The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-22


assist in the expense of legislation and
lighthouses and other benefits came.
Cuba is still unannexed.
Three Faces on Land Question.
''This time Democracy has crawled
on another stump and the voice of L.
L. McCandless is heard throughout the
land on land question Forgotten
is Cuba but the local land is stirred up
in a dust cloud to make the voters
forget the prediction of the last cam
paign and prevent them from seeing
the approach of the golden millions
secured by the Republicans. Even on
the land question Democracy presents
three faces. First came the memorial
to Secretary Garfield; then with
flourish of trumpets the Democratic
delegates to their national convention
came back to Hawaii announcing that
if Bryan is elected the Federal land
laws in their entirety will ne extended
to Hawaii, land law that Is admitted
now has to be changed because it is
unsuitable to conditions any more. II
is a law that cannot in any way be
applied as it stands to Hawaii, but one
which the Democrats at the mainland
convention asked for.
F'As soon as the delegates had time
to get the convention whirl out of
their heads and settle back to a saner
view of the situation they realized
how foolish it would be to extend the
Federal land laws to Hawaii. They
got busy In an attempt to make
themselves get into some sort of con
formity with common sense they draft
ed their Territorial platform in which
is still another land policy. The latest
takes the Territorial Democrats still
further away from the mainland Demo
Gratis and practically repudiates the
land plank in the National platform,
while on the stump Mr.. McCandless,
the leader has directly repudiated it.
Thus within six months the Democrats
have had three different positions on
what they are shouting to the voters
in the voice of Link McCandless as
the greatest and most important ques-
ton of the campaign.
Paucity of Prospects.
stIn direct Territorial affairs, what
have the Democrats to offer the cleo
tors? Let us see. A promise of a
direct primary law is made. If the rec
ords of the last House be scanned it
will be seen that the Democratic Rep
resentatives, without exception voted
against such bill, introduced into the
House by Republican. The Repub-
hcan platform promises such
law and the good faith of a
majority of the party is evidenced by
having already to their credit the fact
that a Republican introduced such a
measure in the last House. The Demo
Gratis waited until the measure was in
trodueed and then voted against it.
FEThe Democrats promise the Initia-
tive and Referendum, including the
Recall. It is to be doubted if one
out of every three members of the
Democratic delegates at their conven-
ton knows today what the Initiative
and Referendum means, much less the
Recall Those who understand what
these terms stand for win readily real
ize that Hawaii as it stands today IS
not ready for such measures, which
might only be applied in communities
where the electorate is trained in vot-
ing by long years of representative self
government, and this is not said with
any idea of deprecating the intelligence
of the Hawaiian voter. Representative
government is too young in this Terri
tory. however, for such measures, and
everybody here, including those few
Democrats who know what their plat
form means, knows it.
Republican Security.
FfThe Democrats promise great things
in the way of an improved fiscal policy
and those whose knowledge of finance
extends to the limit of calculating how
much profit can be made per grave out
of the Pearl City cemetery site are
talking of government financial matters
in the millions. The Republican party
has already passed sinking fund bill
to provide for the retirement of the
Territorial bonds on maturity and Re-
publicans will pay the debt on maturity.
1t is true that the people are paying
interest on these outstanding bonds,
but. if a Democratic government had
been in power when these bonds were
put on the market the interest charges
would have been much higher than
they are now, providing the bonds could
have been sold at all. Money tightens up
when Democrats get control and gold
that Republican administrations can
borrow and put into useful circulation
is called in and locked up in the vaults
when the Democrats reach out for it..
The lesson the fnanciers learned when
Democratic Cleveland was the Pres
ident has not been forgotten nor has
the crash of topping financial institu-
tions during that time ceased to ring
in the ears of those with money TO lend.
Dastardly Tactics.
"The leprosy question is one that
must be approached with extreme eau
ton because of the lamentable misin-
formation on the subject scattered
among credulous persons by those who
hope to gain little by imposing on the
fears of Others Such tactics, IN my
mind. are the most dastardly that can
be employed, the spreading of false in
formation on this subject is responsible
for much of the talk of color line, for
much of the suspicion that exists on
the part of one portion of orr popnla'
ton towards another part, keeps the
people of Hawaii nei divided and pre-
vents that complete understanding be
tween the Hawaiian and the white that
there should be.
"The question of leprosy IS some
thing that should be altogether outside
of politics. 1t is not political ques-