Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 159, 27 March 1891 — VÆ VICTIS. [ARTICLE]

VÆ VICTIS.

It is prettv well known tliat tbe >te Minister of Fina;ice hu* ollieiously endeavored to prevail upun ilie present Cabinet to eupport the

spiteful action, whieh he in coilusion with the Postmaster General 4 undertook against a number of xoung Hawaii:ms recently employed in the Post Office. In the first plaee, eommon justice demands that the iaainisterial head lof the department should have ! caused such an inquiry to be made i into,the nierits of anv charges made by the Postmaster General against the discharged officers; aneleommoa justice equally demands that such an inquiry should be ©f a judicial character with the evidence on record. This we are informed is totally : wanting. A discharged official goes ,tbrth to | the world with a brand ©n him, whieh people are very apt to paint | according to their fancy ; generally the touches areof a darkshade,and the head of the department should be compelled to state in writing why an official shouid be discharged, | Xot to do so-and to be permitted by | the Legis3ature to refuse, is to e?t,.b- | lish the heads of deDartments—! under legislative sanction- —as the powerful tvr:ints of a most noxious bureaucrac:v whieh no nation of freemen will ever permit. Thoy are servantsas mueh as thapetty officials, and tbe public want to know. and have a right to know, the miionale of their deeds. Tosay that they are responsible to the Legislature, whieh meets onee in two years, doeS not meet the case. We trust the present Cabinet will exercise the arbitrarv power, whieh tbe lon£ recess between the meetings of the Legislature confers on them, in an impartial and strictly noa-partiean spirit. We plead simply for justice to subordinate clerks, irrespective of what their politico party colorings may have been. In the spirit of Tom Cringle's motto we ask for thenv, 44 A clear stage and no favor."