Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume IX, Number 23, 17 September 1936 — BITTERNESS GROWS BETWEEN MAYOR WRIGHT AND FORMER REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS [ARTICLE]

BITTERNESS GROWS BETWEEN MAYOR WRIGHT AND FORMER REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS

Proposed Organization of Government Employees by Major Welsh, Wrlght "Stooge," Slaps At Prominent Financial Sponsors of Hawaii Re%earch Bureau

! Additional conclusive evidence of the definite break i in the Republican party in Hawaii between the "Wright • gang'' at the City Hall and the Tycoons of the "Big Five," | who used to control the G. 0. P., was seenrin the announeej ment that Major Charles R. Welsh will head the embryonie Hawaiian Government Employes' Association. Shorn of all the high-sounding and high-faluting. a.< : well as meaingless, phrases behind whieh the real purpose of the organization is hidden, that purpose is as plain as ; the nose on the average citi^ens'^ce— ~to eounteraet the poisonous propaganda of the Hawaii Bureau of Gov--1 emmental Res(Tarch whieh already has been able to sec,ure a decisive and definite decreasa in the rates of wages for Territorial employes 5 and now is engaged m the same sort j of ef-fort toward reducing wages in the city and county. j The Bureau of Governmental Research, a purely private organlzat!oh, was organized, is sponsored, has lts bills paid by such sterling and outstanding Republicans as James D. Dole, Senator Harry A. Baidwin and his brother, Frank F. Baldwin, John R. Gal(l, E. Spalding and other represefitatives of the Oooke interests, Walter F. Dillingham and men of similar political leanings. The primary purpose of the Bureau—the purpose for whieh these sponsors paid their money to defray its ex-pemea—-was to reduce governmenta! expenses so that these poor unfortunates and persons in similav circumstances would not find their taxes so irksome and burdensome. The briiliant intellecta at the head of the Bureau hit upon the expedient of uniformly reducing government expenses by taking it out of the hides of the government employes, as it was so aptly put by Colonel Theodore Rooseveit, Jr., tbe other day in extolling Governor Laindon's virtues as exemplified by his actions as the head of the Sunflower State. " " ' ■ 1 ■• ■ The So-Called "Clas#i%atior>" The scheme was proposed to the Republican-contr.olled iegisiature—not in its true light—but in the form of a "classification" of Territorial employes, said by the officia3s of the Bureau'to be alohg the lines pf the federal classification—and &t the same rates of pay as providedl by the parent government. After a bitter fight, for even some of the Republican legislators saw through the viciousness of the proposal, the "classification" was enacted into law' flnd made effective—with some of the weirdest results imagmable! ..1 Men who had been in the government service for decades found their compensation reduced by more than ; $100 monthly; greenhosjns in that same government service—a few of them—found their pav checks in- | creased considerably—they knew soniebody who knew ' somebody who knew somebody who had something to do with the classification and the setting of the rates of ' pay. j Then despite contentions of the Research Bureau ofj ficials that the rates set for Terrtoriai employes were the same as those in effect in the federal service, a llttle mvestigation and analysis showed that the Territorial rates' —set by this wholly unauthorized and unofficial Research! Bureau—were some 20 percent less than the rates in effect in the federal service. The Bureau had been able to earn its pay by pulling a fast one—and the sufferersj were Territoriāl employes. There were no beneficiaries'! to speak of, because a reduction of several thousand dol-' lars a month in Territorial payrolls could have only an in-| finitesimal effect upon & tax rate whieh raised millions' of dollars a year. * ' ! Bureau Is Vicious ■ But the Research Bureau was not finished earning its money. Its officals conceived the brilliant schetne of moving in on the city and county—puHmg the same fast ono-—' and Hien, with salaries and wages cut 20 percent below the federal standard in both Territorial and munieipal governments, the next step was to be a similar sla?h in the salarics and wages of all the eonployes "downtown" of the financial magicians who sponsored and pay for the rosearches of the bureau, and h.appen to be the same individuals who used to control.the Republican party on Oahu—until Mayor Wright acq\iired his delu.<ions of Hit-ler-Mussolini grandeur! The board of supervisors~-six Republicans—and Mayoi' Wright got cmbroiled over the bureau's "classification" of munieipal \vorkers in first rift that had appeared in the Wright lute—the rift that persite īn the definite split in the Republkan party. Wright "Stooge" Opposes Old i.eader» Consequentiy. the scheme failed—as far as the muni-

«ipa! workers were concerned—ānd now vve have the pepicture of Major Char!es R. Welsh—chief po!itical stcw)ge of Mayor Wright—organizmg governmēfit''eriiJ)loyes lnto an organigation to eoimteract the proposals made tfee bnreau whieh is financed by the former leaders of the B6ptiblicfen party on Oahu—the former leaders with 'WiHWil Mayor Wright ia now definitely on the outs! 000