Newspaper Page Text
REMEMBER THE RED CROSS RILEY. H. ALLEN TUESDAY.- PECKMBKR 18, 1917. Hotbeds of Vice and Crime Go into any one of Hip tenement houses in Hono lulu today those barrack of buildings et of uuanu stream, particularly and yon irill sec the mowt acnte condition of overcrowding since the tenements became a fixed Mot on Honolulu's escutcheon. Hundreds upon hundreds of plantation workers have come to the city during the past month, with their bonus money. Many of them expected to take passage for the coast, and have lw-en unablr to get accommodations. Others drifted here with the nat ural impulse of their kind to "lay off" for a good time when they were flush with prosperity. Into the midst of some of Honolulu's foulest dens of disease, vice and intent ial crime there have been thrust scores of families with girls from babyhood to twenty years of age. Fresh from the plantations, where they lived in clean, orderly, industrious com munities, these young girls are exposed to a danger that Is obvious to the most casual observer of present-day conditions. Home of these tenement houses are swarming with jingle men, most of them Idle. Night and day there is drinking, carousing, the loosing of bestial passion. To put girls from the plantations into such surroundings particular ly at a time when the family's scant treasury is rapidly leing depleted, when the father is idle, when home ties have been broken, when presently a time . will come when money must be had to put these girls into such environment is as merciless as to thrust a lamb into a den of wolves. The result may be just as surely prophesied. .There must be something done immediately to l&fegnard these families, and there must be some thing of a more permanent nature done to get at the tenement evil. In the line of immediate action, every social and moral agency should cooperate in getting these families back to the plantations. They can't get to the coast because of lack of steamer accommodations, and they can't remain here, for Honolulu is now full of idle men single men. There is lititfe work here for these men with families of from six to ten. ' In. the line of more permanent action, there are suggestions to segregate the sexes; to require each tenement to employ a janitor and general watch man who will see that the premises are kept morally clean ; to legislate against overcrowding; and, ulti mately, to destroy these great barns of poverty, filth, disease and vice and io establish, so far as possible, the cottage system of housing. There will be powerful objection to this, as there is to every attack iff every city, upon the tene ment evil. The task may be harder in Honolulu because most citizens here have gone along under the comfortable belief that the tenements were be ing wiped out at a rapid rate. It is true that the board of health, by persistent campaigning, has car ried out a noteworthy system of enforcing some .fundamental sanitary regulations, such as cement flooring and .drains, but there still remain block aftejrr;block;Of itmishackle ' edifices .where, men, women ; and children are, lumped together, where five or six men and two or three women occupy the same ' room ; where children grow up in an atmos phere of nauseous moral degeneracy; where vice and crime are fostered which cost the city ten times what it would cost to clean up every ; tenement in Honolulu. - EDITOR The Day of Disgrace Is Coming The duly of imposing the third party in th alleg h! altorfion -ye for which Ir. liners is under in dictment in all the more iniperatje l--ause f the many and rsistent rumors afloat in Honolulu. These rumors are beginning to ho rather circum stantial. They will doubt lens grow more circum stantial still. If thy are absolutely untrue, it is outrflotiK that the case is not fully ventilated enough to end an injustice. If lhey are true, it is outrageous that proper action l not taken to punish adequately the man at least. equally with the girl the man who is now able to hide his dirty part under an exterior of aumed respectability and walk the streets among other men. The storm of indignation over the Ilerg case has not yet subsided. In that case the man escaped detection and prosecution. Is another cheap and cowardly betrayer of women to go scot-free while the girl suffers and a physician is placed on trial charged with a serious offense? No. he will not go free. There are circumstances in the present scandal which give good ground for belief that tub lie exposure will place on the third party a finger of withering scorn and utter contempt that will be more terrible for him than exposure now. His day of disgrace is coming. i ; Germany Must Answer Germany must answer to the United States for sinking the Lusitania and the murder of innocent ) Americans and ; little children ; for the sinking of the Anconavand the taking of. more human lives ; for, the sinking or the Arabic, and the torpedoing of the Sussex ; for promising, to warn all merchant ship ibefore launching their torpedoes, and then for getting all about the promise; for planting the seed . of hate in the minds and hearts of the rising Ger . man generation! for all Americans;' for plotting against "American factories ; for attempting to in stigate a revolt in Mexico; for attempting to des troy "American ammunition factories; for financing - and encouraging German-Americans to become traitors in the United States; for discriminating 'against and black-listing American firms doing busi ; nees in Germany ; for. insulting-American women, even; the wives of American consular officials by un ' warranted and uncalled-for search of their persons when crossing the German border. "These are but a few of the atrocities that Germany must answer for ; to US. .' , :- ', Germany is an outcast from the society of na tions a nation apart, -to be despised and scorned. - " ;" 87 IN CALIFORNIA , r This is what has4happened in California, accord " ing to the San Francisco newspapers : The milk producers decided they would raise the ; price of milk. Food Commissioner Merritt decided they wouldn't, at least until they could prove that it was, necessary in Order to keep business alive. He - did not allow the attitude to be taken that the food officials must prove the new price unreasonable. He made the milk producers prove the new price rea sonable. . - Milk has -not gone up. ... V ' X There are a good many things much more to the point that continuing the controversy of last sum mer about the mobilization of the guard. What Hawaii ig interested in now is not non-action in the past but action in the future. . . .. . ' . The queen can do no wrong, and why not extend this convenient tradition to,a princessr : : A Sound Case, Ably Handled Success in the budget campaign of the Y. W. C. A. was a triumph for a sound, worthy cause set before the public through the medium of intelligently handled publicity. A year ago, when Honolulu was hearing far fewer calls for public contributions than today, the Y. W. C. A. asked f 14,000. That was considered a large budget. The women concerned with the campaign decided after some consideration to employ the medium of organized, paid-publicity to set their case before the public, this, of course, to be supple mented by an intensive canvass of the city. The campaign was so successful that the budget was over-subscribed. This year there was no question as to the value of the paid publicity in driving home to the community the facts in the form which the Y. W. C. A. wanted. The paid advertisements in the daily paper, run simultaneously with news articles, centered atten tion on the Y. W. C. A. appeal to the public, and once that attention was centered, it was riveted home by the proved facts of Y. W. C. A. worth to the ity and territory, Y. TV. C. A. war needs and war plans, and Y. TV. C. A. efficiency in handling its previous funds. And 45,000 was the goal. The LauterBach Incident From the Advertiser, December 18, 1917: i Honolulu unknowingly entertained the "Baron Mun chausen" of the German nary In Aug.. 1915, in the per son of CapL Lauterbach, one of the pirates of the Ger man raiding cruller Emden, which was destroyed at Cocos Island by the Australian cruiser JSydney. The German, passed through here under the assumed name of Johnson, according to a paragraph found in the diary of Captain Grasshof, commander of the former German cruiser Geler, which was interned at Hono lulu until April of this year. From the Star-Bulletin, August 10, 1915: Traveling .under an assumed name, believed to be -"H. W. Johnson," Lleut-Comdr. Lauterbach of the Ger man battle-cruiser Emden, which was sunk several months ago off Cocos Keeling Island in a sea-fight with the British battleship Sydney, Js in Honolulu to day en route to San Francisco and Germany, after escaping from the British authorities in Singapore. More than two years ago the Star-Bulhtin pub lished the Lauterbach story on the first page on the day the German was here as a passenger on the Pacific Mail liner Mongolia. Under the circumstances it can hardly be said thatk:Honolulu entertained Lauterbach "unknow ingly." The Grasshof diary is confirmed by the Star-Bulletin's story, and one more proof is added to the many that the Grasshof diary is no figment of the imagination but evidence damning to Ger manism rn Honolulu. TVe don't wish to cast undeserved suspicions on the "Colonel" which is prefixed to our new collector of revenue, Mr. Hathaway of Everett, Wash., but we cannot help remembering "General"' Jeff Mc Carn, also from the Runny South. Gen. Goethals is back on the job, which will be satisfactory to the country, for most people have figured that his ability and energy are too valuable to be lost bv disuse. "May Cut Salaries of AH Congressmen, savs a headline. This move of the misguided Kenyon is going to hurt a lot of patriots where the hurting is worst. Have you joined the Red oks yet? If not, wh; not? Not under all the shining heavens is there ; better opportunity for practical patriotism. Po&ibly there is a perfectly good explanation of the Grasshof diary disclosures bv the Honolulans who figured in it possibly! The Bar Association hasn't recommended anv- one for the chief justiceship, so the contest is not yet a handicap affair. It is stated that the food conservation program is waiting for various reasons. Why should it wait? The king business is getting worse and worse. Now there is talk about demoting Alfonso of Spain. 1 "r 1 Your Dollar will look big to them. I LETTERS SPLENDID, BUT NOT PERFECT Editor Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Sir: The letter in your issue of yes terday by "Reader" would have been in "better taste", 1 think, if it had been signed by the writer. But his name no matter how high sounding it is, cannot justify the nasty spirit of bis communication. It is downright contemptible. His is the execrable taste, and will be so consid ered by every fair minded person. Read my criticism, if even it may be called that, and see what I did say. That the atmosphere of Central Union church was different from that of the Methodist. (Which is true.) That possibly there was more evi dence of wealth and intelligence in Central Union. (Here is a criticism ot the Methodist church which no one resents.) That there Is a more "homey" feel ing in the Methodist church. (This, 1 think, is characteristic of the denomi nation. I'd like to say it of the Unltar ian church, but I can't. Neither can I of the Congregationalist church. Yet, where's the offense?) That the preaching is better in the Methodist church. (This refers to the old order and not to the present in cumbent, who is young as he ought to be for a live church, and apparently up to the needs of its membership. If I'm not mistaken he'll get down to Reader's sleepy case before he is through. That the preaching in Centra! Union church is (was) very orthodox and very slow. (Who will deny this": A Congregationalist minister from an other island called my attention to it several times.) That I came away dissatisfied (With the orthodoxy and the Ion? prayers. I have a right to feel so and to say I feel so without offending sen sible "Central Unionites.") Now I like Central Union church as well as anybody. I go there quite of ten, possibly with as reverent a spirit as "Reader" does. I like the rousffc The church is beautiful, and the at mospbere delightful. I've heard good preaching there. I've heard preaching there which was not orthodox and prayers that were not overlong. It still has a splendid big lot o! members in it who like neither ortho doxy, slow preUching or long prayers. They have as m-ich right to their preferences as the controlling minor ity. And so long as rigid orthodoxy Id rreached there, so long wH the church fall to hold the young, or coran up to the full standards of its useful ness. It's a grand body. I'm proud of it if I don't belong to it. And because I'm interested in it and its work, is one reason why I said wtiat 1 did, and whj t shall say more. If "Reader" thinks that because it's Central Union church, the chamber )i commerce, the University Club, 01 any other influential organization, no one has a right to criticize it, be is pretty much of a fool. A few Central Unionites like "Read er" have for several years made things hot for any pastor who tried to J indicate for the church a broadei path. I Some of the strongest and best ol i the missionary descendants here are not in sympathy with Central Uniou because it is theologically narrow. (I will qualify my statement by saying has been.) In several instances not out of my memory, the "send off" the minority gave their departing minister was as uncharitable and unjust as "Read er's" criticism of my letter. Central Union as a body is fine, but it isn't perfect. It isn't God. It isn'i even as good as it might be. It still has ki it members who, like "Reader," are narrow and bad-temper ed. And if it is above criticism, why wasn't the church more than half fill ed last night to hear a rattling good talk by a young man who has some life in him? There's a lot of dead timber in the church. This young man is going to discover and hew it into chips for fire. If be doesn't, I'm mightily mis taken in him. ! And the old fossilized, orthodox, immovable; paralyzed portions of Cen tral Union which have kept it fron being the power in the community that it ought to be. are going ta be galvanized into life, or the whol church will become what so many churches are mere organized massea of inertia. Such criticisms of the church, all the churches, come tram men like Bishop Williams of Michigan, Wasn ington Gladden, Hillis, Holmes, our D. C. Peters, and many others. In what sense is my criticism more "execrable" because it is made in the newspaper rather than from the pui pit? My column Is my pulpit, and J mean to preach truth as I see it, now and on. And about Central Union, I am not alone in saying this. It's what some of Central Union's most efficient and effective workers say. It's what many who have gone out of Central Union have said.. It's what more will say it the bright ycung .minister takes the "stand pat" attitude of "Reader." If "Header" had given his name I should have thought that he felt rea' ly aggrieved over my reference to Central Union, and was not only vent ing his animus and spleen upon me for some of my other numerous pub lic offenses. E. S. GOODHUE. December 18, 1017. 3S Kaimuki Home A three-bedroom home on Waialae Koad, two blocks from the ear line. A home that is most artistic in its con struction and unusual in its appointments. Entirely screened. Laundry, servants' quarters, fern house and garage. Corner lot of 10,746 square feet. Price only $3500, on terms. Guardian Trust Co., Ltd. Real Estate Department. TeL 3688. Stangenwald Bldg Wichman Gifts: 25iaiiiorids For fVomen: Rings Brooches Bar Fins Lavallieres Earrings Necklaces For Men: Scarf Pins Studs l ink Buttons Watch Charms Cress Vest Sets Rings Other Gifts of Practical Use: Thimbles Umbrellas Parasols Toilet Sets Sewing Sets Desk Sets Belt Buckle! Card Cases Cut Glass Sterling Silver XI HEWichman erCd LIMITED. Platinumsmiths and Jewelers IN HAWAII 8INCE 1870 Delegates of the Russian Red Cross 15, which will deal with the amellqrft have left for Copenhagen for the tion of th lot of prisoners of war on Russo-AustriahrGerman Red Cross th., Hues of the recent -An jlo-Genna conference, to e opened on October Red Cross conference at Tn Ijasjue ' HONOLULU REAL ESTATE. NEIGHBORHOOD OFFERINGS w Look over this list of home offerings. Perhaps you H find in it some of your own close neighbors whose property values you are thoroughly familiar with. $4500 Hayselden Property, Kinau St. 6 rooms; lOGx90-ft lot. Enjoyable home. . No. 337.'. $4500--Edgecomb Property, Waikiki. 6 rooms, about 50x114 ft. lot. Close to Y. W. C. A. Beach.- t - No.3437 $2250 Recently Built Puunui. 6 rooms, 50x100-ft. lot. Near carllne. No. 344 $3500 Noyes Home Kaimuki Hill. 6 rooms; 150x150-ft. lot. Corner property. No. 132 $3900WINSLEY HOME in Puunui. 5 rooms; lot 75x150 feet. Garage. No. 31t $280O-PAxTGELINA HOME, Kalihi. 6 rooms; 50x100 lot; near car. Ne. 319 "Vc will be glad to show you any or all of these likely properties. .lust phone 3477. I. H. BHADLE. SECY.. CHAI. ii. HEItCfl. JB TUBAS. The home of C. G. Ballentyjae On Thurston Ave., is FOR SALE (41.G0C s;u3rc feet' APPLY H FOOT x. MERCHANT ITftEETf HONOLULU . , 9