Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 259, 14 August 1891 — THE MISSIONARY "SACK" AND "WHIP." [ARTICLE]

THE MISSIONARY "SACK" AND "WHIP."

It will be remernbered that when the Lej«islature of 1888 were engaged in discussing the Election Act. whieh was finally placed upon the Statute Book, ,a" series of provisions passed the second reading, whereby a sec.ret hallot, on the so-called Australia principle, was was attainod only Sfter a hard fight between the fnends of an absolutely free ballot and the advocates of a bailot free only īn name, where the employer could at will supervise and direct the vote of tha employed: — where the ' boss" could absolutely dictate and control the ballot of his "lamh." (We trust these terms, so eommon 5n California, will be understood by the politically punctillious gentlemen of the missional fold). The argument then advahced in favor of a secret ballot was, that it woulxr guarantee to the voter an absolute freedom froni ali unholy coercion and restraint in the exercise of his suffrage. And it would seem to the ordinary, unsophisticated and mind, that this was sufficient reason for the position taken in sUpport of a free ballot.

But the sugar barons, led by the most influential Noble of the Maui delegation, opposed the secrecy of the ballot, on the ground that, if secrecy meaiit independence, and freedom to vote as the voter personally desired, there was no telling bow many u lambs" would strav from the missionary fold, at the first opportunity. It was, in their opinions, essential to preserve their existing censorship of the votes of their employees aud dependents, in order to prolong their political «way, - While their scores of servants could be marched in line to the polls, briskly stepping to the music of the misßionary whip, and after arrival be handed eaeh a ballot with missionary names thereon, with order to deposit that ballot and no other, in the box; —and -while the "bosg ,> could stand and absoluteJy and safely dictate and «upervise the casfcmg and the countingof the ballots, —every thing was lovely for nabobs. And so the ar£;ument prevailed on the third readieg, that the public interest (for of course the missionary planters and their satallites constituted the k 'pubiic"), demanded an oi>en ballot,—one that the l< boss" could prepare and have caet, without risk 'jf any cbicahery on tbe part of obstreperous voter.

But thing3 have changed . since thft halcyoa days of missionārv supremanc3 r . Falled v are the towers, oh ! missionary Itinēl,-'hever again to be rebuilt within these tropic Isles. The secret ballot is now engrafted upon the law, and the '•sack" and the u whip' , of the ungodly guild will alike be'impot§nt to buy or bully th'e electors. The opposite to secret voting, for m;my years prolonged the virtual slavery of the mase of the elfotorate to the weaithy and uncrupulous few, bnt the jubilep has dawnfcd at last, and; chains are stricken the serf.

From this day forth the voter, as ho prepares and <\eposit his ballot, ean revel in the consciousness 'that he is, for the nonee a man, bevond the r.each alike of the corrupting u saek" and the galling "wliip/'

Let it not be thought that only on the plantations and on their empJoyeeav w?re the degradin£ of poliiieal coereion practieed. Right here in the ci.ty of the Kit «;dom, the same e.nslaving influence was brought to bear upon the raechajnic, the clerk. the laborery and the iinanoially dependent. We would not intimate that,those riumerous and respectable classes generally, or even very numeronsly, bowed to the voke of the wealthy: but none ean appreciate better than those embraced within the classes named, the weight of inEuenee, sometimes ex pressed in words, sometimes in acts. sometimes only in glances or grimaces, with whieh there independence was sought to be eontrolied. by those to whom they were behōlden for emplovment, aecommodation or other advantages.

Let the free and independent electors befittingly hail and eelebrate the advent of this tardy emancipation from the missionary l»sh, by marching to the polls at the first opportunity, and there so deeply burying the clique wlio have hitherto abused and oppressed them, that notliing short of Miehael'a trumphet will resurrect them from their political exitntcion.