The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-08-09
LEGAL TANGLE
PUZZLES LINDSAY
Attorney-General Is Threatened
With Brain-Fag by Act
Fifty-Two.

If you were business man and, for
reasons of expediency, also notary
public or other government official, and
you had road building plant and a
chance to clean up lot of legitimate
money on government contract, would
you do It'll
The chorus of assent to this cues.
ton is not only ill-timed but smacks
of graft 1t is up 70 the attorney gen
eral TO decide just what your answer
should be. He suspects Act SO, Session
Laws of 1911, and if his doubts prove
to be justified, it would put you out of
the running altogether, or else you
would have to give up your notary pub
hc's commission, or resign from your
position as stenographer to the second
clerk of the secretary's department If
you desire to pursue the almighty dol
lar to its lair.
The question has come up because
Senator Cecil Brown has put in bid
for section of the Hawaii county belt
road, and also because it happened to
be the lowest one. The question now
before the attorney general is why is
s.public officer and what is contract.
AS the Law Reads.
The law, among other things, says:
"No officer or employee of the Territory
or any municipal or political subdivis.
ion thereof shall directly or indirectly
participate in making any contract or
agreement for the purchase or sale of
any property or performance of any
work by, to or for the Territory in
which contract or in payment or consid-
GRAFTON therefore he is or shall be pc.
euniarily interested. -
OF course that is not all the law saws
in the same space. 1t is safe to say
about half the words are left out, but /
that is the substance of it. Now, an |
ordinary layman would suppose that !
this referred to Senator Brown because |
he is a public officer and is about to en- |
ter into a contract with the Territory, |
but it isn't anything like that Not |
until he signs the contract will he vic.
bate Act SO.
The attorney general who incidental
BY assisted in drawing this law up for
the legislature feels sure that body in. |
tended Act so as a block to any graft |
or favoritism in contracts to govern.
ment officers. So the law doesn Z APP
pear to apply to Senator Brown because,
although he helped pass the appropria
tion of 100000 for the Hawaii county
belt road, it was the loan fund commits
sion designed the contract he wants to
sign and not the legislature of which I
he is member Besides he helped |
pass Act 50 which is proof of his hon
esty. a4
But in this point of the argument the
niger in this woodpile laboriously
climbed up on the desk of Attorney
General Lindsay, where he now sits.
Here is the Ethiopian: "Shall partici-
pate in making any contract
The attorney.gen with reams and
realms of law to back him up, figures
that it takes two parties to 'make a
contract There s no getting around
the fact that when any one signs con-
tract he authorizes it and if he hap
pens to be public official, the question
Of the hour in the attorney general g
office is, where does everybody get off
att
II will be seen at once just how far
the effects of any opinion such as the
attorney general contemplates will
reach. Senator Brown as a matter of
tact is completely submerged in the
mass of consequences. 1t has often
been held that notary public is an
official of the government, so a notary
public even will not be able to sell, say
Aspair of shoes to the Territory, even
il the TerritOry was in need of foot
Meary 'T4l GPe
Sthrographers, clerks and bookkeep-
ers, or anybody on regular salary with
the Territory or county wouldn't be
able to make legitimate money on the
aids whether he was innocent of graft
or mot. A school teacher in the wild
woods trying to exc out his forty dol
lars a month by building or caring for
q road for the county is, like the 9th I,
ers, subject to this little remark on the
part of His Honor, the law:
'You are person who violates n
provision of section l of this act and
may be punished by fine of not more
ihan one thousand dollars, or by i'm
prisonment for not more than one year,
1r shotb. I"
Fou take your money and you pay
your choicel