Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 292, 30 September 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.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 30, 1891.

 

Meeting of the Hui Kalalaina.

            At the call of the Executive Committee, a meeting was held by the Hui Kalaiaina, last Monday evening to consider the adoption of a declaration of principles as their platform.  These principles are twelve in number, and embrace with a few additions nearly the same as that adopted by both the Hui and Mechanics’ Union for the election campaign of 1889-90.  The declaration with one slight but very important amendment, was passed by sections, and unanimously adopted as a whole.  The determined and united spirit of the Hawaiian voters to adopt for their platform, for the coming campaign, the most liberal and progressive popular ideas of government, is one of the most hopeful signs of the times, and is a sure indication of another victory for the people’s ticket throughout the group.

            Before the adoption of each of the articles of the “declaration,” the leaders of the people, representing Hawaii, Maui and Oahu, who were familiar with the document and knew their countrymen’s political sentiments, explained each article as read.

            Quite a number of foreign friends of the natives were at the meeting.  These were mostly working men, whose sympathies are with the Hawaiian.  The meeting was largely attended, and orderly.  There were not less than three hundred people present.

 

The Future Time of Trouble.

            Russia has retained her mortgage upon Turkey, not for any good purpose towards the latter, but as a lever to work upon that nation, whenever it suited the former to exercise it in futherance of her one object – the possession of Constantinople and of the Indies.  To show how much Turkish Territory have shrunk up in Europe, we take the following paragraph from the Philadelphia Ledger, August, 1878, an instructive exhibit of the map of Turkey as reduced in the past seventy years, and especially as the result of the war between the two nations which began in 1877.

            “Any one who will take the trouble to look at a map of Turkey in Europe dating back about sixty years, and compare that with the new map sketched by the treaty of San Stefano as modified by the Berlin Congress, will be able to form judgment of the march of progress that is pressing the Ottoman power out of Europe.  Then, the northern boundary of Turkey extended to the Carpathean Mountains, and eastward of the river Sereth; it embraced Moldavia as far North nearly as the 47 ^th degree of north latitude.  That map also embraced what is now the Kingdom of Greece.  It covered all of Servia and Bosnia.  But by the year 1830 the northern frontier of Turkey was driven back from the Carpathians to the south bank of the Danube, the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia being emancipated from Turkish dominion, and subject only to the payment of an annual tribute in money to the Porte.  South of the Danube, the Servians had won a similar emancipation for their country.  Greece also had been enabled to establish her independence.  Then, as recently, the Turks was truculent and obstinate.  Russia and Great Britain proposed to make Greece a tributary State, retaining the sovereignty of the Porte.  This was refused, and the result was the utter destruction of the powerful Turkish fleet at Navarino, and the erection of the independent kingdom of Greece.  Thus Turkey was pressed back on all sides.  Now, the northern boundary, which was so recently at the Danube, has been driven south to the Balkans, Roumania and Servia have ceased even to be tributary, and have taken their place among independent states.  Bosnia has gone under the protection of Austria, as Roumania did under that of Russia in 1829.  ‘Rectified’ boundaries give Turkish territory to Servia, Montenegro, and Greece.  Bulgaria takes the place of Roumania as a self-governing principality having no dependence on the Porte, and paying only an annual tribute.  Even south of the Balkans the power of the Turk is crippled, for Roumelia is to have ‘home rule’ under a Christian governer.  And so again the frontier of Turkey in Europe is pressed back on all sides, until the territory left is but the shadow of what it was sixty years ago.  To produce this result has been the policy and battle of Russia for more that half a century; for nearly that space of time it has been the struggle of some of the other ‘powers’ to maintain the ‘integrity’ of the Turkish Empire.  Which policy has succeeded, and which failed, a comparison of maps at intervals of twenty-five years will show.  Turkey in Europe has been shriveled up in the last that half century.  It is shrinking back toward Asia, and though all the ‘powers’ but Russia should unite their forces to maintain the Ottoman system in Europe, there is a mainfest destiny visible in the history of the last fifty years that must defeat them.”

 

            That Tom, Dick and Harry take alternate terms in watching the arrival of that “yacht” and keeping track of the “marshal” fearing the latter may get the “drop” on them.

 

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 propertp, to the pursuit of happiness and to s@@-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 dersire 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 thorough revision, so as to secure a cheap and prompt administration of justice, free of all, sectarian or patisan spirit, and to render the Judges more directly responsible to the People; and we are in favor of a more liberal interpretation of Constitutional guarantees of the freedom of speech and of 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 goods 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 tracts of uncultivated lands, a differential tax should be levied in addition to the usual assessment on 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 favoritism in the government and all monopolies, trusts and privileges to special classes shall be rendered impossible, by full, definite and mandatory statutes.

PUBLIC SERVANTS

            6.  Better laws should regulate the Civil Service.  The principle of the election of officers of the government by the people should be extended, and no man should be allowed to hold more than one office of profit, whilst salaries should be adaquate compensation for the sarvices 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 Gov-ment, in its contracts and other operations, to give preference to national products over imported ones.

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 satisfactirn 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 measures 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 HOMESTEADS.

            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 pe encouraged by a new and more liberal Homestead act, by which the ownership of small tracts of land and the settlement thereon of families of our present population, -- and especially of the native Hawaiians who have been left almost homeless in there 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 conveying the product of the soil to market.

ELECTORAL RIGHT.

            11.  We hold that upright and honest manhood, and not the possession of wealth, arbitrarily fixed, should consti- 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 our laws with respect of the right to vote for nobles, thereby restoring to the native Hawaiians privileges which pertain to them in their own country, and of which they have been unjustly deprived.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS

            12.  We favor the expenditure of sufficient sums to secure a number of needed public improvements on Oahu and other Islands; school, railroads and harbors and wharves, public light, and also a thorough system of reservoirs and water-works, not only for Honolulu, but through-out the other Islands.

 

            That some men are born to “luck” and Wong Hing is one of them; that he was adjudged guiltless of any intention to have opium in his possession, when opium was found in his custody, is most glorious proof that Wong Hing is besmeared with luck, and has plenty good friends.

 

Suit By Chinese Laborers.

            As the exponent of right and the defender of the poor man’s interest, we feel some satisfaction in announcing, that the poor deluded Chinese, who were led to contract in China, and arrived here a month or two ago by the Pactolus have had their eyes opened to the inconsistency of their agreement in China with their treatment here.  The complaint alleged against Aseu, is the same that caused trouble in Kohala, where the Pactolus slaves tried to lay violent hands upon the A.B.C.F. M’s Church protégé, the Christian Aseu.  Our satisfaction lies in the unearthing of the diabolical system practiced by the immigrant agents of the Sugar-Barons, and the part taken by a weak and imbecile government, representing the Hawaiian People.  We have always claimed that the whole system is rotten, and that the four men, that participates and allows such a practice to be committed unrebuked, is likely to bring this teapot of a government into a typhoon of a tempest that will cause the wreck of sovereign and people.  Of course the Queen, having chosen such men as her advisers cannot feel very pleasant at such occurrences, -- for who knows the day when Mr. Li Hung Chung may be pleased to send a fleet of Chinese war vessels here to make a settlement of such slavish treatment as her people has been subjected to.

            But the people here are not pleased, nor are they in any way a party to such vile underhanded work.  Their representatives, did all they could to help the country in its labor difficulties, but the uncrupulous sugar-planters and the capitalist, assisted by a pair of sycophantic administrations, members of whom obtained legislative honors, by pretending to be friends of the people, have gone to work, and, with its usual custom, tried to obtain cheap labor by trying to deceive those whom they have engaged.

            The old saying that the way of the transgressor is hard, is being fairly illustrated in the difficulties that surround this government, who has to shoulder all the responsibility.  While the planter and capitalist are smiling under their sleeves and, are even hoping to see the country involved in trouble, and in that way obtain a change of government better suited to their aristocratic tastes.  Yet, neither the Exscutive, nor the Premier, can see wherein they are sufferers, or how they are looked down upon with contempt, by those whom they are flattered to believe are their friends.

            For the good of the country, we are glad that the populace, are showing evidences of their feeling towards the party that is trailing the good character and credit of the Hawaiian Government and People in the mud.

 

            That the Pactolus coolie slaves have revolted and have entered a suit against Aseu.  Very natural that they should.