all: The moral sense of the whole
community was offended by this def
milton of Republican doctrine, namely.
IF we nominate a corrupt man we
must vote for him. Neither the Ad-
vertiser nor it's readers were satisfied
with this statement of party principle
and they denounced it. They could not
have done less and honored the party
of their choice. OF course there was a
row, but this journal felt happily con-
scious that it did not touch the spark
to the magazine.
One Monday morning the Advertiser
dropped the controversy and awaited
icSuitS- edCe SteIHtu 10 settle on the
press save for the usual peevish slurs
of the evening paper which we at
tribute to its declining health. There
was nothing doing among the factions.
Then an effort was made to induce the
Oahu members of the Republican Ter
ritorial Committee to usurp the func-
tions of the whole Committee and the
Oahu men declined to act. This looked
like reason, whereupon the Advertiser
complimented the members on their
good sense and advised that the Com
mittee be differed and organized in
such a way as to reconcile Republicans
of both schools of political thought and
unite the party for the campaign. At
once the Bulletin not only repeated it's
dull impertinences but showed, In an
article which disapproved of any recog-
milton Of the Republican majority in the
Territorial Committee, that it wanted
the whole hog or none"
There the matter rests. The Adver-
tiser has no feeling save one of regret
that a fair proposition for harmony
should have had so churlish a welcome
Possibly on second thoughts the ma
chine members of the Oahu contingent
may see fit to avoid discord while they
have chance and reject the counsels
of political incendiaries. Meanwhile the
harmony platform stands and the way
to it Is cleared.