Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
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His Attack on Governor Was Free of Personal Element and Accused Judd of Ignoring the Hawaiians, Not of Being Their Enemy
That his sensational speech in Hawaii, in which he took occasion to criticize the policies of Governor Lawrence M. Judd with regard to rehabilitation and the Hawaiian race, was misinterpreted in part is the claim of Senator Stephen L. Desha, Sr.
Senator Desha said his attack on the governor was free from personal element and that he and the governor are the best of friends despite the senator’s disagreement on administration policies.
"I did not say that the governor is the enemy of the Hawaiians," Senator Desha explained. "What I said was that he is ignoring them."
The senator said that too few Hawaiians are being appointed to boards, commissions or government posts in the territory.
He charged that the administration is not in sympathy with the rehabilitation project and that those in charge of carrying out the project are slowly killing it. This was the keynote of his talk.
He criticized the appointments of the administration with regard to rehabilitation, claiming that the appointees do not understand the purpose of the scheme.
He said there is vast discontent among Hawaiians throughout the territory, especially because of a policy of the Hawaiian Homes commission which precludes them from doing any work except on the lands alloted them.
The senator asked that accounts of his talk be corrected in so far as it was intimated that the governor was an enemy of the Hawaiians. He said he intended to point out only a lack of confidence on the part of the administration which, he claims, is revealed by the tendency of the administration to ignore the Hawaiians.
The senator aid he was not apologizing for his talk or retracting it, but was explaining the correct significance of his utterances.
Senator Desha talked for 40 minutes in Hawaiian and at times he exhibited great emotion. It was the only talk of any length he gave in the recent session of the legislature and the only speech given in Hawaiian during the entire session.
