Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 157, 7 July 1894 — “BIG” HEAD! [ARTICLE]

“BIG” HEAD!

Little Hatch Has Gotan Official Journal. Yesterday, according to the Bulletin, a representative of that paper ealleil at the foreign oihee and enqnired fiom Major (!) Potter, the secretary of the office if the reports generally circnlated in town abont tbe recognition of, the republic by Mr. Willia were true. The fo!lowing conversation took plaee: “Reporter—Has therebeen any i recognition of the new republic, Mr. Potter. by any of the foreign powers? v Mr. Potter—Yes sir. Reporter —By whom? Mr. Potter —By the United States Mimster. He sent a Iet ter to the office this forenoon. Reporter—Can I get a copy of the letter? Mr. Potter—Yes, sir; you ean see it in the Star this evening. They have the exclusive right of publishiug it.“ We beg our readers to make a uote of the lasi answer of tbis Potter, iu whieh, he states tbat the Star hus “the exclusive right of publishing” Willis’ letter. A while ago, a prominent raeraber of the opposition tothe revolutionary government had occasion to excbange certain eommunieations with Mr. Dole, at that time president of the p. g. and minister of foreign affairs. In the letter to Mr. Dole, the gentleraan referred to the Slar as the official journal of the p. g. In Mr.Dole’s answer, the soft impeaehmeni was hotly repudiated, and the minister emphatically stated that the governraent has no official journal, and doe§ not hold itself rosponsible for anything appeariog in the Star or auy other paper Now, if the governraent has no official paper, how does the Star. obtains an “exclusive’’ rigbt to publish a letter whieh is neither the private property of short Hatch or loug Potter? The letter is the property of the tax-payers who pay the two gentlemen for receiving it, numbering it. filing it. and answering it. That is the short and the long of it. If a similar answer had been given iu Washington to a representative of a republican paper by a derk under a democratic secretarv of State, the whole press from East to West wonld have entered a most vigoroos protest and the silly action of tbe clerk would never have been repeated. We have no doubt that Mr. Hatch and his clerk are both stockholders in the Star , but we consider it rather risky for His Excellency (?) to allow his under- J strap[>er to further private j interests through tbe use of pablic documouts. The littie game for the benefit of the Siar proved a failure. Tbe editoriaI heading. the letter of Willis, and, presumably, written br Hatch or Pottor waa intended { to depress tbe hopes of the j RoyalistS: Jt didn’t, becaose, | none of them reads the Star — | and all of tbem know tbe caliber , of tbe Shir-editor. He has been among tbem before, But if Mr. Hatch in the future sboold insu!t the press even if itis oppose«I to him or allow bis sub ordinates to do so. it would be betier for him to bny the pn>verbial miH-stone and jump off bis perch than stay there and fce , “excla9iTe.“