The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-03-10

The prolonged xhseqSe Of Jacob r
Brown. ESQ., the Land Commissioner
OF Hawaii. emphasizes What must sp
pear 20 members OF Congress as an
anomaly in politics. The Congress that
has iast closed its session vas the
same that passed the act creating the
Territory Of Hawaii In pursuance ol
definite policy respecting the public
lands. which finds expression repeated
II in the statutes OF the United States.
Congress declared a policy OF anti
monopoly with respect to the public
lands in Hawaii In sec SIS Of the Or,
ganic Act. il is declared that no cor.
poTation. domestic or foreign. shall
acquire and hold real estate in Hawaii
1 in excess of one thousand acres. and
all real estate acquired or held by
such corporation or association con
trary hereto shall be forfeited and
escheat to the United States
The public lands belong to the Unit
ed States. and the policy and method
of disposing of the same are deter,
minable by Congress That body spoke
plainly. as above set forth. To the or.
binary, mind that ought to suffice. but
it seems that there are some extra
ordinary minds in these islands These
minds are Official and are beyond and
above the limit set by Congress which
fact is the more extraordinary because
by the very act which defines the
policy of Congress, are these officials
called into being II is primarily their
duty to carry out the principles and
policy laid down in the act creating
them. But the fountain is ambitious
to rise above its source. Instead of
faithfully adhering to and applying the
policy of restricting large holdings OF
lands by single corporations. these
officials are exerting themselves to the
utmost to aid corporations to hold
more. and to this end, it is openly
published in the official organs that
Governor Dole is very DESTROYS that
the act shall be amended so as to en-
large the limit of corporate holdings
beyond one thousand acres. And Mr..
Brown is sent to Washington at the
expense of all the people of Hawaii
to lobby for the prospective land
monopolists who wish to acquire I'M
limited acreage of public lands. In
other words the effort is made to con-
vince Congress that it didn't know
what it was about in making the limit
alton: that it was mistaken in the idea
of discouragiag-large holdings and en-
couraging small holdings and those,
too. by actual settlers
Where Governor Dole thinks he finds
authority to expend the public taxes
in support of his own pet theory, we
cannot say, but we do know that he
has no such power. Every dollar ex-
pended by Mr.. Brown on his present
errand is without authority of law.
But this is only one side of the sub
ject. The unblushing effrontery of the
local Governor who sends an ennis
sary to convince Congress that it
made biunder and that the only wise
thing to do is to adopt lis ideas-the
ideas of monopoly. greed and gain
surpasses anything in the history OF
the Territories. Congress plainly an
nounced an adhesion to the time-hon-
ored policy of reserving the public
lands as homes for the masses. Dole
opposes with the idea of giving over
the public lands to monopolies with
the consequent evils of absentee land
lordism.
Only one of two things can explain
such unexampled audacity and disre-
gard of public duty-unparallelel ego
tism. or inexcusable ignorance