Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 315, 3 November 1891 — Page 4
| This text was transcribed by: | Naomi Ajello |
| This work is dedicated to: | t |
KA LEO O KA LAHUI.
"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."
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KA LEO O KA LAHUI
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John E. Bush.
Luna Hooponopono a me Puuku.
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Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1891.
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Elder Geo. B. Starr, at Y. M. C. A.Hall, continue his readings on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
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INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE MEETING.
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A meeting of this Association will be held this evening, at 7:30. Business of importance. Hawaiians are cordially invited to the meeting.
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To the minds of the majority of our community, the only “burning” question of the day to them, seems to be that which appertains to the labor difficulties of our plantations. It is true, that the labor question is an important one, here as well as elsewhere in the wide-world. But that does not by any means make it the only burning question that affects Hawaii nei, or that takes up all room for thought in the minds of all thinking men. No, by no means. There are other questions of equal and greater importance than the labor question.
The subject of good morals, of religion, of health and education, and industry are far in advance of the labor question in importance. They are the foundation upon which everything that appertains to the whole superstructure of government hangs; that which applies to the welfare of the Nation. The greatest of these is the proper training of the people in good morals, or in true religion. The scoffer may smile at what we say, and yet no nation dare deny or ignore this fact. Every nation, and from thence downward to the family and to the individual, would retrograde into darkness, lapse into heathenism and decay, and pass away, as many a people have who have stood foremost in the world, whose history every school boy is familiar with. Assyria, Babylon, Medeo-Persia, Rome and where are they today. All have passed away, through the lack of the first and greatest of principles - good morals. No matter how great the knowledge and learning the men of a nation may be, lacking in this one element of what constitutes greatness, they become fools in their own conceits. Thus it has been from the beginning and thus will the history of nations be who ignore this one principle, until the ushering in of a regeneration of all things.
In the face of historical facts, which in its repetition, should ere this have made us wise in the administration of our affairs, we should seek to build our country and the people’s welfare upon matters of secondary importance, is some what incomprehensible to us. We have good and wise men among us, yet such is the truth. They seek to build upon a course detrimental to the true prosperity of the community or which only covers their own interests temporarily.
The cure for our ills cannot be made by temporizing with expedients. We must strike at the root of the evil, and apply such remedies as knowledge and experience gives us are the proper correctives to be used. We feel sanguine if the right remedies had been applied thirty or forty years ago no dearth of laborers would exist today in this country. Bur the difficulty was then, as it is in our time, that we seek only for immediate relief and not for permanent improvements. As we have said before, this cannot be effected by any one-sided or half measures. We start in to take steps for immediate wants, and as soon as we are made easy, we lapse into a condition of indifference, of unwillingness to go on any further in doing the real work, i. e., to make permanent improvements in the condition of our population by building them up in whatever they ack. Had this been done honestly and in real earnest, it is out belief that we would have here to-day a superior class of laborers to any that we could import, and practically cheaper.
But the trouble has always been that the government has been used as an expedient to further the interest of 1 st the money lender, and 2 nd the Sugar Planter, 3 rd the Minister doing the business, without any consideration whatever as to the future of the country or to the incoming immigrant’s fitness morally and physically as an up-builder to our population from whom after thirty or forty years of culture, amalgation and acclimatization, we would have a labor population to the manor born, instead of this ever recurring “burning “ question of supplying laborers to make a few men rich at the cost of the substantial prosperity of the country.
This “burning” question reminds us of the cry of wolf, wolf, wolf; the false cry, we feel assured has come once too often. The treatment of these “burning” questions are inexhaustible, and should be taken up by men who are specially paid a large salary to give their time and attention to study and solve the problem, instead of leaving the matter as appears, entirely to the classes or masters on the one hand and to the masses of laboring men on the other, and not go junketing two-thirds of their time throughout the group.
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Plantation Labor and Permanent Population.
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While the selfishness of our moneyed people who look out only for their immediate profits direct from cheap labor, they overlook, (in their desire to help their own interests), the cry of the country for repopulation. They were actually doing an injury to themselves by stopping Portuguese immigration, the only people that actually fitted the needs of the country and was satisfactory to all classes, and would have been, as they are to-day, the very means of helping to create a population that whould make good our present and future need for labor and good citizens. But the Catholic vote that came in, as they thought, scared our good people. That was the bugbear that closed the door against the very means that to-day would enable them to tide over the question.
The avarice for money and the fear of losing the governmental power of the country and the continuance of a rotten system of governing so upset the usurpers of 1887, that they in their blindness shut the door to the very people that to-day would he a present as well as a permanent help to them, and the country at large. But apparently they preferred cheap heathen labor to the Roman Catholic Portuguese for fear of disturbing the old established order of things.
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A word to the Boys.
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Water is the strongest drink. It drives mills; it is the drink of lion and horses, and Samson never drank anything else. Let young men be teetotalers, if only for economy’s sake, The beer money will soon build a house. If what goes into the mash-tub went into the kneading-trough, families would be better fed and better taught. If what is spent in waste were only saved against a rainy day, workhouses would never be built. The man who spends this money with the publican, and thinks the landlord’s bow and “How do you do, my good fellow?” mean true respect, is a perfect simpleton. We don’t light fires for the herring’s comfort, but to roast him. Men do not keep pot-houses for laborer’s good; if they do, they certainly miss their aim. Why, then, should people drink “for the good of the house?” If I spend money for the good of any house, let it be my own, and not the landlord’s. It is a bad well into which you must put water; and the beer-house is a bad friend, because it take your all, and leaves you nothing but headaches. He who calls those his friends who let him sit and drink by the hour together, is ignorant, very ignorant. Why Red Lions, and tigers, and Eagles, and Vultures are all creatures of prey; and why do so many put themselves within the power of their jaws and talons? Such as drinks and live riotously, and wonder why their faces are so blotchy and their pockets so bare, would leave off wondering if the had two grains of wisdom. They might as well ask an elm-tree for pears, as loose habits for health and wealth. Those who go to the public house for happiness, climb a tree to find fish.-----Rev, C.H. Spurgeon
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ON DIT.
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That there is great dissatisfaction among the Hawaiians on account of the changes that are taking place among the officers of the Hui Kalaiaina. It is said that some of the children of the Mother Church are at the bottom of it.
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That owing to the position that Hon. C. Brown, took against the Hawaiians and in favor of the Chinese purchasers of the A@upuaa of Kaalaea, his prospects for election has been rendered to nil quite doubtful.
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That a correspondent from Koolau reports that the natives are being coached to accept Mr. J. L. Kaulukou as their Representative for the coming election, but to no purpose. We are sorry for the gentleman, as he has talents, which, if properly directed would make him a useful member among his own people.
That her Majesty the Queen Dowager has assumed the management of her own affairs, from per agent, until she can appoint another.
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That a theologian was fired at by a Prince, because perhaps the former was firing of his spleen at his fellow theologians.
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That Mr. D. M. Crowley has received the nomination for Representative for Waimea, Kauai, at a meeting of a Committee of twelve of the People, he receiving eleven of the number in his favor.
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Platform of Principle
of the
HAWAIIAN NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY.
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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 ar end wed 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 out 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 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 guarantees of the freedom 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 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 ne 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 privileges 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 @tion 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, while salaries should be adequate compensation for the services rendered. All excessive salaries should be reduced and all @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 ruin@ns 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 FRAMING 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 parceled 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 families or 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 bon-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 con@ the right to vote for nobles as well as representatives, and no more power should ne 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 out 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 lasses 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.
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Public Notice.
Know all men by this notice that from and after this date, I have this day discharged Mr. H. C. Ulakou, from acting as an agent, for me in any sense whatever, in the charge and administration of all my property, and in the collection of all dues and rents upon any and all my estate in the Kingdom.
Anyone who holds or is in possession of any property or who has any business or payments to make, will transact the same with me personally, at my place at Ho@ at Honolulu, Oahu.
KAPIOLANI
Per Jos. Nawahi.
Honolulu, Nov. 3, 1891, d-@.