The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-01-08
UNCERTAINTY As To
PORTUGAL 5 FUTURE
REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERN
MENT MAY RESULT FROM RE
CENT CRISIS

LISBON, December 10.-As a result
Of the present political crisis here it
may be determined whether a new
and better order of public administra-
tion is to prevail in Portugal or, re-
mote as such change appears to the
ordinary observer, whether the Whole
monarchial regime shall not give way
to a republican from OF government.
The Republicans, small as is the in
fiuence they exercise at present under
the restricted suffrage which the people
enjoy, believe that FRANCO, by ex-
posing the practices of the monarchist
parties, has administered blow to the
prestige of the king and the monarchy
from which it can never recover, and
made a republic, which a year ago
seemed a dream of the far distant fu-
ture, a probability Certainly Franco,
by his revelations has placed powerful
weapons in the hands of the Republican
leaders, which they intend to use to the
best advantage. To conjure with they
have Frances own avowal that the
country for years has been the football
of the monarchist parties with the sole
object of distributing graft to their
clerks the scandal of the "ad-
vances' made surreptitiously from the
public treasury to the royal family, the
arbitrary manner in which these adj
vances have been "liquidated" by de-
cree, and lastly, the alleged 'repres-
sion" of the dictatorship"
Their plan is to push the issue as
soon at the restoration OF legality"
permits them to open a campaign in
the newspapers, and later, when the
Cortes again assemblies. to play their
trump card. This will be nothing else
I than a motion to impeach Franco tor
his action in "liqudating' the Kings
debts to the treasury, and as logical
cOrrollary thereof to demand the alb
dication of King Carlos for abetting
this crime" under clause of the
Portuguese Constitution which COM
pels the abdicatiOn of the monarch
when he is adjudged morally incap-
would undoubtedly furnish rare ma
terial for a political campaign in a
country where the masses take an in
terest in politics, but here in Portugal,
where the percentage of illiteracy is
the largest in Europe and where the
people, stepped in ignorance and super
stition, are excluded from the ballot,
it remains to be seen whether they
can be aroused to take matters into
their own hands.
The fate of Joao Franco, the dictator
who, as a monarchist, processes to be
seeking the political and financial re-
generation of the country, will be well
worth watching. Franco is a man of
So. and practically his whole life has
been spent in politics.
The old parties fear and hate hin;
The Republicans join in the denuncia-
ton because he has arbitrarily stopped
their agitation. The only thing his
enemies do not reproach him with is
a desire to line his own pockets. Hts
wealth excludes such a motion. For
the Republicans, like Bernadino Ma
chado, the explanation is simple. They
profess to see in him only a political
charlatan, whose pretense of reform is
sham and whose real purpose is TO
crush the old political machines in
order that he can build up a stronger
one for himself.
Bankers and business men regard the
situation from financial standpoint as
being much more critical than from a
political point of view. Since the
bankruptcy" of 1890. when the for
eign debt was scaled one half, there
has been a constant succession of de-
ficits, accompanied, the bankers say
by most deplorable system of finance