The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-16
THE TREASURY RAID.

Alright the taxpayers of the Territory
of Hawaii are in duty bound to pay
unadjudicated claims to an amount
equal nearly to the national debt Of
Hawaii under the Republic, large
part of which claims may be proper
charges against the United States.
This the Independent calls Justice"
but the right word is robbery; and IL
the robbery is contaminated We say
again that the Senators and .Represen-
tatives who told Delegate Wilcox that
native self-government is still on trial
in Hawaii will not have to be pressed
for relief in vain by the business in
terests of these Islands.
1t is quite true, as the Independent
says, that Senators and Representatives
do not want to be bothered by small
local bills concerning Hawaii when
there is a Delegate on hand to take
care of them. But an attempt to rob
Hawaiian taxpayers of So, 500, 900 to pay
unadjudicated claims is a widely differ
ent matter. We know the editor of the
Independent too well and respect his
intelligence too highly to think that
he could be made to believe that Bob
Wilcox, Delegate though he is, could
stand between the American interests
of Hawaii and justice at the hands Of
an American Congress. Suppose the
sugar men of these Islands. aided by
the great American sugar combine.
should ask Congress to save their in
terests here from spoliation? Suppose
they should ask the Administration to
do SO? Is it likely that they would be
referred back to the inconSequential
demagogue who temporarily misrepre-
septs Hawaii at Washington? Did not
the united business interests show their
power sufficiently when they induced a
Democratic Congress to stop Grover
Cleveland's restoration measures?
There were dozens of Bob Wilcox's
trying to help Cleveland then but they
were brushed aside like flies.
The extra tax proposed is nearly $24
per capita on a basis of 10000 popula
ton, men, women and children, white,
brown and yellow counted in; it would
have to be added to the regular tax for
the running expenses of the Territorial
Government. saying nothing of the pos
sible results of the legislative threat to
erect city and county governments be-
sides. Whom the gods would destroy
they first make mad, and they have
certainly maddened the men who think
that their success at last falls election
"a minority success won against di-
vided pposition-entitles them to
blight the prosperity of Hawaii in the
furtherance of their plans of plumber.
Says the Independent:
A large number of property holders de-
mand redress for the wanton destruc-
ton of their properties during the plague
scare. Their claim is good, as are the
claims of men illegally imprisoned in
1895, and of the royal lady foully and
viciously ill-treated by existing authori-
ties in those black days, but the Amer
lean" organ of Mr. Thurston demands
that just claims shall be ignored and
claimants swindled on the basis of Amer
lean methods.
There was no .'wanton destruction of
property during the plague scare" and
the knowledge OF the fact is so clear
to the fire claimants that they avoid
courts and appeal to an irresponsible
Legislature. There was some lawful
burning for the protection of the pub
lie health against the filth which the
property owners and tenants, in def
ance of law, had permitted to accumu-
late In the places burned. There were
accidental fires also, which swept away
a wider area Of pest shacks, but acct
dental fires are charge against insur-
ance companies, If Insurance had been
taken out, and not against the tax
payers.
AS for the claims of men imprisoned
by the Republic of Hawaii in 1895, what
has the Territory of Hawaii to do with
them? The United States inherited the
of hn
is to the United States what the for
eign Governments to whom many of
the claimants bear allegiance are look
ing. What honest reason can there be
for the Legislature of Hawaii trying
to relieve the Federal Government of
Its obligations. providing any real OBJ
legations exist?.
AS for the Queen, If she has any valid
claim let her sue for it, The courts are
open. 1t is a confession that she has
no legal standing when she seeks so
Indirect and unusual a way of getting
the funds which Congress refused her,
funds which she has not earned, and
which she has not even a moral claim
upon.
Ii these plans of wholesale depreda-
ton crystalline into bills, we assume as
matter or course that the Governor
will veto them. If they pass over his
veto the next step should be to ask for
an injunction against payment from the
Treasury on the ground that legislators
who cannot understand the English lam
guage are disqualified from taking part
In the proceedings of a Legislature the
Official language of which is English.
The final step will be memorial to
Congress, signed by men whom neither
party can afford to ignore, asking that
the men who pay the Hawaiian taxes
snail have the sole power to administer
them.
The estimate which Circuit Judge
humphreys puts upon the crime of
murderous assault, when the accused
man happens to be his own friend and