The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-11-20
COMING QUESTIONS.


facing us are serious enough, and we
must meet them In the near future,
hut we are certainly right to take time
60 think them over. What was ever
gained by undue haste? Had we fol-
lowed the dicta of unprinciped fools
the Territory today would have been
among the quick sands. That the Ter
rit0ry has avoided financial ruin, and
probably commercial and agricultural
disintegration is due to the strong con-
sentative element in the last Legisla-
ture and the same element outside of
il.
An effort and very abortive effort,
was made to get together a few of those
who have been inveighing against the
present conduct of territorial affairs.
A mass meeting of citizens was called
40 denounce the Federal appointees
and the largest hall in the place was
borrowed from the people whom the
borrowers intended to denounce. At
the precious meeting which also was
to give a send off to Delegate Robert
Wilcox there was a crowd variously
estimated as one hundred up to two
hundred and fifty. The latter number
being given by the most favorable re-
port.
This city contains over forty thou
sand inhabitants. 1t is very easy to
see that even the ideal limit of two
hundred and fifty which really ought
to be counted one hundred, is no repre-
q .DF ., o;+, 6 ia
size, and that the resolutions passed
at such a meeting are absolutely not
worth the paper they are written up
on. The thing was a dead fake as it
then stood. 1t was not even packed
meeting, it was a skeleton meeting, and
the wind of rhetoric fairly moaned
through the fleshless ribs.
But absurd as may be the vagaries
of certain sections of the Home Rule
party, there is a. leaven in the lump
which means for good government and
clean politics. These men at last cleo
ton were led off by the Home Rule
party cry, and one cannot blame them.
The cry was plausible, but unfortunate
ly it did not ring true, and none of the
ANe1hClo VI lllt party ever IlGdnI IUdI II
should be true. At the coming cleo
lions these men will vote no Home
Rule ticket they will vote the Terri
torial ticket of the greatest good to the
greatest number.
The old glamour of race hatred which
has been so studiously exploited is in
many cases dying out In point of fact
lyaY oil
trust implicitly and who has been an
opponent of the Independent Republic,
as he is now of the Republican party
said, you may count one-third of the
Hawaiian vote on the side of right"
and that man, though a Democrat, is
going to vote the Republican ticket if
the Republican primaries choose men
that can be supported. In this Terri
tory it is not so much party division,
as it is division upon true ethical ques-
lions. 1t is a question of right or
wrong, and the majority of votes are
likely to go right.
Promises which are never fulfilled
come home to roost The men who pro-
missed vaguely in November, 1900, who
DPNhI AAOAlNiiS III l1ellClllllS DlllS lOT the
special benefit of one class in the COM
munity, and who said they would carry
all before them, were found woefully
wanting when it came to actual pro-
gress in the Legislature. The promises
were not fulfilled. the bills were not
ready, had, in point of fact never been
prepared, and were huddled into the
IapiSlq tnPa n Sl,o a.
impossible to pass them, while as to
carrying all before them, beyond the
bailiff act which has proved a vicious
and thoroughly un-American piece of
legislation, and the lady dog act which
was utterly puerile, the majority has
hardly claim to make for legislation.
The main legislation came from the
opposition to the majority. Chief in
this is the income tax bill, which has
reached people who have hitherto es-
capped taxation, and which has quickly
turned into the Treasury a large
amount of money. The facts in these
circumstances are plain to all. The
clamor for extra session is only clamor,
is purely clamor to try and do some
thing which the party failed to do when
1t had everything in it's favor to do it,
and which it would fail again to do
even if it got an extra session. That
these facts are appreciated is clear
from the utter lack of support given
the so-called mass meeting of Monday
night. The party outside of a few
noisy partizans has ceased to exist It's
forces are scattered and a strong sec
ton has come over to the conservative
side, what is left is utterly doubtful of
the ability Of its would be leaders, and
it has every reason for it's doubt.