The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-05-30
HAWAIIAN CIVILIZATION.

HAWAIIAN AIktLtLssaISlSs
A elaborated article. by gixto
Lopez and Thomas T. Patterson, oris'i-
naity published in the Springfield Re-
publican and reprinted IN the Adver-
tiser of Tuesday last, is notable
specimen of fine writing, and is strong
~ impressed with disingenuous sar-
casrp that is sometimes attractive to
superficial readers.
Broad is the road nor difficult to
dnd
That to the house OF Satire leads:
mankind
It Is not improbable that this article
has been syndicated, in order to COM
bine the diffusion of falsehood with a
liberal compensation for the literary
twins. Qof whom the Filipino doubtless
furnished the ideas and the American
the phraseology. The joint compost
fion is a succession of gross libe1s up
on modern civilization, especially as
manifested In the Hawaiian Islands.
IT e allied with perveraions or exaggers
ations Of truth with false. iafefeneeAs
with iuconsistent and mutually de-
strhctive statements. WITH manafae-s
tured assunlpt osis and with ursound
reasoning. In all that has been pub
llshed about Hawaii, in more than $50
volumes, besides the daily and weekly
press, 1T would be Impossible to find
a parallel for it's Injustice and It's.
malice.
As an Introduction to its cufmirat-
ing description Of the beasts of prey
and the vampires" to whom it III
rectIy attributes the defamation Of the
native Hawaiians. it undertakes to
apply what 1t Ironically terms "the.
BLESSINGS Of civilization to nature
peoples" with whom. IN contrast with
each other, the Fiiipinos and the Has
waiians are classified. It refers, cor
rectIy enough, to the consolidation of
the islands under Kamehameha I, and
then commits the objectionable error
of claiming that. whereas the Fill
pinos voluntarily accepted Christian
ity, the new religion was thrust upon
the Hawaiians by one of its Kings. The
fact is that idolatry was abolished in
Hawaii in 1919. as the result of pro-
gressive movements in that direction,
through the influence and virtually the
action. not. of Liholiho, the reigning
monarch. but of KaAhumanu. the
prime minister and subsequent regent.
a. woman of great force of character,
who. before her death. energetically
devoted herself to the diffusion Of
Christian education among the people.
The shout of 1919, when the idols We're
destroyed, THE tabus are at end and
the gods are Il lie.,' became an ac-
cepted fact in 1924 when the heroic Ka-
pioiani at the crater of Kilauea, suc-
cessfully dared the goddess Pele in
the nane of Jehovah
There were no missionaries In Ha-
wall, when idolatry was overthrown-
The first arrived the next year. and,
In combination with the best Hawai-
ian natives, the efforts of these noble
and devoted people, whose ranks were
augmented from time to time, within
the next seventy-five years. establish
ed civil and religious liberty, to a great
degree. upon the islands, and develop
ed Christian civilization to an extent,
unknown among the F.ilipinos and
scarcely paralleled on the American
continent. These missionaries employ
ed no sword. they illustrated no con-
trasts between theory and practice.
they were not the introducers of or
apologists for rum. they spread no ''un-
nentionable diseases" they made no
appeals to "Krupp and Maxim but
they conquered hostility by gentleness.
they surmounted obstacles by patience
arid by intelligence. they reached the
native heart as well as the native
mind. and all that is best and most
durable IN the moral picture Hawaii