The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-05-12
DR.. sCuODERSV VIEWS
CONTINUED from page 81

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united Hawaii.
The entire history of these islands
previous to 1900 then was committed
to the wise policy of training the
Hawaiian who was untitled for the
franchise before the right to vote
should be granted him.
The Right to Suffrage.
Eight years ago when the writer
came to Hawaii, it was out of an en-
vironment where one article of po-
litical faith postulated that suffrage
was a manhood right, and that its
educative force was such that its ex-
ercise must develop the power to
use it wisely. The South had learn
ed the fallacy in this pretty bit of a
priorism by one of the saddest and
costliest experiences in the political
history of the American Union, but
the writer had neither lived at the
South nor comprehended it's tragic
I training. The North itself had had
trouble with its immigrants over the
franchise right theory, but its opti-
mism, its missionary enthusiasm and
its preponderance of we'll trained cit.
liens masked the facts in opposition
to its favorite dogma.
Holding this as a political princi,
pie, it was easy during the first few
years of residence here to seek cor
roboration for this theorem of the
right Of every man to the franchise
Having found what was sought it
was natural strongly to proclaim it.
which was done. At the same time
dissent came from not a few whose
fathers had been identified with the
best in Hawaii's history and whose
own lives had been spent in lavish
friendship and loving service for the
native race. These men saw beneath
the surface and knew how votes were
controlled here. Their point of view
arrested attention. Next intimate as
ISOLATION with conditions began slow
ly to marshal evidence against the
franchise-right dogma and in support
of the franchise-privilege idea until
the conviction took form that the
missionary builders of political Ha-
wall in rising above the inherited a
priori ideas which they brought hith-
err, had shown very rare degree of
sagacity and that Congress would
have done we'll to respect the teach
ing of experience voiced in the I'M
animous recommendation for a safe
guarded franchise made by it's Com
mission composed of Senators Cul-
lom and Morgan, Representative
Hit, President Dole and Judge
Frear
While this change of view was in
the incubation stage, the plebiscite
took place, The story of that cam
paigned deepened the opinion, which
had been slowly forming, into a con-
viction. Then followed the election
of last November with its disgraceful
money record. One has only to turn
to the columns of the Advertiser of
December 20 to see that the official
of both parties rec
ognized the evil We venture to say
that few thoughtful men in Hawaii
do not believe that Congress made
a mistake in refusing to follow the
of its Commission
as to safeguarding the franchise.
We hold therefore that Congress
did the Hawaiian people irreparable
wrong when it conferred upon them
the franchise minus the restrictions
by its Commission. The
unrestricted franchise placed the Ha-
waiians where they must become vic
Tins of their own limitations. 1t
was not their fault but their misfor-
tune that they had not been exposed |
to the evolutionary forces that devel-
oped the Anglo-Saxon on the one
hand or the Eastern Asiatic on the
other. Kindness and justice dictated
that Congress should endeavor to 4
neutralize this misfortune by bring. /
ing to bear upon them every possible
incentive to develop manhood. One
of the greatest of these incentives
is the privilege of the ballot. If
Congress had employd this incentive
to encourage thrift and the other in /
dustrial virtues, doubtless hundreds
of Hawaiians who are dead would be
living useful lives today and the &C.
onomic condition of the people and
of these islands would be decidedly /
better. But the bIunder was made
and the result was inevitable. The
Hawaiian majority had to be bought
and in one way or another it has
been bought as everyone in this. Ter