The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-15
ISSUES Of
THE DAY
D. L. Wilmington on
Their Chief
Phases.

Editor Advertiser: I would like to
appeal TO the reason of the white vot-
ers on this Island. Listening TO the
arguments made TO natives by natives.
their logical force. their fitness to the
issue and in many instances the higher
plane on which the argument is put i'm
presses me; but the arguments which
are made by the supporters of Arthur
Brown make me ashamed of the white
race. Those which 1 hear are that an
and that settles it,; that the organ
ization of the party is in danger and
the contest should have been made in
the primary, and lastly, that Arthur
Brown should be personally proved to
be criminaIly guilty before the white
voter should be invited to vote for his
opponent
The first objection answers itself.
How can you raise a moral issue
against a candidate, and no one de-
MES this to be the issue raised, unless
you raise it? The need of the age is
plain speaking and honest thought. The
man who makes this objection becomes
partner with wrong, when he adj
vocates condoning it.
AS to the second objection, if the
party organization turns out a bad
product, it is time that it should be
destroyed and a stronger and better
one built in its place. We all advocate
the practical test at which men finch.
If we need anything in this Territory
it is the courage of our convictions.
The enemy of the state is not the man
tons, but the man who tamely sub
mits to bad government because it is
ordained by the machine.
For the third objection I have less
see man after man of the class we cali
respectable who says that he is salts
fed that Chillingworth, McDuffie ct al
were guilty whether the juries convict
them or not; that it is ridiculous to
believe that a man could spend five or
six hundred dollars per month on
salary of ane-third the amount; that
the police force was corrupt under
Brown and full of graft. but says you
have not convicted Arthur Brown yet"
The man who says this is trifling with
his conscience. He knows in his heart
that what is on trial is an honest, eff
ficient, intelligent and faithful eXecu-
ton of the law, and having admitted
that this was not had under the Brown
administration and admitting as every
one does that it has been had under
the Henry administration, he seeks to
evade the moral question by turning
it on to Arthur Browns actual partici-
patton in crime.
But there is another argument
stronger and more potent than all
these. We are struggling to vindicate
our right to self government. For my
self, although L believe that county
government is a feeble variety of the
republican form and dying at that,
did not oppose the enactment of the
Legislature to keep their pledges to the
people. l shall certainly regret my
action if in the first election it is used
to disorganize the administration of jus
tice in this Territory. Situated as we
are in the middle of the Pacific sink
for the overflow of the vice of the
Orient and with so varied constituents
struggling up into the duties of free
We shall be found wanting
if we place in control of the execution
of the penal laws a man who has been
tried and pronounced wanting by both
of the men who will be his official su-
periors. 1t is a notorious fact that
Brown could not get along with At
torney General Andrews and insisted
on having his Department taken out
from under the control of his official
head and that the present executive
who has the confidence of the President
and is sure to remain Governor, regards
it as a menace to his power to enforce
the laws that Arthur Brown should be
elected.
The objections which are urged
against the course of the Civic Fedora |
ton which has stood for intelligent &C
ton and an intelligent method of en-
forcing the laws are childish ana
ouerile and it IS time that the haoie
element in our community, if they are
to do their fair share in formulating
and administering its government ana
starting a new form of government,
county government, in motion,
should unite with the Civic Federation
n ndeavoring to secure efficiency, CO.
,nera ton and honesty in its admins |
ration.
DAVID L. WILMINGTON.