The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-03-27
THE IWILEI QUESTION.

The IwiIei question is before the com
munity once more, with all its disgust
ing features and all the social prob
lens involved therein.
The Governor did not resurrect it
He has the Legislature and the Board
of Education and Health on his hands
The pulpit did not do it. 1t is appar
emily too busy preaching platitudes Il
pay much attention to practical morals
Society did not bring it to the sur
face. Society never digs below the sur.
face of anything.
The High Sheriff is not the guilty
subject up in the slums back of the
prison.
The whole Christian community OF
Honolulu shrinks and shivers at the
very suggestion of another Iwilei cru
sade. "a 4a
Who, then, is the disturber?
Tt is not Senator McCandIess, as
some have supposed. He has simply
brought to the surface the narrow
question of whether graft is being
practiced there; of whether a certain
doctor or certain landowners are being
given the inside track as against other
doctors and landowners.
The real disturber is not any man or
bodyaof men 1t. is the question itself,
which will not down. There is prin-
ciple involved which will not smother
and which viii not remain settled I'M
Til it is settled right.
The principle involved is, what shall
be done with the recognized evil? Not
a simple violation of the rules of social
order, but an evil which strikes at the
roots of civiliza ton and life itself?
Shall it be semi-legalized by segre-
CATION; by immunity from legal inter
ference if practiced in a given part of
the city, and its physical evils minim-
lied by medical inspection?
Or shall it be branded as mo, al de-
stroyer of integrity and a physical
sapper of the life of the nation, to be
fought wherever and whenever found,
with the full knowledge that the fight
will be a never-ending one?
That is the problem which now faces
Honolulu and demands solution, and
which will not take.no for an answer.
Until recently the Advertiser felt,
with a large proportion of the respon-
sible citizens of the town, that, on the
whole, segregation and regulation, the
less said about it the better, were the
best methods of dealing with the un-
savory subject.
The Iwilei stockade was an extreme
development of the regulation theory
extreme, but logical; so extreme and
so logical that its very orderliness and
system forced thought that would not
otherwise have been aroused.
The Iwilei stockade gave a distinct
shock to segregation and regulation"
1t was an educator, and then it passed
away and the subject dropped from
sight
The only difference between the pres
ent phase of Iwilei and the Iwilei of
two years ago, is, that under the pres
ent administration the organization is
less complete, the segregation is less
effective and the protection from DIS
ease is being run as a private snap
instead of a public function
In this connection it has been point
ed out to the Advertiser by one of the
leading physicians of the town that,
whereas a few years ago profez siopal
medical sentiment was in favor of reg
ulation, it has within the past few
years turned powerfully the other way.
Illustrative Of this is the recent pub
LEGATION in the American Medical Jour
nal OF a symposium upon the subject
by eight of the leading physicians Of
the United States. The most compre-
hensive article is by Howard a. Kelly,
a professor in the Johns Hopkins Uni
versity, and one of the greatest men
of the medical profession. The article
is republished herewith. Every think
ing man and woman in Honolulu should
read it.