Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 263, 21 August 1891 — THE POOR AGAINST THE RICH. [ARTICLE]

THE POOR AGAINST THE RICH.

It is becoming increasiDgly apparent that the next election carapaign in this C£Kintry will to an ieeue cf the poor againet the dasses. This issae would have been fought to a finish long ago, but that. prior to the last seasion of the.Legislature, the wealthy class h»d succeeded iu so retaining the semi-publicity of the ballot as to enahle theuv dicI tate and control the votes of their employees and other dependents. The peculiar laws of the land eoupled with their partial administration in the interst of the rich, and inspired and aid,ed by the unholy and insatiable greed of the wealthy few, practiced upon the poer majority, have thu9 far contributed to the constant increase ih the richea of the.few, and the it|Jbnsification of the povertv of the many. Now the situation is fast becoming critieaL The sugar barons and their business.con|iections recognize imnending disaster in the working of the McKiulev Act. They ean no longer with confidence relv upon reaping seventy-seven per cent an nual dividends upon investmentB whieh pay taxes upon a thirty per cent aosessment. Sugar isdown. Biil McKinley, act.ng patriotically in thc interest of his owiv country, instead of selling out to the Hawaiian sugar ring, knocked the bottom ont of our treaty with Unele Sam, and we are hoha (Anglice, left.").

So the p!anters s pure and disinterested patriots that they āre, find it necessary to forego their late enormoas dividends, and to rigidly retrench, in order to avoid bankruptcy and ruin. The Queen eame generously to the relief 6f one of them, —a non-resident Yankee, by the way, — and, when he "struck the heaeh" the other day, oo a proposed visit, (?).maternally gathered hsm up % (hn being \tery &mall, in morei Benses than one). and s]aiuned iuto a "vacant chair ,r in thc cabinet, where his minisferial sqlarv will partially conipenBate for the evaneseent and evanished T3t)gar dividends. Fortunate little Yankee! Considerate and generou3 Sovereigti. | By the way it must not be fo . I gotten that 'Vetrenchment," *s used by the Hawaiian planter, | means the impnrtation of fresh'

hordes of Aeialie neathens to ti!T iuB. fle}ds; the promotioii of the ,specn»ens of the last importatioi? t%positions of greater importance, now oecupied by nigher priced servānts; the abo!itioh of the dnty on rice, that their slaves iaay he more cheaply fed 4 afid the; eapiial invested in Hawaiian rice i cultnre be dissij>ated; the discharge from their of the few remaining white who demand a rate of wages that will provide a diet heiter and rate,—-and the general undoing and complete impoverishmeut 4t of the native and white laboring classes. What do ,the pianters care who m&y suflter, so long as they snccead? The degradation of these lovely Isles to a groiīp of eoolie camps is the tendency, if not the i ntention of the sōgar ring's poiicy. It wi'H of course be necessary f»r ths ba h)ns to retain sufficient white men in' the country, (though not in their pay, if it ean be avoided), to act in conjunction with such of the natives as ean be used forthat purpose, in coercing and restrain,ing the Afliatics, when the !atter indulge in their perennial riots. But farther than that, theBUga*rbarfcm haB no use for a freē white manT The more thē spirit of indipendenee be developed in the "poor white, M the more of a nuieanee he becomes to the baron. The intelligent ,4 poor white" eomeinne» has the temerity to criticise, and . unpleasant truthsabout tile barou. If there are two things whieh the sugar baron- hates. more cardially than Devil is said to hate 4l holy water," —those two things are truth |and criticism, — when levelled against,himself.

But if present governrr;ent forms ehali continue to exist till n<jxt" February, tMre will be a locking of horns between the baron aud the S6rf, —between the rich and the poor,- in whieh the arrogance of ill gottēn wealth will be humbled, and its owners politically extinguished. The missipnary, as a polictal factor in Hawaii, "must go!"