The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-24

| Act then proceeds to provide that the
manner of appointment and removal
| and the tenure of all other officers
| shall be as provided by law and that
| the Governor may appoint or remove
any officer whose appointment or re-
moval is not otherwise provided for.
1t will thus be noted that Congress
carefully guards against allowing the
Governor the sole say either as to the
appointment or the removal of the
heads of departments, and secures
specifically to them a tenure of office
for four years. AS to certain other
officers it provides that the Governor
may appoint and remove at pleasure,
thus clearly and conclusively showing
by this distinction the positive legisla-
tive intention that the heads of depart
ments should be independent of the
Governor and of each other. The in
tention clearly was to break up and
divide the executive power into various
independent departments, but by TAX
ing undated designations the foregoing
legislative provision giving these Off
GERS a tenure of four years, and the
foregoing legislative provision making
them independent of the Governor by
requiring the consent of the Senate to
their removal, have been completely
nuliified and set aside as much so as
if Congress had specifically repealed
those important provisions of the Or
ganic Act.
The law provides that these officers
shall be removed by the Governor with
the consent of the Senate. Under the
Governors methods of administration,
they are now removable by the Cover
nor alone even though such removal
may be in direct opposition to the
wishes of our Senate. Thus the Sc
curity and the independence carefully
vouchsafed to the heads of departments
by the Congress of the United States
has been directly set aside by the Exc
cutive of this Territory, who in taking
Office made oath to uphold and carry
out the laws of the land as he found
them.
BY subdividing and cutting up the
executive power of the Territory as
provided in the Organic Act you I'M
doubtedly do not secure as harmonious
and aggressive an executive as you
would by putting all control in The
Governor and making the heads Of de-
partments his mere assistants and sub
ject to his direct orders, but Congress
undoubtedly felt that the plan adopted
abuses, and having unquestionably
adopted that policy for the Territorial
government of Hawaii the question
arises whether the Governor has the
right to nullify the whole theory aid
groundwork of the Organic Act by the
wholesale use of undated designations,
which please note the fact. are not in
fact designations as that word is uni
versally understood and applied, but
subterfuge whereby the tenure of Office
of the heads of departments is changed
from four years as provided in the
Organic Act to a tenure at the VIII,
pleasure and caprice of the Governor.
Moreover, though the taking of uudat-
ed designations was originated, as the
Governor claimed, to prevent bad men
from holding on to their offices and to
be used only for that purpose, vet the
practical results from the system in
one short year has been to make The
Governor the actual practical head OF
every one of these departments, an en-
t;,ely different result than the result
which would have come if these undated
designations had been used soleiy for
the purpose of reaching a contumacious
or corrupt official where cause for re-
moval actually existed. To use these
4
for removal for cause has really NO re-
lation or connection with the use OF
these designations to enable tie Cover
nor to slip into the chair and into the
authority and the powers of every one
of these heads of departments, yet such
upquestionably is what has happened.
The Governor today orders, directs
and reserves the action OF the ostensi-
| BILE heads of each department at pleas
TIRE, thus assuming functions, deciding
questions and exercising discretionary
powers which are not conferred upon
him but are conferred upon others and
required by law to be performed by
| them.
| SUBvERSION OF GOVERNMENT
1t is manifest therefore that we are
not having the government by depart
ments which was conferred upon us
| by the Organic Act, but instead have
| the English system whereby the head
/ of the executive has direct control of
every branch of the executive power
and assumes to be responsible therefor;
with this vital distinction, l. e., under
| the English system the government is
/ directly responsible to the Legislature
| and directly removable upon a vote of
| want of confidence. Moreover, the
heads of the executive under the Eng
lish system have to be elected by some
constituency to the House of Com
mons before they can serve as minis
| tiers. Whereas our Governor can not
be removed by the Legislature or any