The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-12

1.-THE course being taken by the pres
ent board of commissioners in this
county and on Kauai is working UP
a public sentiment against the law,
he says, land when the election time
arrives it will be seen, too late, that
the severity with which they are inter-
preting the statute will have brought
about a revulsion of public feeling and
a change will be made that will hurt
the country. Conditions worse than
those existing before the passage of
the law will be established and the
cause of temperance among the Ha-
waiians will be given a terrible set
back
Just imagine what would happen if
the question of the granting or refusal
of licenses had to come before the
supervisors 1t would mean that the
saloon men and the liquor dealers
would get right into county politics
and the politics of the country would
be run by the saloons and in the in
terests of the saloons. Preserve this
country and the Hawaiian people from
such a fate. Surely there are enough
questions in politics in this Territory
now without throwing the whiskey
business into it.
According to the present laws the
business corporations here are prohibit
ed from subscribing for campaign pur-
poses. Where would the politicians
turn for their supplies if they con-
trolled the licensing of saloons? What
conditions would be extracted by
the saloon men before they would put
up? What hope could there be for any
temperance advance among the Ha-
waiians with the liquor interests con-
trolling the supervisors, the police and
the politicians? Those are the ques-
tions the present license commissioners
should think of now, for they are driv-
ing the liquor interests up against a
wall and there is going to be a fight,
with the voters against the present
enforcement of the law.
I'VE have a good liquor law now and
/ am working to improve it by adding
the local option privileges to it. But
in going around l find myself up
against a growing sentiment against
such severity as the commissioners
have shown, for instance against
'Scotty Meston and the manner in
which they treated W. c. Peacock &
Co. The commissioners are good men
hut the people resent the way they
interpret the law and pursue such an
arbitrary course, denying rejected ap-
plfcants even reason for their rejec-
ton. So far as the public can see
'Scotty' has been running a decent
lava biding restaurant. There have
been no fights, no law-breaking, no
robberies in his place. Many reputable
business men patronize his place for
their meals and so far as anyone can
see he has conscientiously carried out
the terms of his license. But he is
to be closed out and no one, including
Meston himself, knows the reason why.
am not advocating Meston's claims,
but 1 instance his case because the
voters are talking about it and intend
to be heard from.
'It appears that the license COM |
missioners are OVERRIDING the thing, |
just as some of the other reformers in |
Honolulu are OVERRIDING the thing, and |
the people are turning against it, That |
is what l am afraid of. [ am afraid /
that the back swing of the pendulum |
will make things worse than they were |
before the last Legislature passed a |
good liquor law, and God knows that |
was bad enough.
Il am working in the interest of tenn
perance among my own people. / know
that one of the things killing off the
is liquor, not so much the |
pure liquors sold as the dago red and
other fatal stuff. tuberculosis is re- |
sponsible for the sad death rate among
my people and why should the Hawai-
ians have tuberculosis and die off with
it like flies? They never had it before.
They get it now because so many
fathers spend their money for liquors
that they have none for their families.
Their children have to live in unsani-
tary hones and are only half fed. They
grow up stunted. anemic and unable