Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 314, 2 November 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

John E. Bush

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

MONDAY, NOV. 2, 1891.

            ELDER GEO. B. STARR, at Y.M.C.A. Hall, continue his readings on Paul’e epistle to the Romans.

                                    How Character Alters.

            Some years ago an ordinary mechanic, a machinist by trade, landed on the shore of Owhyhee.  The man was neither fat nor lean, but had the gift of gab and the faculty of ingratiating himself with some people .  He was in favor at that time of the principles that now ac@  his brother mechanics in their struggle against the introduction of slave or peon labor which in the end supplants the white laborers of which he was one.  Now, by good luck, plenty of cheek and talk, he is an altered man.  He has grown fat and sleek, and from his conversation, he has entirely forgotten , who and what he was before.  He speaks, as he catches his breath, (we think he’s broken-winded), about cheap labor, at eight cent a day, and find themselves, and points Westward as the source of this wonderful market to satisfy his present changed attitude on the question he once opposed.

            This change is due to his prosperity.  Having reversed his position, from being a hired man to that of hirer, he has grown fat in purse, in person, and his brain and heart has also an accumulation of fatty matter which, if our diagnosis of his condition is correct, has so distorted his mind and memory that he forgets what he once was and imagines that he is the Maharajah of Shoddypore.  This new-fledged magnate, whose conscience is seared and memory bieared, because he has a few thousand dollars, has been the most ready and willing to serve in any capacity those who are foremost to destroy the interests of the ranks of those to whom he once belonged.  It seems, indeed, for a man to maintain his equilibrium of mind, when once he commences to accumulate a few dollars.

            This is the case with our fat friend, the noble Hpesoj. the Maharah of shoddypore.  He has found a hive of starving humanity, who would be glad to come here at a bare living, to aid him to become more overbearing than he is and ready to subvert the interest and living of every other human being in this country, outside of those whom he serves.  How true the old saying, that “man’s inhumanity to man, makes countless millions mourn.”

Editor KA LEO                   Sir:--------

            The P. C. Advertiser’s account of the Hui Kalaiaina meeting on Tuesday last is a pitiful conglomeration of spite, sarcasm and a very poor attempt at being funny.  It is a pity that the P. C. A. will not take example from some respectable paper and send a reporter to every public meeting.  It would then find that the facts of the meeting would not be so difficult to ascertain and would be able (if willing) to give a truthful account of the proceeding without hanging round street corners to pick up a garbled version of the same and then state that they were “about as follows”:  As to the meeting resembling the combination of whisky and broken heads which are prominent features in the “Proverbial Irish fair,” it was nothing of the kind, and considering the excitement some of the audience were laboring under was conducted in a very orderly manner.

            The Advertiser naturally feels sore on the subject knowing as it does that the “bribed clique” has “busted” and those who thought they could crush Wilcox, Bush and Nawahi for a paltry $300 have found out their mistake.  As to Mr. Akina resigning the Presidentship for fear of his life, I can say, being present at the meeting, which the P. C. A. reporter was not at, that he did not look a very scared man and seemed rather glad than otherswise to get out of the chair.

            That the statement that the Executive Committee appointed to meet the Mechanics’ Union will organize another Hui Kalaiaina is utterly without foundation and Wilcox, Bush, & Co., still live and will be found all there when the right time comes.  I think Mr. Akina knows R. W. Wilcox too well to imagine him anything like the tryrannical President of the Chilian Republic, and the P. C. A.’s attempted sarcasm in stying him “Balmeceda” Wilcox falls very wide of the mark.  Apologizing for taking up your space on such an unreliable subject as a P. C. A. report.                     I am etc.  ONLOOKER

 

ANOTHER ADVANCE IN THE MILITARY ART.

            The art of producing instruments of destruction is apparently about to take another step in advance.  Lieutenant G. N. Whistler, of the United States army, has been at work for some time past upon a new gun, the characteristic feature of which is a segmental core of steel wire, which is wound tightly around a steel tube and covered with a cast-iron jacket, --a method of construction which secures an enormous increase of strength over the gun of ordinary make.  The New York World says of it, “Should the gun prove a success, it will revolutionize the art of modern gunmaking the world over, and no iron-clad, however heavy its armor plates, would be safe from being pierced from end to end by a single shot.”

            The philosophy which lies behind all this waste of energy, time, and money in the production of death-dealing weapons, is of a somewhat curious nature.  We say “waste,” because the world would be just as well off in every respect without these things as with them, whether for purposes of peace or war.  How much better prepared is one nation to cope with another nation when both are well supplied with all the latest inventions in arms, warships and other military instruments than when they possess only @ wooden ships and old-style weapons which were in use before all this mania of military inventions began? – Not any better; for @ over the ratio of strength between them is exactly the same.

            Yet this philosophy persuades the nations of the wowrld to go on investing in new guns and iron-clads, at a most enormous expense in order that they may all be on, exactly the same footing as before as regards their relative strength.  But this is not all; for as there is both an aggressive and a defensive side to the military art, there are two antagonistic fields of military invention, the efforts in one of which only serve to neutralize those in the other.  When the famous iron-clad “Merrimac” made its deadly attack upon the wooden war ships of the United States in Hampton Roads, the shot from the funs of the latter glanced from the armored sides of the rebel ship without producing any damage whatever and the advantage lay for a time on the side of defence.  Then new guns were invented, capable of piercing any kind of armor in existence.  then new armor was made, strong enough to withstand the missiles of the heaviest guns; and thus the contest has kept up, without any particular advantage to either side.  A new gun having been now produced, capable, if expectations are realized of piercing the heaviest iron-clad from end to end, it will be in order for inventive genius on the other side to come forward with a new armor which shall bid defiance to all the guns in the world.

            If this new wire gun proves successful, our gun factories will at once begin its manufacture, and it will speedily find its way, regardless of expense, into the arsenals of Europe, unless in the meantime that country should produce something better.  But what a condition of affairs has the world reached when all its great nations stand ready, under a necessity which they cannot disregard, to expend untold millions in supplying their vast armies with new weapons of war as fast as the inventive genius of man (which is a very fertile genius, in that line) can create them.   Suppose Edison for example, should turn his attention from the field of electrical appliances to that of war.  He could keep all the nations of Europpe busy turning out weapons of destruction, for an indefinite time to come; for whenever a superior implement of war is invented and comes to light a stern necessity compels its adoption by all the armed powers, no matter how crushing the expense.  How long can the expenditure continue?  How long can Europe stand the strain?  Inevitably there must be a limit, and it would seem that the limit is now just about reached.

                                                                                    L. A. S.

                                                ON DIT.

            That the Bulletin’s interest in politics of the day lay in a different direction this time.

            That little Dan knows he is at a safe distance from Crowley, therefore, he goes for him.

            Tha the good ship Kalakana will roam the sea no more, that it took a thiry-five thousand dollar squall to bowl it over.

            That you may talk about yur sugar mills, and triple roller skates: but there is nothing in life, half so nicew – as making butts for hinges to hold the Palance iron gates.—The po8 Moore.

            That no doubt the P. C. Advertiser feels tired to know the demand that exhausts KA LEO.

            That cold water Horner in a speech once said that:  If Chinese could outdo white labor it was the white workingman’s fault.

            That a poor planter whose income (net) was one thousand dollars per diem, is now only pocketing $750 a day –Mechanics and Workingmen to the rescue.

            That Capt. Ross hit the nail square on the head, when he said that the planter needed cheap labor to make up for the expenses of himself and a large family in Europe, and the incompetency of managers who are placed in charge of plantations, without the first idea of a business.

            That under existing Chinese immigration regulations Chinese minors can come in without passports.  That is if the parents reside on the Islands.  It is now discovered that some of our Chinese residents have very large male families in the Flowery Kindom, and would like to have them under the parenta roof in a Christian land.

            That the two Presidents of the Hui Kalaiaina met and settled their misunderstandings, without any reference to others with whom there was also a misunderstanding, and then came before the Hui Kalaiaina meeteng last Friday evening for ratification to their mutual understanding.  Thus a breach was healed that has probably created a greater and wider breach in the native element of the National Party.

            Platform of Principle OF THE HAWAIIAN NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY.

PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION.

1.         We deem that all Government should be founded on the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity; we hold that all men are born free and equal before the law and are endowed with inalienable rights to life, to liberty, to property, to the pursuit of happiness and to self-protection against arbitrary concentration of power, irresponsible wealth, and unfair competition.  We believe that just government exists only by the consent of the People, and that, when it becomes necessary for the public welfare, they may abolish existing forms and establish more advantageous and equitable system; and, as the present Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom never has had the approval of the People, but was established by intimidation and fraud for the benefit of a certain class, therefore, we favor the adoption of a new and more liberal Constitution, to truly secure a Government of the People, by the People and for the People.

INDEPENDENCE OF THE COUNTRY

2.         Out of consideration for the inherent rights and present opinions of the native population, we desire to retain the independence of the Country and defend its autonomy, under a liberal and popular form of government; but our Treaties with Foreign Powers, and especially with the United States of America, should be revised, so as to better meet present necessities and to obtain more equitable advantages in exchange of those granted by us.

JUDICIARY REFORMS

3.         Our Judiciary system and Code of Procedure must be submitted to a thorought revision, so as to secure a cheap and prompt administration of justice free of all sectarian or partisan spirit, and to render the Judges more directly responsible to the People; and we are in favor of a more liberal interpretation of Constitutional guarantee of the ire@lo@ of speech and the press.

TAXATION

4.         A more just and perfect system of Taxation must be inaugurated, to abolish the present inequalities, by which the property of the poor is excessively taxed, while much of the rich man’s good are under-valued for assessment or entirely escape taxation; we shall therefore demand the passage of laws that will more effectually subject the property of corporations and rich citizens to their just proportion of public burdens, while granting more liberal exemptions to the poor; and as a means of discouraging the locking up of large trats of uncultivated lands, a differential tax should be levied in addition to the usual assessment en valuation, which should be in proportion to the fertility of the soil.  We shall also favor the establishment of a graduated income-tax, and thus expect to obtain ample funds for conducting the government and attending to all necessary public improvements without any further calls on the masses.

MONOPOLIES

5.         We shall use our efforts to obtain laws by which all favoritism in the government and all monopolies, trusts and privieges to special classes shall be rendered impossible, by full, definite and mandatory statutes.

6.         Better laws should regulate the Civil Service.  The principle of the election of officers of the government by the people should be established and no man should be allowed to hold more than one office of profit, whilst salaries should be adaquate compensation for the services rendered.  All excessive salaries should be reduced and all sinecures or superfluous offices abolished.

                        PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRIES

7.         We are in favor of encouraging all home agriculture and industries, and all our native products, like rice, coffee, wool, tobacco, etc. should be protected and fostered by proper tariff regulation; and also it must be the duty of the government, in its contracts and other operations, to give preference to national products over imported ones.

                        PUBLIC SERVANTS.  LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

8.         We desire a more liberal policy towards the different Islands of the Kingdom, outside of Oahu; they should receive a fairer proportion of the public moneys for the development of their resources and the satisfaction of their wants.  In fact, the principle of local Self-government should be extended, whereby giving localities may choose the most important of their local executive officers, and levy taxes for the purpose local improvements of a public nature.

                        PROTECTION TO THE LABOURING CLASSES

9.         We shall endorse all measure tending to improve the condition of the working classes, and consequently, without injuring any vested rights, we will advocate laws to prevent all further importation or employment of contract-labor of any kind, upon conditions which will bring it into a ruinous and degrading competition with free Hawaiian or white labor.  We shall also, in the interest of the better protection of the poor, ask for more liberal exemptions of their property from forced sale on execution, and from seizure in bankruptcy proceedings.

                        SMALL FARMING AND HOME STEADS.

10.       The wealthy fraction of our population have hitherto prevented the development of an independent class of citizens; the public lands have been acquired and have been tied up in a few hands or parcelled to suit favorites, and small farmers and planters have been driven out by corporations or combinations of capitalists: but as small farming is conducive to the stability of the State, it should be encouraged by a new and more liberal Homestead act, by which the ownership of small tracts of land and the settlement thereon of famiies of our present population, - and especially of the native Hawaiians who have been left almost homeless in their country, -should be rendered possible.  To that end, the Government and Crown lands, (in so far as can be done without invading vested rights) should be devoted as soon as possible to homesteads and conferred upon bona-fide settlers free of taxes for a limited period.

            It should be the further aim of government to, at once, so far improve the means of transportation, - local, national and international, - as to provide, in all the districts, cheap means of converying the product of the soil to market.

                        ELECTORAL RIGHT

11.       We hold that upright and honest manhood, and not the possession of wealth, arbitrairily fixed, should constitute the right to vote for nobles as well as representatives, and no more power should be accorded to the ballot of the rich man than to the ballot of the poor man.  The discrimination in favor of wealth now made in our Constitution is contrary to all the eternal principles of right and justice, and must be abolished.  To this end, we will favor a leveling of the present distinction of wealth and classes which blemish one @ with respect of the right to vote for nobles, thereby restoring on the native Hawaiana@ privileges which pert@ to them in their own country, and of which they have been universally deprived.