The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-27
ADVANTAGES TO FOLLOW
GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION
Vindex Points Out Manifest Benefits Which
Would Accrue From Such Change
of Status.

Editor Advertiser: congratulate
YOU on the showing you have made in
favor of government by a commission;
| and again I congratulate you on the
INABILITY of the other side to make an
argument against the measure which
| is at all convincing.
Anyone who knows what a war base
means is conscious that it must have
government which cannot be meddled
with in an executive or legislative
sense by the voting elements living
within it's sphere-especially If those
| elements are, in their majority aspects.
| irresponsible, capricious or racially
hostile. The administration of a war
base need not be wholly military in
time of peace, but it must be conducted
! nv the direct, appointees of the COM
lmander-in-c chief of the army and navy
the President-so that, in any emer-
gency, it may be made to conform TO
military needs. That is the ra1son
d,etre of the Philippine commission,
and it is the motive or the suggestion
which the Schroeder board is said to
have made for the government of Ha-
vail
The need of a change IN our admins
tratfve system, from the war base
standpoint, is made acute by the GER
| tainty that, in a few years, japanese
| born on this soil, will control the elec-
/ torate A birth rate this last year OF
2400 japanese as against 126 Americans
tells no new story. That sort of thing
has been going on for years; and pref
! ty soon we shall see the results at the
polls, and in the county ana territorial
legislatures. If nothing is done to pre-
vent, those of us who are beyond mid
die life may live to see japanese in
i control of the legislature and county
| governments, and of the city of Homo
lulu and having hold of the purse that
supports the police. militia, tax and
| road departments. They are also GER
| tain, in their capacity of citizens, to
take up the remaining lands and al
ready they are reaching out towards
| the control of certain industries. Does
| anyone think, for a moment, Mr.. Edi-
tor, that the Federal government will
i permit its great Pacific war base to
1 come under conditions such as these?
Recognizing as it does that the Japan
csc are our only probable enemies in
IHlS Ot8du, Is that SONEIAiiICht sums
to expend millions here upon a stra-
tegic object and then let those people
control the political administration
which will have so mucn to do with
the preservation of the local peace, the
building of roads, the protection of
property, the levying of taxes, the de-
velopment of food industries and the
maintenance of order?
AS things stand, governmentally, the
japanese born on the eoil may, under
any aspects of the territorial situation,
Iclaim their constitutional rights; but
/ if the territorial form is abolished, and
the District of Columbia system insti-
tuted, then the local franchise goes
| with it and the Japs Ike the rest of
u.s. are left out There is no other
lawful way for Congress to proceed to
remove our Japanese incubus: and as
for ourselves, we shall be better with
out vote than to be outvoted annual
~ by a clan of japanese citizens, who,
at heart, win be loyal to their racial
sovereign.
AS to the benefits of government by
commission they occur to me as fol-
lows: The Federal government would
pay the commission and would at least
divide with our own people the lesser
public expenses. Possibly it would pay
them all. Assuredly it would take
charge of roadmaking so as to assure
roads and bridges of a quality to per-
nit the rapid and secure passage of
artillery. Health being of paramount
Importance to a military base. the ex-
{pense of maintaining it would, of
course, become a Federal charge. Great
drainage projects as at the Waikiki
flats. would naturally be carried out.
As a war base must be self-support-
ing, under circumstances of a long
siege. it would be the policy of the
government to encourage the raising
of food products here and that by men
in sympathy with the aims and policies
of the United States. Here we have a
chance for the small farmer of Ameri-
can blood. The government would
want him not only for his agriculture
but for adjunctive military service of
the kind that Major Ham suggested
in his address before the Chamber of
! Commerce-an address which may well
be re-read for it's hints of big things
to come.
Summing up the advantages of gov
eminent by commission, so far as ]
comprehend them. they are: A tremen-
of government, honesty in administra.
ton, the cutting out of our disrepu-
table politics, security of property, the
building of great public works the
safeguarding of health, the establish
ment of food-producing industries and
a steady cash market for the farmer
, The objections, as so far stated, are
=" as puerile as their newspaper source
There is talk of government bv com.
mission as being ''un-American," wher
= the very seat of United States author.
j ity is in a district which commission
rules; when the key of the American
\ colonial policy, as shown in the Phil,
/ ippines, is government by commission
n and when American cities like Calves
ton, tired of rotten politics, are begin.
ming to adopt that system American.
ism expresses itself as well in Louis
lana parishes as it does in Ohio conn.