The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-10-26
w. o. Smith to
w. A. Kinney
Continued from page /.


of the meetings beer has been furnish
| ed, both by certain of the candidates
and by others who were not candidates.
AS to the amount furnished 1 cannot
state The justification for it's use In
the minds of those who furnished it
was, 1 suppose, that it would please
those who drank it; that it was an
act of good fellowship and hospitality.
AS to the details of the circumstances
under which beer was furnished 1 can
not state further.
You ask, What is your purpose in
stating that if beer had been furnish
ed etc, it has not been during the
time when I was present, so far as i
was able to see
Answer. The purpose was to cor
rect the impression that was being
disseminated that the Republican meet
ings We're drunken carousals.
You ask, THE Democrats want to
know what part free beer has in teach
ing the disreputable or even vile or
large number of children sound doc
trine?"
I think no fair-minded and honest
person needs misinterpret what I stat
ed in the letter to the Advertiser from
which you quote. 1 made no such sug-
gestion The meeting at Iwilei, which
was held in the open air, was conduct
ed in an orderly and decent manner.
l came there from another meeting.
arriving little after o'clock, and
remained until half past nine, and dur
ing that time there was nothing dis
orderly or offensive excepting the con-
duct of one man who had been drink
ing; another well-known native, who
is d little more than half witted, who
was persistent in his attentions but
who showed no signs of having been
drinking and one native woman who
was voluble and demonstrative. If she
was a strumpet there was nothing in
her conversation or manner to indicate
1t. With these exceptions. and posi-
bly, one or two others. the audience
was composed of well behaved and ap-
parently respectable Hawaiians, many
of them having their wives and chill
dren with them, and the meeting was
quiet and well conducted
Sound doctrine was taught earnestly
and sincerely, and I am sure the meet
ing was not calculated to harm the
hearers or the speakers.
And is it not somewhat rema rka BILE
Mr.. Kinney, that even if some draught
pCSA was SlNCiA Jul dl TIE GloSS Vi SoiliS
of the Republican meetings that such
volleys of denunciations and fierce in
vective should be hurled by you and
your candidates at the Republican par
ty when two of your most prominent
candidates are men who own, or are
interested in. liquor saloons which they
conduct themselves or through others?
Had ice cream and soda water been
offered for refreshments at the end of
our meetings there could have been no
possible objection, but it is because
beer Off taken in sufficient quantity
would intOxicate and for no other rea-
son that the walls of wrath are poured
out.
At the worst beer was given on a
few occasions as an act of good fellow
ship and hospitality. while six days
and nights in the week, and every
week in the year your leading candi-
dates referred to are selling not only
beer but gin, whisky, brandy and all
manner of violently intoxicating Iiq-
uors, and SO far as they can. they Of
fer attractions to tempt people to come
and drink. This is done for gain, to
get the money, which is needed at
home by the wives and children. These
are leaders, chosen by your party, and
endorsed by you, and you and your
party, forsooth, attempt to stand on a
high pedestal and rebuke, denounce
and condemn the Republican party!
Again you hold me up to contempt
and scorn and state that I could with
"one determined effort shut out the
use Of liquor in the campaign" Let
me ask why you did not shut out
liquor from that notable Democratic
meeting at Waianae last week Satur-
day, al which your leading candidates.
including the candidate for Sheriff
were present, and where drunkenness
and carOusing were carried on through
the night? And how about the Demo-
cratic meeting a the head of Liliha
street last Monday evening. at which
there was not only drunkenness, but
after the audience retired, a man was
found lying deserted on the ground.
stupidity drunk?
l do not hold you responsible for the
liquor which did the mischief on those
occasions.
1t is a matter for cOngratulation that
the agitation against the use of beer
at campaign meetings is having salu-
tary effect. but how will it be if the
Democrats should prevail-win those
leading members discontinue their con-
slant dispensing Of liquor by day and
by night?
Might it not be we'll, Brother Kinney.
for you to pause in your spasms of
righteous Indignation and consider your
own political household and what it
stands for?
WILLIAM 0. SMITH