The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-26

Il or less pleased embarrassment, glad
over the applause but lacking a good
platform presence. Heaven knew he did
not need the presence for far back in
the rear was happy gang boss. who
IN some mysterious way was able to
cause large section of the audience
to indulge in outbursts of utterly ir
repressible enthusiasm.
Il am the regular party nominee for
assessor continued the speaker, land I
ask your support for the whole ticket"
This was in English and the speaker
Laused while it was interpreted by the
Hawaiian who stood by him for the
purpose of interpreting. There were
more wild bursts of applause. las
| candidate for assessor I pledge myself
to a fair and honest and impartial adj
ministration of the office. My personal
interests are here and here 1 hope to
live and die. l shall treat the poor
and rich alike There will be no favor
itism while L am in office"
Every one has heard such speeches
| but thurders of applause were aroused.
The interpreter was better than his
principal. In wild flow of Hawaiian
| he informed the listeners of the candi-
dates pledge to see that Hawaiians
were not taxed. The candidate does
not know to this day what he promised.
| The first Territorial election Hawaii
! had resulted in sweeping Home Rule,
or native, victory. One native intro
| duced an act to repeal certain Federal
| laws. Then there was the optimistic
Hawaiian who introduced an act to
provide that the price of fish shall be
10 cents a pound" the man who grave
| ly and vehemently attacked the Ter
ritorial board of health for compelling
or allowing post-mortems. and. in the
course of his eloquent address, insisted
that there was no known case in which
a deceased had been benefited thereby
AS a sort of climax a white legislator
sarcastically expressed his view of the
session by giving notice of an act to
! Lahaina.
This Legislature was distinct failure.
It's speeches in the Hawaiian language
were fnterminable.A With terrible
the members WINGED a Honolulu
newspaper compared the members to
Kipling's Banderlogs and then followed
a cartoon in a contemporary, picturing
+ n In nd
it a paraphrase of the Kipling rhymes
with the ending: Now we are going
to-never mind, brother, your tail
hangs down behind" Finally when
the end was near an evening paper
headed its account of the days work
in the House with the words Passing
! of the Simians,'' and there was trouble. t
The House rose in it's wrath and !
threatened to expel the press, but, no
action was taken =
A contrast to this was Hawaiis last
legislative assemblage. Its record will
certainly challenge comparison with the
American average. 1t accomplished a
vast amount of needed lawmaking,
notably the passing of county gov
eminent act which has stood legal test
ing 1t was a legislature practically
without a scandal. While Hawaiis
nearest neighbor California, was send
ing Senators to Jail, while from many
States came reports of graft and the
accounts of freak bills Hawaii's little
Legislature of mixed Hawaiians and
whites spent its days in orderly pro-
cedure, finished it's work and adjourned.
True it had fights with the Governor
and it had its investigations that
savored of personal animus and
no nf hnl6nnS mt
record that will not suffer in COMPARE
son with Americas average.
The reform was undoubtedly worked
in large part by the criticism a1d rid
cule heaped upon the first Legislature
and by the organization of a Republic
can party, or machine, which routed
Home Rule on every island. The ora
tory in the first House was made SO
much fun of that the succeeding
statesmen curbed their natural powers
of eloquence and tried to stick to bust
ness. Every Hawaiian is an orator,
every longshoreman on a Honolulu
waterfront can mount a soap box and
make a speech with a flow of language
that would be the dispair of a stenog-
rapher and with a wealth of gesture
to match it. The machine saw to the
choices of men. In a Legislature of
forty-five members forty-three were
members of the Republican party
There is no doubt that government
patronage was used to build up the
machine. Their" is no man 1 II of doubt
that it is being used 1D-day to keep it
up. But the Republicans are divided,
nd an election is coming on in which
they seen, likely to engage in a family
row that will delight Home Rule. A
lot of intelligent Americans look with
oistrust upon the machine They don't
like the idea of simply being voted.
A lot would like to turn to the Demo
cratic party. but they fear that this
party Is 90 weak that it cannot win
and that votes for it may only help
the common enemy. Home Rule.
Hawairs delegate to Congress. Ka-