The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-12
EmblemDispIayed
While Crowd
Cheered.
Stirring Addresses Are
Received With
Applause.


on Fort street, opposite the rooms OF
the Young Mems Republican Club, last
evening, to hear the banner raising
speeches. The building occupied by the
Club was festooned with colored lights
and from the roof ropes to hold the
banner were stretched to the upper part
of the stables across the way. In a
cleared enclosure owned by the Club
Stables company, a Portuguese band
played lively airs. A truck was used
as speakers stand and there, at
quarter past eight, Lorrin Andrews,
chairman of the meeting, made the op-
ening address. His well-rounded SEN
tences, describing the glories OF Re-
publicanism and the need of it in these
islands, stirred the enthusiasm of the
crowd. His final act was to call for the
banner, the emblem of the Young Mems
Republican Club, and as the illumina-
ted fabric was drawn to its place across
the street, far above the heads of the
crowd, there was a salvo OF cheers,
a burst of music from the band and
a flare of crimson fire.
Briefly addressing the audience Mr..
Andrews introduced the first speaker of
the evening, Walter G. Smith, whose
opening sentences were marred by the
interruption of a maudlin sailor who
wanted no speaking until the crowd
had apologized for not taking Off its
hats while the band was playing the
national air. He was soon quieted and
Mr. Smith said:
+ WALTER G. SMITHS SPEECH.
Mr.. Chairman and Fellow Republi-
cans: Tonight marks the beginning of
the speaking canvass in this city. The
Republican nominations have been made,
the ticket is complete, the party is unit
ed and all that remains is to work for
the victory which the Republican or
ganization has the right to expect.
More than that, it is a victory which
the Territory and our friends at
Washington, have the right to expect
of the Republican party, and particu-
larly of the new members of that party,
the loyal and earnest hawaiians. Cap
plause.)
Let none of us make any mistake
about this. Washington does not look
so much to US, the white men, for a.
Republican triumph as it does to the
sons of the soil. We haoles are in
minority; the Hawaiians are in a ma
jority. But the people at Washington
feel that having done so much for these
new citizens-having made them the
equals of any Native Americans before
the ballot box and in the jury box, that
they will not be ungrateful for the
gift; that they will not fail of their
duty when the time comes. The party
which welcomed the Hawaiians into the
American fellowship as equals and
trusts them as friends, naturally eX-
poets that they will trust 1t in return
with their suffrages on election day.
But there are further reasons. There
are enough besides the mere one OF
reciprocal friendship. In the first place
the Republican party is the only one
of equal rights. 1t was the first one
to expunge the color line in American
politics. Under the last Democratic ad-
ministration before the war. the only
men who could vote in the United
States were white men; and no man
whose color varied from the white be-
longing to any of the dark races, could
cast his vote in a Federal election.
were against him. 1t took war back
ed by the fun strength of the Repub-
Iican party to wipe out this color line
and put the principle of equal rights
I into the Constitution of the United
States; and if it had not been for that
I act there would be no free ballot in
Hawaii today. Thanks to Lincoln and
Grant (appiause) md all the rest OF the
great Republicans, of the war period,
and thanks to Mckinley and to one Of
/ the most recent of the Republican Con-
! crosses, the Hawaiian American can go
to any part Of the world and with the
| flag of hIs own great power over him
and with the broadsides of its ships
defending him and with his white fell
lIow-citiz n standing shoulder-to-should-
er with him, can say without challenge
and without rebuke: Il am an Ameri-
can citizen" (Applause)
| And he can vote at home. He asked
for the suffrage, a fuller suffrage than
he ever had from his old chiefs, and
| though there were men of both the Re-
publican and Democratic parties here
who thought that his approach to a
| full suffrage should be gradual the
Republican party thought differently