Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 268, 28 August 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

KA LEO

John E. Bush

Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1891.

Death of Gov. Dominis.

            With regret we are called upon to again chronicle the death of a member of the Royal Family of Hawaii.  The Governor died at 4:40 P.M. yesterday, the 27th inst. He had been in feeble hralth for several months past, and has been confined to his bed some three weeks before dis death.

GENERALITIES AND PERSONALITIES.

           

            There are a good many people who in no wise approve of THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. They do not like to hear the story of their doings, political and commerical, told in unambiguous English. Still less do they like to hear discussed the situation into which they have brought our unhappy country or the principles of honor and justice which they have violated.  It has become a formula with this class to say that we indulge in personalities and to those who do not do their own thinking such a phrase may seem to explain the matter and prove our depravity. We are accused in a breath of being too definite and too vague.

            The trouble is simply this; whether of men or of principles, we speak the truth and speak too plain. Such journalism can never be agreeable to those whose records are criminal and who are without principles, - unless acquisitiveness can be called a principle.

            The politics of all countries depend on their leading men. The history of nations is largely made up of the lives and acts of individuals. Turn to the English papers; they are full of accounts of the leading men of the time, and give all the details of the private lives of such men as Gladstone Salsbury, Parnell, and a hundred lesser lights. An examination will show that the newspapers of Great Britain contain little else than personalities. Recently they attacked the private character of Parnell, which they so completely demolished that he has been driven from the political field.  The Prince of Wales' private character has been sullied by the baccarat scandal.  Our public men keep dozens of women, run gambling games and may steal and commit highway robbery and murder; but no newspaper may even hint at their crimes, it is against the law.   In the United States the character of men a refreely spoken of and when a man comes before the public all his history is told in detail.  There a man can not efface his record nor pose as an honest man after he has once deviated from the straight and narrow path. There the first qualification in any candidate for any office within the gift of the people is that he have a spotless record that will stand the ordeal of a political campaign.

            In a small counry like this all that happens, all that is news, all that interests or concerns the public is the work of persons, the doings and thinking of individuals. Whenever anything transpires that the public want to know about,  it is the duty of the press to give them the facts. The facts are always facts about parties,- personalities: A handful of men whose names and characters are well known, have ruined this country as a home for civilized people. It is impossible to treat of political question without the politicians.

            The press is muzzled. Truth-speaking is an offence. A cringing, servile, hirling press indeavors daily to cover up and conceal its masters' evil deeds and ally suspicion and divert attention from real facts.  So numerous are their masters and so low their price that they have never been known to criticize anything whatsoever except KA LEO. They praise everything, rehashing daily their small stock of platitudes and worn out adjectives.  We hope to see the time in this country when persons with bad reputations may be held up to public scorn and turned out of public office.

 

The "Bulletin" promises Principles.

            The modesty of the Bulletin is bigger than the mammoth. This is how it snorts in last Wednesday's paper:- "When the issues for the election are defined the principles advocated by the Bulletin and not the vague harum-scarum generalities of KA LEO will be the ground work of the campaign. As the Bulletin never yet put forward anything which the people would reeognize as an honest campaign principle, this announcement will be received with that smile of derision which marks a promise of the impossible.  The Lion and the Lamb may lie down together and sink their difference in presence of a common danger, but for the land shark and the coolie owner and the leech-fanged Konohiki "gang" in whose sole interest this country has hitherto been run, promise - through their organ the Bulletin , to take the sovereign PEOPLE under their wing in the matter of political principles, is now altogether two Loganic-funny. The tail has been wagging the dog long enough in this paradise of the shark.  Meanwhile the little Bulletin will continue to yelp its periodical half-column of spite at KA LEO as a substitute, for the only platform of principles which the Bulletin proprietors are likely to print are sneers at any honest principles, as all such is directly antagonistic to them.

            We predict that the Bulletin will be found in all essential "campaign principles," in double-harness with its morning contemporary. But the public has made up its mind as to what it wants, and the "gang" who are filling up this country with a coolie population could not alter the resolute determination of the men who comprise the free voting population of this country to set things straight, and it would not alter the result even though the now combined coolie importer and owner and Konohiki and food monopolist should have an organ such as they now own - and they own every one outside of KA LEO - in every house on Merchant and Queens Streets.

            After the election the "groundwork" of Bulletin principles will be so deep down-trampled out of sight by the people- that the editor will have to "dig" for them.

 

Studied Injustice to Natiyes.

            EDITOR KA LEO - On the eve of my depature for Samoa, my attention has been called to certain facts published in your esteemed paper, in regard to the policy and treatment exercised toward Hawaiians by her Majesty and advisers.  The indifference and studied neglect of capable young Hawaiians, and the injustice done them by those whose duties it should be to foster the interests of the native race, show very plainly the intention of the Ministers of the Crown.

            In confirmation of your opinions and statements on this matter, and to set myself right with my own people and friends, who may misconstrue my departure to other than the right reason, I give you the following facts, which I hope you will publish in your paper.

            Finding myself unable to obtain a hearing which I sought and endeavored to obtain from the previous and present administration, and without an opportunity for redress for the manner in which I was treated by an unscruupulous blackguard, I have decided to go to Samoa, not of choice but of necessity.

            My dismissal from service was the act of two men utterly devoid of principles, who took that means to vent a personal spite against me. There was nothing in my record to warrent their high-handed action. I have filed an affidavit of the circumstances with the Cabinet, have repeatedly pleaded for an investigation, and stood ready to prove the injustice of my treatment.  But through the inertia and apathy of the Cabinet, the affidavit never reached beyond the filing process, though I presume the Cabinet would not be unwilling to show it to my friends and to explain to them why they never accorded me the justice I sought for.  I have served the government faithfully for ten years, and have no reason to be ashamed of my record in the Supreme Court, in the Postal Bank, in the service of the Foreign Office abroad in its labor treaty negotiations in India and Japan, and in Samoa.  My dismissal was a gross injustice, and it is no credit to the government that they allow the villainous spleen of an official towards myself and two other young Hawaiians in the same employ to stain the record of the civil service.  Probably no other two men in the country could get their personal spite gratified in this manner and bring ruin on the three families whose providers happened to be in their power. It cannot condone the villany of the one that his villainly has been successful, or that because of his political partizanship he has managed to obtain a clerkship.  My reinstatement was promised by certain powers that be, but I have been so much the victim of double-dealing and treachery, that I determined to leave the field to the crows and parasites who are playing havoc with Hawaiian politics, and seek employment and more congenial association under other skies.  But it will only be a temporary exile forced upon me by the Cabinet. I do not desert my family but simply seek in another land the means for their support which is denied me here.  It is my misfortune that I was born a Hawaiian and therefore not entitled to consideration under the present policy of the government. In a year or two I will return and will hope to find a little more justice and charitable feeling than has been accorded to me the past few months.

HENRY F POOR.

 

BAREFOOTED BILL!

            On Monday evening at the International Hall, Bethel St., this unshod celebrity will be seen on the stage. The farce, including new local songs, are from the pen of D. M. Crowley, and several sets of stage scenery are from the brush of Professor Gardner, and one specially prepared to represent Bill's exploits.

            The entertainment commences at 8 sharp, with an overture by the Quintette Club, after which will be produced in succession "A walk through London," a musical interlude to include double clog dancing by the Lancashire professionals, Messrs. Dillon and White; Hunting in India, closing with the 40 minute farce of "Barefooted Bill."

            Ice Tahiti Lemonade drinks will be served free during the evening. A few tickets at Bookstores, 50c.

 

BEN HOGAN LECTURES

            As with Paul the reformed persecutor, who preached the glad tiding of salvation and worked at tent making for his support, without a bank check and without sugar stocks, so it is with the converted pugilist, who preaches and earns his living by devoting a portion of his time to work. Mr. Ben Hogan visited us yesterday and impressed us favorably as a man zealous of good works and willing to practice what he preaches.  On this Friday evening he will give a free lecture on subjects pertaining to man's present and future good; and on the morrow, in the evening, he will give a picturesque lecture on scenes in Europe and Palestine at the Y.M.C.A. Hall, where an admission fee of fifty cents is charged. We hope the evangelist will receive the patronage that will enable him to go on with his work.

 

POLITE ATTENTION.

            The flattering notices which are being rained on us by our morning and evening contemporaries are extremely gratifying to our vanity, but they simply prove that the writers are tethered on the barren pasture of personalties.

            There is not spot on the Pacific Ocean where western civilization will have so hard a fight to maintain its ground as in Hawaii.  We have in the last ten years seen the face of our population change as a kaleidoscope, until, from almost an entire Hawaiian and European race population, we have to-day nearly one half Asiatics.  One would suppose from the entire silence of the press of this city- outside of ourselves - that this is a matter for congratulation.  The public are well aware that the said press is owned and run in the interests of coolie importers, and coolie owners, and thus it is that the general public - THE MASSES, the laborer, the artizan and the business man does not look for any honest protest in the coolie owners sheets, not any suggestion of a remedy.

            It is nothing to those miserable apologies for newspapers that our already meager American population of five years ago has decreased by five hundred.  This is to us and all lovers of progress, an indication of social decay and national retrogression.  What on earth will the papers do when the Queen concludes her junketing tour - what will they have to write about? Ah, we had almost, forgotten that KA LEO and the poor they will still have with them.  We promise to stand by the coolie owners sheets, and play the game to a finish.

 

Forecast of Future Troubles

            From the planter's organ, the P.C. Advertiser of yesterday, we clip the following reference to the Chinese riot at Kohala, wherein some of the Chinese lately brought here from Macao on the ship Pactolus assembled at the house of L. Aseu the Kohala rice planter, who was one of the decoys sent with government authority to inveigle unfortunates into that form of slavery known here as contract labor.

            "We have it from unquestioned authority that no outbreak occured, but that the laborers had assembled at L. Aseu's house, and expressed their disappointment in that they can not live as cheaply here as was represented to them before leaving China. They get $15 per month; after paying a portion of it as passage money, and as the deposit required by the Government, they do not have sufficient left to live upon since rice and other food is so high.

            The result of the difficulty and disagreement could not be learned before the steamer left."

            The foundation facts in the matter are, that these unfortunate bond-slaves were inveigled here on false pretenses.  The victims of planters greed and fraud find that they have to pay for their coming, and have deducted out of the wretched pittance of $15 a month, numerous incedental charges such as island passages, clerical expenses, feeding and other items incurred, and those not incurred in this bilking of human beings, all is charged to those unfortunates until the reductions from $15 a month reach $5 a month, thus leaving the laborer $10 a month on which to starve himself and family.  It is a glorious thing to live in a country having a constitution declaring all men "free and equal" with human chattel slavery for its corner-stone. The unfortunate Chinese arrivals will find themselves in a bad fix in any attempt to get justice in this country. The cry of a hungry stomach will be met by Shylock pointing to the bond and to the police and to all the terrors which capitalistic law has provided for hungry peons.

            But there is hope for these unfortunates in the promised visit of a Chinese fleet to our shores. It is safe to say that Mr. Aseu will have a lovely time of it if ever Chinese authorities catch him in China.

 

ON DIT.

            That it is first-class ignorance or knavery that would endeavor to make people believe that the U.S. takes her base for action from other than her own officers.  That not all the lies printed in our servile dailies in favor of royal tours and ovations can change the truth, or sway officials to misrepresent affairs to their governments. That whatever has been siad to induce the U.S. Government to send a cruiser here is not inconsistent with her duty to her own people here in Hawaii.

            That a young official of very high standing has not been long made a convert to the Utah Church of Later Day Saints. That it was by miracles and spiritual manifestations that the seeker after grace was baptized. That certain tenets peculiar to this sect has an adaptablity that suits the carnal mind that is not entirely free from lusting after the flesh-pots in Egypt.