Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-06-26
D0uma Was Adjourned
Last Night
By Gar BaIIentyne

Gar Ballentyne and Grand Dukes
Joe Gilman and A. j. Campbell dis
solved the Douma last night. In 9TH
! cr words, three members of the iq-
, lior License Commission, finding
themselves unable to intimidate their
} two associates and the majority of
the audience present at the public
hearing, angrily adjourned the meet
ing, venting their impotent anger in
futile threats of coercion. They
} threatened the crowd with the pc.
) lice and the crowd laughed at them.
} freedom of American citizenship, vin-
. lated the dearest rights of American
. ism, and made farce of the very
. law under which they pretended to
. act.
The whole proceeding from begin
ling to end was the most ridiculous
, and the most farcical that has ever
} been witnessed at a public meeting
|, held in Honolulu. Chairman Ballen-
, tyne was simply suffering with an
. ger and lost both his temper and his
head. Gilman and Campbell said
, little but supported their boss.
Jack Lucas and Carlos Long stood
} for the rights of the people they rep-
} resent and refused to abide by the
, arbitrary action of the rest of the
, Commission But Ballentyne treated
, them as cavalierly and insultingly rs
, he did the audience, and unable to
. brook his arbitrary treatment or
stand for what Long very aptly char
acterized as the Illegal action of Tie
ma jority, the two Commissioners left
the meeting and refused to have any
thing further to do with the actions
Of their associates.
The suppressed feeling that had
been smoldering in the Board for
some time broke out into sudden and
fierce flame, and in the twenty min
Utes that the meeting lasted there
was more action than has taken place
in all the other meetings of the
Board put together. II was as if
some irresponsible toy had touched
match to a powder magazine. There
} was one grand explosion and when
, the smoke cleared away only the
} pieces were left, and all that could
, lie heard was the angry muttering of
! -, hna
, the police and clear the hall.
Outside of G.. D, Edwards, who read
, Il long and wOrdy objection to at
! torneys being allowed to appear be-
> fore the Board for applicants for IL
censes, Judge Perry, representing the
Wigwam saloon, was the only one
present besides the Commissioners
who had a chance to say anything,
and Ballentyne refused to allow him
to proceed, When Perry rebulled Ed
wards for his unjust structures on the
legal fraternity, the audience pres
ent broke into applause.
Balentyne swelled with dignity
and furiously announced that if thcre
were any more applause he would de-
clare the meeting adjourned. Perry
proceeded and the crowd again APP
plauded Ballentyne was almost too
angry to speak, but he managed to
declare the meeting adjourned.
When it was over he threatened
to call for the police to arrest the
members of the audience on the
ground that by applauding the words
Of their spokesman they were Great
ing disorder.
There was a second meeting called
for O'Clock to consider another APP
Elication, but Ballentyne adjourned
it half an hour before it was to meet.
The attorneys protested that they
did not see how he could adjourn a
meeting before it was convened, but
the Chairman evidently was of the
opinion that the liquor law which he
treasures so carefully gives him pow
en- to do any old thing, and he refus-
Cd to listen to the protests. The
meeting will be held at o'clock to-
night, and it is probable that the
Gar will try to have force of po-
lice on hand to see that no one in
suits his dignity by daring to oppose
any of his wishes.
The opinion was freely expressed
at the close of the meeting that the
arbitrary and un-American action ta-
ken means the ultimate end of the
] Commission, if not of the new liquor
law
When the meeting was first called
to order, Chairman Ballentyne an
nounced that the Board had adopted
a resolution relating to the procedure
at public hearings. The feature of
the rules was that no cross-examina-
ton of witnesses shall be allowed and
4 no rebuttal testimony introduced on
behalf of applicants fol licenses.
Jack Lucas Immediately objected
b 10