The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-21

the individual to domination or disad-
vantage, and the doctrines of Social
ism, long looked upon as an ex-
crescence of economic friction, have
entered deeply into the thought of
disturbed people, and must be reckon
ed with.
The movement which has resulted in
the closing of hundred thousand sa
looms is fortunately something non-po-
litical, or, rather, it is so local mat
ter and is so nicely equalized that it
can have no general party effect. In
New York State the action of Govern
or Hughes in compelling the racetrack
gambling legislation has merely served
to widen the breach between the Dem
ocratie city and the Republican eoun-
try. Not in this election or the next
is the question of the tariff at all like
~ to be a paramount issue of the prin-
ciple involved. That will come later
when conditions have altered national
" and our foreign trade interests have
assumed something of the gigantic pro-
portions that are their ultimate des-
tiny.
In the policies of the present admin
istration, which are announced as to
be continued should Mr.. Taft be re-
turned the victor, there is an effect on
the present campaign of very puz-
fling nature indeed. If there were
three large parties, one Liberal, one
Radical. and the third Conservative,
there is no doubt that the East and
the Manufacturing West would assem-
BILE its forces behind the Conservative
standard and would carry them for
ward to a meager victory, but this is
to be a campaign in which the vested
interests can have no candidate and IN
which they can best secure their self
ish ends by taking the safer choice.
1t is not likely that the business in
terests of the country would be dis
turbed by the victory of either party,
and certainly Mr.. Taft S reiterated at
titude toward corporations of all sorts
contains no hint that fair dealing on
their part will be met with anything
but conservative and discriminating
generosity on the part of his admins
tration. From impressions gathered
among men with much at stake, 1t is
clear to me that the corporate inter
ests of the country, though convinced
that illegal combinations, Illegal re-
preston of competition. and Illegal ex
ploitation of the public are things
which the public intends to make no
longer possible. have no fear of the
outcome, knowing that honesty,
whether compulsory or voluntary,
never caused a panic or a decline in
genuine values.
Gravelv different, however, are the
facts underlying the social movement.
T L loA ~.
tation for a fairer adjustment of mat
ters between capital and labor; it is
something which attacks with the idea
of destruction the fundamental idea of
property, and the plain principle Of
wage employment. With Socialism in
the ascendency, capital and labor cease
to be things which their terms now
signify. 1t is not within my province
to discuss. cOntrovert, or even eluci-
date the opposed conditions; rather
should the political effect be consid
cred.
Quite as the average citizen viewed
with establishment the total figures of
the last election. seeing that even
against the tide of Mr.. RooseveIt's
personal popularity, Mr.. Debs had
polled nearly half million votes, so
viii they contemplate the results in
November. IF Mr.. Hearst s party were
not in the field, and therefore should
not draw to it a large body of disaf-
fected voters who win be chary Of
advocating radical Socialism. and the
Socialist and Socialist-Labor parties
were to mark the full count of those
who have become imbued with the fall
lacies of the non-competitive state of
society. they would be found to he
more than a million strong, and it viii
he no matter of surprise to me if the
returns show more than that up to the