The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-10
THE CARPET DAGGER.

BEFORE most of US were born the car
pet-bagger was in the islands trying To
make something out of the native peo-
pie politically; but it is unnecessary TO
go back to former generations for ex-
amples in point, not only of the pres
ence of such men and the nature OF
their activities, but of their ultimate
failure as a class.
Walter Murray Gibson was carpet
Dagger by instinct, and sometimes by
vocation, but he had the grace to first
settle here in the legitimate pursuits
of industry, to acquire the native IAN
guage and to do something for the
material up-building Of the country.
When he became premier he had de-
feasible claim upon the place. The
carpet Dagger weakness in hlUl, how
ever, led to his downfall at the hands
Of Honolulu conservative citizenship,
and he died in exile. an example of a
naturally great man, perverting his
own destiny for the sake Of office
A better type. of the carpet-bagger
was to be found in the late Celso Caesar
Moreno, an energetic lobbyist who
came here with a cable proposition and
stayed to do politics. Like all the car
pet-baggers before and since, he argued
that if he could win the confidence of the
Hawaiians and induce them to accept
him as a leader, he could get both
wealth and power. Beginning with the
King, whom he easily fiattered, he
worked along until he got 81 corps of
native adherents and became Prime
Minister of Hawaii. In that high place
he lasted three days, the conservative
white party. always slow to arouse it
self but terribly effective when in ac-
ton, bundling him out of the Ministry
at the end of that time.
The Ashfords were other and more
recent arpet-baggers who played a
prominent part for years. The elder
brother at one time intrigued for the
throne, and might have been Volney I,
King of Hawaii, but for the untoward
circumstances which all Hawaiian car
pet-baggers meet. So late as 1895 he
i was a possibility in Hawaiian public
life, the Queen, hoping for restoration
at the hands of Wilcox, having made
out commission for him as Chief JUS
tice of the Supreme Court. The politics
of the Ashfords was precisely that OF
Moreno, the same as that Of Julian
Hayne in after years, and it is now H.
Illustrated by adventures of the Arizona
type. Its alpha and omega is. to foo
the Hawaiians into opening the way fol
strangers to political henors and
wealth and then to, get them safely of
with the plumber.
Can the Hawaiians be fooled any
more? Have they not; by this time
caught on" to the ways of the self
seeking malihini? Are not years OF
sad experience having an educational
value to them? No carpet-bagger they
have ever known came here to do them
good-not one wanted to make money
for them, to elevate them to the high
places, to guide them toward useful
franchises and into the avenues of cor
porate wealth, least of all to build
them up in morals or religion. The
gifts they have had from the carpet
baggers are those of fiattery and empty
promise; the gifts they have returned
are money and power. Are the Ha-
waiians going to keep up this unequal
distribution? Within year they have
seen carpet-baggers-the veriest, mali
hinis, though their professed friends
struggling for offices which the Hawai-
ians thought belonged tothem. More
strangers have lately been imported to
take other offices that may be created
or may become vacant Where do the
Hawaiians come in? Are they going
to be catspaws forever, that men who
have done nothing for them or for the
islands, and care nothing for either,
may fatten on the spoils of politics?