The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-05-25
"DETERIoRA sEQUOR."

Considerably over two thousand years
ago a Roman gentleman made this re-
mark, and the idea working in his
head, he put it in poem that has come
down to our own time. 1t strikes us as
strongly now as when it was first prob
ably hiccoughed after a feast in old
Rome, and later discussed over their
gossip by the Roman ladies. Poor
ladies, they had no tea to gossip over
but they gossiped all the same. This
gentleman loking over his life said:
''Vidi meliora prologue, deteriora
sequor." l have seen the better ideals
of life, believe in them, approve them,
but l follow the lower course, 1 bury
myself among the husks of life, where
is, if not a translation, at least the meat
of the idea Ovid put forth.
In the present friction between the
Judge of the First Circuit Court and the
Executive what is the object that he
first circuit judge has? Let us strip the
matter to it's nakedness and try to un-
derstand. Before he reached the bench
we heard a great deal of the "meliora,"
of the high ideals. We heard how the
business of the courts was DELAYED,
and we were told that under the new
order of things the business would be
expedited, and people would not be kept
waiting for their cases. The old order
OF things was all wrong, a new order
would put everything all right
What then has happened? Are there
no clients and lawyers waiting for their
cases, so that the court may go out of
its legitimate sphere of action and be-
come political instead of judicial? The
calendar is more congested than it has
ever been in the history of the Island.
People are calling for justice or even
for decision if they cannot get Justice.
without avail, and the court takes up its
time in a political struggle the object
OF which is to vent a personal hatred,
and which is not based upon desire
Tor any higher ideal, no desire for the
establishing the rights of the citizens of
the territory, but merely a getting
even if one one may use such phrase.
1t is very thorough case in point of the
'deteriora, the following of the lower
path the misusing of a high position
for ignoble purposes, the prostituting of
the ermine of justice in the Iwilei of the
very foulest form of low politics.
We have suffered from bad and in .
Legislature This we can
overcome. But to suffer from the mis-
Of power in the judiciary, /
guided by keen intellect aims a blow
which we shall suffer from for wears IN
come Acting as the Judge of the First
Circuit has done, he has carried the
judiciary out of its dignified and nro-
per functions and has made it the
vehicle of personal ambition, while its
powers are apparently being used for
personal spite and political vindictive-
ness
AS was pointed out yesterday Won
cannot touch pitch without being de-
lied. If the first circuit did not wish
% defile itself, of it's own volition II
would not have. surrounded itself with
The material it has. To make a hench-
nan out of the notorious Dan Rurns,
ieutenants, at once shows the way that
he political methods are going. ANY
me who knows anything about Cali
ornia politics during the senatorial
light at Sacramento, knows the ma
erial that Dan Burns used. But even
3urns could not stomach the utterly
INSCRIPTIONS methods of one of his
ieutenants, and yet that same man
now a trusted lieutenant of the first
ircuit court. Does anyone imagine
hat the appointment was made with
ut a full knowledge of the previous
areer of this man. Certainly not. The
curt has too keen an intellect, and
90 good an insight into character and
90 acanEate knowledge of the sea nv s