Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume IX, Number 28, 22 October 1936 — DEMOCRATS SEEK BOARD CONTROL TO CHECK FRED WRIGHT'S AMBITION TO BE MUSSOLINI: STRIFE SPLITS GOP CANDIDATES FAR APART [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATS SEEK BOARD CONTROL TO CHECK FRED WRIGHT'S AMBITION TO BE MUSSOLINI: STRIFE SPLITS GOP CANDIDATES FAR APART

A coijcerted movement to elect a Democratic majority to the Honolulu board of supervisora on Uie ground that %hiB is the best way to eheek Mayor Fred Wright in his mad, autocratic, Hitler-like visions as exemplified in his §10,000,000 public improvement program over a period of five years, has been launched vigorously by the Democratic candidates for the board on Ōahu. The Democrats, atressing the fact that Mayor Fred Wright must be halted in his Caesar-like ambition to enehain the city and county of Honolulu in stronger bonds than eyer before have been forged by the "City Hali maehine," are confident that they will elect at least four and perhaps five members of the board, as was the case in 1932, when President Roosevelt was originally elevated to the position of chief executive of the nation. The Democrats charge that Mayor Wright, as a Repubiican, has failed to cooperate completeiy with the Works Progress Adrninistration on Oahu under Fraak H. Locey, Territorial administrator. The charge that, instead of devoting as mueh money as possible to the purchase of materials and supplies on munieipal improvement projects on whieh Administrator Locey has been more than williiig tq —&i< 8.0 cost to the muriicipality —' Mayor. Wright has used the munieipal funds at the disposal of himself aad his "rubber stamp" board of supervisors to create a persanal political workers paid from the city and county funds. To Assure Cooperation With WPA The Democrats further declare that a Democratic majority of the board of supervisors should be elected— not only to eheek the Mussolinirlike activities of Mayor Wright, but also to assure that the national administration, as represented by the Works Progress Administration, will receive the fullest of cooperation from the city and county administration, somethijig whieh they asserted had been lacking under the administration of Mayor. Wright, who preferred to keep his favored personal politicai henehmen in office at high salaries rather than de\ote that money to the purchase of matei'ials and supplies on whieh the Works Progress Administration would supply the necessary labor, to the far greater benefit of the community as a whole. Consequently, they are $ppe«lmg £or the retura of a. majority of Democratic superviAor S to the hoard—not oaly to eheek Mayor Wri«ht in his mad schemes, but aUo to assure that the municipality will cooperate to the utmost with the Works Progress AdmmiAtrajUon, That dissension and _strife are splitting the r&nks of llie Republic;ans in Hawaii in & fashion that would cau«»e iormer Qld-time leaders of that lost cause to turn in their graves is only proven by the receat superficial and artificial efforts of the leaders of that orgauization to patch up their difficuities—in puhlie. Repubiican representative candidates from the 4th district held a luneheon not so long ago at the Paeiiie Club— ,4 to talk ways and meana of eiectmg all ticket eandidatos." Before a conveniently-placed camera Speaker Royai A- Vitousek* as his name appears ln the saciety solemnly shook hands with - K4«j|e' whose nomlnatioii wa& l»th a &urpriae and a ahoek to V itousek, whoae oa!y ambition is to gain another strangle« hold upon the house in the 1937 session. One for all and all for one" was the &siQundiii£ political philosqphy that fram ,this iuneheon, with ali of its hand-shaking and all of the photographs irom the conveniently-placed camera* Subsequently, m the Star-BulleUn» aper*Ued bj Seaator Joseph R. Farriivgtoa, unwittmg too! who does Speaker Vitousek's dirty work" in the SemUe and has not >e t apparently awakened to the fact that he is heing u»ed a» a cats-paw, appeared the whiek had heea snapped hy the eonveJueAtl> -placed ca<aAra! Hol Shown Speaker Vittousek T s right hand is aliowa cisu>pcd iinaly tn the right }iand oI u Kiiyie" tousek s left uot sliowu iu the photograph, just as iinnli ciasped around a long, sharp kaife, whieh he has ready and prepared to stick deepii' into Kunball*s haek—becau»e it happens that Kimhall is a uephew of Bettator Char!es A. Rice of Kau&i. Artd f ifthere u anybody ia the Territoriai ie«isiature who makes it difficult £qi: Spaak«r Viiou«ek to *erve w^l hU master& of Mercha«t St hi* law oi£tce adjoins the offico oi the HawaiiAn Sugar Planters* AitoctaUti& ihe Alexander & Ba!dwin hullding i if there U aa)hod) who thrOws rocfes mto the path of that Spe*kc4 Royal A. Vllousek in his shepherd-dog efforU to earn hU pa> £rom those same masteis — it U Seoalor Charies A* Rke of Kauai. for all and all for one" — the late I&meiited. Alexandre Dumas wouhl shi\ er iu his gra\e if he kivew. to what purpose the Repub\ican p&rty ū; Hawaii put-

cians in Washington, on loeal projects in Colorado or New Mexico or Florida. And in virtuaily every instance they have resuiteci in heated ioeal defense and endorsement of the projects in the localities where they were being carried on. OW, 01d Story This ls the old story of the bandits īn So>uth America. They are never in the town whieh you are visiting. They are always Just oter the hill, out. of sight, but the townspeople ean tell you some very interesting stories about them. You may go oyer the hill, but you will no.t find them. "They are somewhere else. The boon-doggling and the waste are always somewhere else. The citizen who has not realizeā this sar"to~you, "Oh, thgWPA projects here in my town are useful and beneficial to the whole community. There is nothing wrong wlth them. B\xt they must be pretty terribie in other parts of the country, from what I read in the papers." So inueh for the loeal angle. AU ī ask o£ th.e man or woman who wanls to judge WPA, and what the workers of WPA have done to increase the national wealth, is that he examine critically the work that has been done in his own comniwiity and base his verdict on what he finds. Other communities are not essentiaily different. The workers and the work wili run pretty even iu quaiity wherever they are inspected. Political enemies of this program! have made repeated and sensational charges whieh have eaptureci national altention in the press. It mattered not how ! absurd the charges, the answer never got the same attention. iThe story of a rfian's arrest al- , ways overshadows the later sto|ries of his acquittal. Heres a fsample: ! Repnbl»cans Lie ( The Republican National Comjnittee charged that we had wast£d four hundred thousand dol!ars on a big'improvement in Cleveland by changing the plans when the work was half done. īt was utterly false. There had b.een no change in plan§ after the work was begun 4 and the city officials of Cleveland hasteried to say so. The current situation in Penn,ssis typical. We haye re r . futed by affidavit dqzens of wild charges by William Hard and his crowd, but the parade of scarecrows goes on. They talked about a "defeated political candidate" in Wiikcs-Burrc ?until he was revealed to be a defeated Rcpubliean candidate. And where is Harry Ball, the engineer so widely quoted m critici&m of W. P. A.? He now is empioyed. by the Sun Oil conipany, and by Joe Pew, the Republican leader In Pennsylvania. Who, indeed, are the saintly gentlemen in Pennsylvania who are cxying polities in WPA? They are the saintly Mr. Grundy, the saintly Mr. Mellon, and those paragons of nonpartisan ethics, Pew and Owlett and McClure. , Here's another case: Recently the Republican Naiional Committee issued a blast about a , half-hour of "expensive radio, time" whieh WPA had purehas-, eā on sisty-onc stations to; spread propaganda about the program, The truth of that story is that over three months ago, <m June 20th. two days after Congress had made its new appropriation for some o£ oue key officfals iook thc air io iuform our administEAtise btaff i in *very stale of the L'nion eoncerain« the ruies and regulatious COverning Uie new program. The big about tliis politicai howl of •expensive radio time" Hes m the fact that the Ome was graciously donated, without by the sixty-one stations* Tho polilieal charge wīiieh had the most laughable backfire was

We J st6fy prtnted tn New York to the effect that WPA had built some fine cement sidewalks jn the little t<ywn of Arcadia, Mi sonri, an.d that the town was so smaH that the sidew£|lks wumu Be of greater service to the cows of the community ihan to the people. The very thought of this was so amusing to the Republiean National Committee that it sent a camera crew all the way out to Arcadia to take motion pictures of the cows using the sidewalks. The loeal people were pretty bitter about the purpose jof the camera crew as soon as i they found out abput it, and the town marshal even made so bold [as to ask them io leave. They |did. They went ten miles down |the road where, $or $25.00 they |pe,rsuaded a farmer to truck six couws lnto the town at- five o'eloek the next morning and herd them on to the sidewalks; and they paid another non-resi-dcnt drawl a little speech about how mueh the cows into the town at five sidewalks. I have no doubt that this wouid have been another of their little national scandals but for the fact that in Arcadia there was a clever country correspondent of the St. Louis Post pispatch, who played up the whole story, with names, dates, and prices. Where Is Proof Rlght now you are reading in a great many newspapers that Wī*A is keeping workers from retuming to private employment. The charge was repeated this week by E. J. Harding of the Associated Oeneral Contractors. He,is the same Mr. Harding whQ made the same general charge three months ago, ana when w.e asked him to give specific instances in support of the charge, he apparently had none. 4t least he oever replied. put aJ>oye and beyond all reference to individuals, I ask you to judge in the realm of your own eonamon sense whether the average American particuiarly one yāth a fa£U& l is going to cUng to a part-time government job that pays him forty or fifty dollars a month when he has a ehanee to get decent private employment on a fuU-UE&ie.basis,, , Oue more ridiciUous iostaa<je of this type of thing and I wMI leave the case with you. J. N. JQaxliog, a cjg|sader for conservacharged _that WFA . w"ap spending mii)jpns of dollars for tnalarta control ia Maine, ālthough Maine has not had a ma* iaria case for one huudred and fi£ty years. The charge was eompletely erroneous, and was refuted in full ih a public statement by the l T nited Statcs Surgeon General. The refutation was printed two monttys ago, shortly after Daxling made the charge. Tet, only the other tfay while I was traveling in the West, there was Colonel Frank Knox speaking in the State qf Washin4fton a.nd electrif£in£ his listiejaers with the scandalous eharse that WPA spent milhons for malariai control in INlaine. I prefer to .thu& that th.ese men and their publications sun- j ply are ignorant of the true: facts, but it's a little difficult. ! Col. Knox made two speeches in MSaine last month, in Lewiston, on September 3 and in Water-, ville on Septeniber 4. Whi' didn't, he tell his īake story about Maine malana control then, to the people of Maine? Whi' did he walt uniil he goi to the State cf Washingt-oii, as far away as he could get on dry laua? I iliuik the answer be obvious to ahybody. He knew what he was doing. Axc Av;uiablc iiui eei-uiuii' lor the great ina&i oi Aineiiean, peopīe it just a matter of mformation versus miMuforaiatiou. I <ī like you to Uunk of that, 11 you wiU, wlieu ioa read f ihe poiiUeai e\cii tw aays about Uie pi maeliiiie ol the WPA. At Uie sauie time you wiii be readmg charges that we won't give out facts. The ReiAibuciuis must have got Uieii sig:ials :r4xed, fgr Ust wee^

we got a letter from the National Committee thanking us for iilformation we have given them. The hostile pohticians use the "heads I win, tails you lose" method on us. If we don't talk about the program they roar about our sinister policy of secrecy. And when we do talk about it, we're circulating vicious propaganda with the tax-payer's money. We don't worry too mueh over that. lt's part of the game, But I wiii the statement that we have spent proportīonately less effort and money to miorm Uie puhlie about WPA ,than has heen spent by any eomi parahle agency in the history of Amenean Go\ernment. Sometimes I wonder if that is not our greatest error — not from a stan4pomt of avoLding perspjj%l, cxiUcism, but becau.se of the bitter in|ustice whieh it has permitted to be heaped on the heads of millions of distressed Americans. Tb«?s the cruel thing, and the one i nseat most. The unempioyed had no ehoiee but to take our jobs and do their level best. Thev weren't always strong or weli <ed er warmly clothed oi evea ased to the work, L T nder the circunastance««s they did tna£r>ficently. It seems to me that the way they foug:ht this thing throuffh to success and real achievement is a whoie lot more truiy "Aiaerican" than the way son» of our more fortunate citizens ridlfuled them wMIe they were in a tough spot. Perhaps if we had taken the time to tell our story oftener and more fuHy, the yicious parade of bad vaudeville jokes ahoui shovel leaners and maleontents mifht have avoided or at !east redueed.

People used to }oke in the same way about the Ford car» until the performanoe of the car made the )okers ridiculous. WelL ths boys bad better get in all their jokes about WPA workers quic!s. Their works are rapidl}? becoming a reaiity, You can't *laugh off 150,000 miles of farm roads. There's r»othing eonvuls!ng about 6,200 schools and 5.700 parks and 550 airports. There's hardly a g\ggle m »11 7,000 vmter and sewer syst«wns. m% there is heallh and happtness and nat!<mal wealth. Thousand« upon thonsands of pood peopae are now retuniing to pnvat« emplo\Tnent because WPA let Uiem "keep their liands ln, M and gaye them better "he&Uh and e<Jucation and family life wheu were dov.ii. Miiiiom PPOiittinf Miiiious of citiEens who ne\ier lost theīr jobs wiil i>rofit every day of their lives from the publie ffccilities ayailable toda3' wineh thev wouid not have had but for emergency workers. To n\y milhons of associates ia WPA. I just wmt say this: be too mueh disturbed % tliese polilieai slurs and re£leeUous «ii your ci»racter or your The majority of ihe Amerlcsm people don't b<iieve them. There is gn?wi\ig, tangible proof Uiat this naUon is rtfusing to be hy a dark of maaufacturtd £anUusles ki p!aeesL And to the American people I oliei & tijporung prv v i. , HNiiJ \\TA cfiv4,c<il1y as yo\: b;;i ;udge it on the basis of ycmr ewn prothat you ean see with your uo ana see Uxe iaipro\ ii'.u'uu ;u ioor eoair".x::v.tv Wc v, i?. rcst cur on what you flnd.