The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-14
DEMOCRACY BAD FOR HAWAII.

Even Mr.. W. a. Kinney, skillful as
| he is in argument, cannot find good
reason for being a Democrat in Ha-
wall. In his speech at Emma Square
he said many things in favor of the
National Democracy but except in one
reported instance he did not apply them
! locally. The one Hawaiian advantage
| he could think of was that a Demo-
| cratic majority here could get things
of Democratic administration at
Washington. But this was an argu-
ment chiefly directed against the Home
Rule party which has and can have no
standing al the national capital; and
it answers a Republican purpose quite
as we'll as it does Democratic one.
Surely Democrats in power could not
do more for Hawaii than the Repub-
licans. in power and the chances are
that they would make times vastly
harder for US than they are.
For instance the Democratic party
is committed to the gradual removal of
a protective tariff. That means, in the
final analysis, the free importation of
sugar. a measure advocated on the plea
of making the food of the masses
cheaper Free sugar would utterly
ruin Hawaii. 1t would PROSTATE the
industry by which, in one way or an
other. all of us live. OF all sufferers
the wage-paying capacity Of the white
man, would suffer the most. His in
terests are vitality wrapped up in the
protection of the Hawaiian staple. To
hold-over Republican Senate for econo-
mic protection in the next few years
but it cannot afford to give aid and
comfort to the enemy, nevertheless.
Again, the Democratic party draws
the color line. Its position, through
out the South, is distinctly for a white
mems ballot. Hawaii is the only place
in the United States where a colored
majority commands free ballot and
it does so by grace of the Republican
party. The rights of this majority have
been specifically threatened by Tillman
and are menaced by the general at
titude of the Democracy on franchise
questions.
Finally the Democrats who constitute
the major portion of the party's
strength in Congress are dead set
against large aggregations of capital.
Incorporated wealth is the only lever
age big enough to handle the sugar
industry of Hawaii. This is, peculiarly.
the place of large financial undertake
ings; it gets little strength from the |
small capitalist save as he is multiplied |
and the resources of his class combined |
to achieve a great end. If the radical |
Democratic element had it's way our |
gigantic island corporations, including |
some that Mr.. Kinney is interested in, |
would be so curbed and harried that |
they could not do business advantage |
ously. Their safety lies in the policy of |
fair play towards men who do business |
on a great scale as well as those who |
move in a small circle--a policy to |
which the Republican party is COM |
mitted and under which the nation has |
gained more financial strength in thirty |
years than it did in the previous ninety. |
The Republicans gave Hawaii recf- |
procity and annexation. They propose |
to fortify this group so as to make it |
which the Democrats oppose. Without |
their protective tariff the population
here would fall to $4,000 and poverty |
would be the social rule. Our chief !
danger lies in the application, to our
system, of Democratic party /
views.