The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-09
ARE WE UN.AMERlCAN !?

| to Americanism. In a way the ONCE
holder is right; in another and more
vital way he is wrong. Counted nose
by nose, HonoluMs population would
show more people who have no faith IN
things American than it would people
who love the Stars and Stripes ana
what they stand for. The Home Rule
majority almost to a man, would vote
the old monarchy back into power If
thew could. Their spirit was shown,
when their leader, Wilcox, offered MS
Sword" to Aguinaldo, and when their
newspaper organs hurrahed Tor the
non in the war of 1898. 1t is being
sbown now in bitterness towards Gov
arnor Dole and all others who helped
to overthrow the Queen in 1893 and VIII
COY in 1895. Aside from the Hawalans
MANY white men, mainly foreigners,
who svmpathized with the Royalst
cause. would give themselves over 10
a weeks celebration if the American
flag were hauled down for good. These
people undoubtedly outnumber those
who cherish American principles.
But oddly enough they are not the
ones paraded in evidence by the kind
of Federal office-holders who call this
community American, and who
talk of the "roar against the general
czovernment'' Our job-encrusted
friends. having down their carpet bags
marked Sandwich Islands, make
their charges against the very people
who gave them the opportunity to live
here under the American flag. In their
lexicon of politics they define Governor
Dole as the head and front of alien SEN
Mr. Dole who
jeopardized his position, his estate and
even his head for the sake of bringing
these islands into the sisterhood of
American States and Territories. Every
man who stood by him in those trying
days, putting his name on the roll OF
the Annexation Club and carrying
gun against the enemies of the United
States, now finds himself derided by
some Johnny come-lately on the score
of his want of patriotism. Some of
these very "aliens" made a long jour
ney to the Eastern mainland in the six
ties to fight for the Union; others have
spent their lives infusing Americanism
into the old feudal laws sof this group,
and into the school system and into the
methods and connections of business.
For sixty years they and their fathers
have met the political and commercial
Entertainments of England, France, and
latterly Japan, with firm American
front. Whoever came to assail found
them steadily aligned under the Arlerf
can flag. 1t was they who made the
reciprocity treaty with the United
States and who built up for the mother
country a magnificent trade; and it was
they who, taking their lives in their
hands, hauled down the standard of
Hawaiian royalty and formally request
ed the United States Minister to declare
protectorate. which he did. And
when recreant official came here from
the President of the United States,
hauling down the Stars and Stripes,
they kept that very ensign, so that
they might one day raise it for good
and all-and they did raise It with tears
in their eyes and acclamations on their
lips. Once more when recreant
American Minister demanded that the
annexation party should surrender
their provisional government to the
monarchists, who were the men who
went under arms for a fortnight rather
than lose the American ground they
had gained? -who but these men that
now, in the opinion of mere strangers
malihinis sent here because their
friends were sick and tired of their i'm
portunities for office at home-are so
"un-American" all of a sudden that
they spend their time roaring against
the general Government
The visitor from Altruria would find
it hard to understand these tactics, but
that would be owing to his unfamiliar
ity with American politics. What we
hear about the want of patriotism
among men whose courage and zeal
brought Hawaii into the Union, is the
campaign roorbach of the carpet-bag-
gers who would, by excluding the an
nexation party from responsible pub
lie service, get the offices for them
selves and their imported friends. Some
of these legal and judicial Purchasers
would be as willing as any political
Barkis to succeed Governor Dole and
Chief Justice Frear and Secretary
Cooper and the heads of Territorial
departments Their capacity for office
is as unlimited as their desire for it is
continuous. The great preliminary
question with them is how to get the
present incumbents removed, and hence
the scheme to impeach their patriotism.
Every man of them knows the fraud
he is trying to perpetrate. but so did
the schemer who described the gauzy
tale of Morgan's murder by the Ma
sons, as "a good enough Morgan yarn
until after election The talk about
the "un-American attitude" of the
Dole party is merely another trick of
speech, evidencing hunger for Office
and no particular scrnple as to how it
shall ha Satisfied 10 Of
truth, and even of probability, as was
the political canards about the i'm
perialist plots" of the George Washing
ton party after 1888.
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