The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1906-11-04
STRONG OEBATERS
DRAW GREAT CROWD

tative on this occasion, have under
taken to present the following argument
setting forth the evils of the liquor
law, the maladministration of police
affairs and the domination and control
of the Republican party by machine
politics.
These questions have been before the
public so much that they are almost
hackneyed. 1t is my purpose to point
out the salient facts supporting these
accusations, to put it to you whether
they have yet been satisfactorily an
swered and ask you to note carefully
whether they are answered tonight by
my opponent who follows me. In a
brief debate one can not offer the evil
dence and the proof of each assertion,
much must be assumed to be known
by the audience.
We ask first. Is the Republican par
| ty of Oahu dominated by machine
! politics? You are as well able TO an
swer that as we are. The public press,
the public debates, the attitude of the
voters a large show that the people
have decided and accepted as a fact
that there is a machine that has come
to dominate the Republican party in
this county. By machine politics we
IlltdIl llllS- d lew llltI lo serve IISAI
own private ends. utilize public patron
age and the spoils of office to build up
an organization among the voters, CO.
ercing them to do their absolute bid
ding. These voters are used to thwart
the will of the remaining voters of the
party who can not be dictated to or
coerced by the machine.
/ To illustrate, we contend the Road
of the garbage and road departments
and the Sheriff, the police department
into united bodies to carry out the
personal will and crafty the personal
wishes of those in charge of the ma
chine. The Sheriff had 46 policemen and
the Road Supervisor a large body of
road workers in the late Republican
County Convention. Those men were
there to do simply what they We're told
by the Sheriff and the Road Supervisor.
It was as if the Sheriff had 46 in
dividual personal votes and the Road Su-
pervisor as many or more. These votes
; combined could override whatever in
dependent voters may have got into the
convention: the capture of the Repub-
lican convention was like the capture
of an enemy's fort. In conventions the
! independent voter is counted an enemy
by the machine and is disposed of as
such. What was the result at the Re
publican convention? Although a large
body of representative voters in the
Republican party were opposed to the
denomination of the Sheriff, their voice
never reached into that convention so
as to make even a minority fight
against him. He was declared the
nominee by acclamation thus resulting
in a vital misrepresentation of the
Republican voters at large whose wish
es were supposed to be carried out in
that convention, and whose suffrages
were necessary for his election. Am
I stating anything but facts, anything
but accepted history of the present
ca mpaign? The remaining question is:
What are we going to do about it?
WAY TO SMASH MACHINES.
How are machines smashed in other
states and territories? There is only
one practicable way and that is to
smash it at the polls The PROPOSE
ton that the voter wait until next
time and be more earnest in his effort
at the primaries and meanwhile vote
the ticket is found not to work. If
the independent voter starts to or
ganize a month before the primaries,
he will find that the machine will Or
ganize two months beforehand and so
on. 1t is the old story of a contest
between unorganized bodies of voters
who haven't the time to make a busi-
ness of politics against an organized
body of men who have time for moth
ing else
How far a voter should go in turn
ing down all candidates nominated by
the machine, of course, depends upon
circumstances, upon the character of
candidates, upon the number of good
men available upon rival tickets, but
we do contend that in smashing the
machine every man on the ticket
should be rejected who is party to
that machine and every man who
though not a party to the machine has
winked at the machine and worked
with it to secure his nomination. What
the result would be in applying these
principles to the candidates now be
fore the public we do not care to dis
cuss. but we believe it sound doctrine
that every candidate who has lent him
self to the purposes of the machine
for the selfish purpose of securing his
own nomination and election should be
made to feel the displeasure of the
voters. Men who thus stand between
the machine and those that are fight
ing the machine playing the part of
good lord good devil are quite as dang
erous as the machine men. 1t is a
case where he who is not with us is
a gainst us, and the sooner men know
that they can not daily between the
machine and the independent voter but
have got to take sides and assume re-
sponsibiities. the less likely are they
to play an unworthy part.
We contend that the time to kill a
machine is in the egg, but that is
seldom done. Often a machine hegins
with pretty good candidates, and
brings about pretty fair legislation and
human nature is such that the body
of the voters will not take alarm
against an evil afar off, bur only when
it is directly upon them. Our cOnten-
ton, however is that the evil is now