The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-04-03

erS as a class are better ana poorer
than the brewers. But the terrific
brewery propaganda of advertising,
treating. educating. bribing and threat
ening, has saturated the ignorant por-
ton of the public with the idea that
beer is mild and harmless and its po-
litical power almost unlimited. The
result is that the brewery is the pri-
mary, intermediate, grammar, and
high school of the drinking habit,
graduating its pupils into the fatty
degeneration of beer excess, or the ruin
of raw whisky.
1T is perfectly safe to say that,
measured in the large, the brewery
far outclasses all the other agencies
that make against sobriety, pure pol
lulu brewery is not licensed by the
commissioners, but undoubtedly it is
within their supervising jurisdiction.
Its business ought to be subjected To
the most rigid scrutiny. And at the
best, there is no great relief in sight
until the Federal Government shall
take a hand, and, happily, that is not
far away. The great drunkard-maker
is the proposition that it is safe to
drink temporarily, and the brewer is
the high priest of that doctrine.
THE Sunday and after-hours privi-
lege ought TO be abolished, and sa-
looms ought to be vigorously kept va
cant, out of the permitted hours of
business.
The local option act that so near
~ passed at the last session ought to
be pressed and passed. A determined
movement in that matter by the good
men and women of the Territory, be-
gun now, would in all probability be
successful in spite of the weakness
of the Senate. On such an issue the
support of many who are patrons and
victims of the traffic could be count
ed on, and the rising tide of sentiment
perance and popular rights will be
beating hard upon these islands before
the next election.
Under such law the beverage liq-
uor traffic would at once suffer vigor-
Gus pruning, precinct by precinct, and
gradually be exterminated as an open,
ruinous industry. Even where success
was difficult, or long delayed, the
precinct poll would furnish valuable
condition Of public opinion, and fur
nish reform agitation a constant full
crum for its leverage. 1t ought to pass
even if it could accomplish nothing
more than to rebuke the brutal i'm
pudence of the trade that would deny
to the electors their inherent right to
express a political opinion about the
safety to their homes and the morals
and opportunities of their own chill
dren.
Besides, the passage of such an act
this year would stimulate congression-
Fl relief, and this is important. 1
believe in trusting the people and put
ting responsibility upon localities end
yet the protection of Congress for
Territory so remote, so small, so fluid,
socially; so important strategically. so
bound up with the army and the navy,
ought to be strongly evoked and would
surely in time be given. The Island
of Oahu, for good or ill, is inevitably
to be a great camp of fighting men,
the greatest fortress of the nation.
Diamond Head and Pear, Ha. Dor must
be made impregnable in great guns,
great commanders and sober men.
japanese population swarms here. Jap
anese ships are constantly touc1 hing
here. Just one brawl might plunge
the nations into war. The liquor traf-
60 H. i se1n ,Ie-
for the whore worlds good.
ASIDE from such considerations, the
business interests of the islands call
loudly for the suppression of the in
dustry that makes for idleness and loss
and crime. When the rcws goes
through the press that this Paradise
of the Pacific is free from the sin
mills that grind up men and women
and children as a sugar mill grinds
cane, to enrich the worst monopoly on
earth. the Promotion Committee may
be discharged: home-seekers viii come
by the shipload and seed theUvery
mountainous to prosperity, and social
culture.
THE present law is a license law
inherent + lniosl,y Of the liquor
ibility, of public servants. It teaches
that money can heal the smart that
honor feels. 1t is economically ridic-
ulous; no license revenue ever equaled
the cost the trade entailed. The law
of thirty-five closely-printed
pages and every line of it is a confess
sion that the thing to be legalized is
rotten with potential ruin of the
people.
THE liquor business is the maniac
Of industries. 1t has to be kept in a
1t can not be allowed
at large without a ball and chain,
striped clothes and plenty OF police.
The very act that legalizes it convicts
it Of being unfit to live, and convicts
the people of being unfit to govern
themselves. That is bad teaching. 1t
ought to stop. 1t is going to stop.
Local prohibition is a palliative. 1t
is not a cure. 1t is a bit of court
plaster on spot Of leprosy. The
American people are not local; they
are travellers. Honolulu whisky de-
bauches boys from every quarter of
he Union and the world. 1t beats a
ships officer rom the States to death |
The saloon in one precinct sends a !
1runkard into another to beat his wife |
to pulp and passion into a life SEN
l.