The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-04

when the new leader Of the Anti-Saloon
movement is located here and able to
give the greater part IL his time to
putting into practise what he breaches.
In the interview, after deploring the
fact that he found that the political
ideals of this community could MT be
held up to match the scenery and ex-
planning that his view of the question
was that of a fanatic rather than that Of
practical politician, he said:
Now, granted that the Hawaiian for
instance, will drink, and that IL he
can't get his drink at a saloon that he
will make it himself or smuggle IL.
nevertheless the government. which
has undertaken to provide for him the
best environment possible, ought not to
lend itself in any wise or for any con-
sideration to his hurt or injury. IL he
will drink, let him drink and take his
chances, but the government that has
prohibited the open temptation to him
will be free from any responsibility for
his failure. But by the licensing OF
saloons the government, instead OF
holding before him high ideals and
striving for his good. becomes a party
it. which is outrageous from whatever
standpoint you look at II.
IF 1 were convinced that the out
lawry of the saloons would not prevent
the man from drinking but that the
use and abuse of intoxicants would go
right on in spite of prohibitory legisla-
ton, / should yet claim, with absolute
confidence that prohibition ought to be
the law. if not for the sake of saving
the drinker, at least for the sake OF
saving the moral character Of the body
polite.
II have been observing your people
here with a great deal of care and IL
seems to me that you have compare
lively little drunkenness, and l should
say very little drinking among the bet
ter class of men, and / think that there
is not so much to fear here from the
determined persistence OF the drinkers
of your population as you have from
the slovenly Christianity and yielding
virtue of the dominant whites.
Il agree that you could not hope to
enforce perfectly, nor very hopefully at
first, prohibitory laws i'm Honolulu. But
I believe that educatiOnally IL would
be very valuable to the rising genera
ton, and somewhat also to the adult
population, for the government to hold
itself too good to be in partnership with
the saloon. and IL enforcement were pa
tient. honest and persistent that IL
would tell for righteousness from the
start and in the long run be as effect
i've as the administration Of other laws
of the same kind: larceny has not been
stopped by the law, but it has been d.
minished and is being diminished from
generation to generation, and besides
the statute is an everlasting education
in the Commandment, Thou shalt not
steal
The social evil persists and will per-
sist. perhaps. always. but the govern
ment ought not to increase its reve-
nues out of the earnings of dissolute
women. The fact is that there has been
no determined effort on the part of the
officials at persistent enforcement OF
the laws prohibiting these common
vices. in the large cities. Mayors and
chiefs of police have ignored the law
in favor of some theory of their own
or have interpreted into the law Inn
possible meanings to suit their own
purposes.
IF it were understood that the Ha-
waiian Government were honestly
against the traffic in intoxicating liz
uors and the traffic in lust, that
knowledge would be strongly infiuen-
tial in lessening the number of men
who would invest their money in sa-
loon property and the number OF wo-
men who would invest their lives In
vice.
This influence. of course, could not
be measured, could not be expressed in
very definite terms. and might not be
even seen. but il would certainly exist.
AS the case is now. the better class of
people. by being implicated politically
with the evils, have shorn themselves
of the power to be personally infiuen-
tial in teaching men and women the
better way and in rescuing those who
have fallen.
These, of course, are general con-
siderations. / can not have, in the few
DAYS I have been here. any detailed
knowledge Of your own city, but at any
rate it seems to me foolish TO study
problem Of high ethics by the workings
temporarily Of one community: moral
progress must, in the nature Of things,
be as slow as the processes Of cyold-
ton. but as sure as there Is any Prov
idence. righteousness, being the dttesi.
must survive