The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-24
TIE PACIFIC
wILCOX'S EXPLANATIONS.

Mr.. Wilcox is not fortunate III MS eA
r,Ianations of why he got no money fol
Hawaii out Of the billion dollars appro-
n,iated bv the last Congress. At first
he said it was because he was inter
fered with by unofficial delegates" but
aid is not interference and the only
work done by an outsider for Hawaii
last winter, as respects a bill carrying
money was that of Mr.. J. G. Pratt Tor
tho fire claims. Far from that beng
an interference" it is conceded at
washington that, but for Mr.. Pratt 5
intelligent work, the bill would never
have got beyond the pigeon-hole into
which the House COMMITTEES had thrust
it.
Finding his first explanation untena-
BILE. Mr.. Wilcox tried another in his Pa
lama speech He said that he did not
care to get money for the missionaries!
But how for the missionaries? If he
raff SECURED funds to build the Hilo
breakwater, not a dollar of them would
have gone into the hands of the Terri
toriaI government They would have
been expended by United States author
tiles through contractors and no small
part of the wage expenditure would
have gone to Hawaiians for labor. The
same would have been true of money
to improve Honolulu harbor and to |
build postoffices. lighthouses and other |
Federal public works. Even the hre
claims money, as Wilcox has said him |
self, would have repaired the losses of
poor Hawaiians. 1T is steal" said
Wilcox awhile ago in one of his bursts
of ignorant spleen, but / was willing
to help it along so as to benefit my
people" What remains, therefore, to
justify his TRADE against the mis-
sionaries?" Certainly there is nothing
in the bilI-which failed of passage-to
grant the Queen the sum of $250,O00.
The truth is that Wilcox, having no
party with him at Washington, and
having incurred the serious suspicion
of the leaders in Congress, was unable
to get money for anybody. That he
tried to do so, that he did his best in
certain directions is a fact that rests
on his own testimony. He did his fee
BILE utmost to pass sundry private bills ]
which no prudent delegate would have
fathered. There was the Kohala BILL
for instance, intended to enrich pri 9
vate corporation at the expense of the s
Territory. Then there was the Tram S
ways bill, which Wilcox got his accom- i
friend Burton to introduce in :
the Senate. There was no money ipt ,
these measures for missionaries, though G
4 great deal of it was provided for 9TH G
r people. And what or the bill, with Z
millions in it, to give a blanket rail- =,
Dad franchise in Hawaii to a specula- a
or from oklahoma? That was not
Missionary measure, but it failed to
PASS. as everything else did which Will
OK attempted.
Who can doubt that the reelection of
Wilcox would mean repetition of
hese failures until the end of his third :.
erm? Given man of no capacity-a ca
mere child in public affairs-sitting -
alone in Congress without a party n,
friend, an, object of disdain to the r.
President. the heads of departme~'
and Congress and what coul' no do ?
He could draw his pay p
come home to ao politics while Congress
was ia session. but further than that )
ne would be a mere cipher, his helpless
incapacity all the time rejecting on the
intelligence and public spirit of those
who elected him.
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