12 "Che Conservative.
Tlie Volunteers.
This title docs not allude to our gal-
Innt follows who Imve given America
fresh cause to be proud of her heroic
children , but to the Volunteers who
wage daily and nightly war against
"tho world , the flesh and the dovil. "
It is said that Ballingtou Booth , their
leader , proposes to abolish all difference
ill garb which distinguishes them from
other American citizens and put them
on the basis of ordinary missionary toil
ers. The boom of the drum , the squeal
of the life and the other fantastic usages
which they have in common with the
Salvation Army workers are to bo dis
continued. With the abolition of the
picturesque elements of method and ap
pearance one fears that something of
the effectiveness of the organization
will also go. Mr. Booth , it may be )
his desire to diverge as far as pos.si. in
from the ways of the organization made
by his father and to assimilate his re
ligious machinery to American notions
overlooks an important consideration.
The special value of the Salvation Army -
my and of the Volunteers who seceded
from it is found in its appeal to the
lower classes. In this field the reforma
tory and religious work done has been
immense. It is a field which peculiarly
needs this radoof missionary influence.
Anything which can attract attention
and heighten the force of appeal has a
peculiar fitness. Grotesque as the whole
thing may bo from the standpoint of
good taste and oven of the higher reli
gious intelligence , the fantastical fea
tures of these nondescript apostles are
well adapted to the end in view. Shorn
of them , they would sink to the common-
place. Mr. Ballingtou Booth risks a
great mistake if ho plucks the plumes
and changes the methods of his march
ing and singing bands. It was that great
man and profound student of human
nature , St. Paul , who desired to bo all
things to all meii that ho might win
souls.
Nobility For Sale.
The commercial spirit is the greal
characteristic of the age. To buy and
sell in the host market seems to bo the
spirit of the intellectual and social mar
ket as well as that ruling the mart oi
material products. Many of the phases
of this merchandizing are necessary ,
many are repulsive , and some are ludi
crous. Some again are both repulsive
and ludicrous. To the latter category
belongs the revelation of social rotten
ness in London made by the speculatoi
and promoter , Ernest Hooley , in his ex
am iuati on before the bankruptcy court.
This typical but-iuess bufczard was not
many months ago reputed to bo a multimillionaire -
millionaire , and ho has told the story
of his rockotliko rise and downfall with
a cynical frankness which i ( * naive. The
promotion of wind bag ochemes , where
by the hard earned money of the great
public is beguiled into the pockets oi
cunning and unscrupulous promoters
that is an old story in every country
where speculation is rife. The feature
which gives the Hooloy confession its
vile smack is the shameless indifference
with which men of the highest rank
and social status have sold their names
for great sums to bo used as lures to
tempt the honest investment of money
into worthless or greatly overcapitaliz
ed enterprises. The British masses , in
spite of their democratic tendencies ,
dearly love a lord , and the bourgeois
class , the shopkeeper and his kind , bow
down before him as before an idol. It is
easily conceivable , then , that such names
may have a considerable financial value
on the prospectus of a company. Hooley
and his kidney have long known it and
worked it as astutely as professional
card sharpers. Impecunious noblemen
have found it out to the great advan
tage of their bank accounts. And the
public have discovered it , too , with
widespread results of misery and disas
ter.
ter.Of
Of course there is no reason why a
man with a title should not go into
business as the honest trustee of a stock
company. But there are few pieces of
disreputable scoundrelism more vicious
than the tut of one who vends his hon
orable name as a means of swindling
the public. If the Hooloy statements
are one-half true , and the defense
against them seems to be somewhat fee
ble prevarication , it is time that these
titled sharpers should be hold to the
strictest account. What makes the ac
cusation more plausible is the well
known fact that the use of distinguish
ed names as figureheads for a consider
ation has not been unknown before in
London finance. The Hooloy transac
tion is only an extreme case. Noblemen
should draw the line with selling their
name for millionaire wives.
Hawaiian Politics.
The people of the Hawaiian Islands ,
white and brown , are already begin
ning to feel the political fever hot in
their veins. The commissioners appoint
ed to formulate the basis on which they
will come to the United States in terri
torial form are now on their way to
Honolulu. It will probably not bo later
than October when they will have fin
ished their labors , and congress will
doubtlessly dispose of the matter by
proper legislation early iu the session.
The fact that President Dole is not
much discussed in political circles as
the probable new governor of the terri
tory is significant. It is known at Wash
ing ton that though on general consider
ation of personal fitness and experience
he would bo the right selection no
choice could bo more distasteful to the
majority of the islanders. The cause is
not far to seek , and it carries with it
the whole Iliad of recent Hawaiian his
tory and the seed of what is to como
Mr. Dole was the representative of the
white man's , or "missionary , " party , FO
called , and as such the most influential
:
. ' . , i _ . ' . . jf.A
in causing the late revolution. That
party , though the agent of a moat im
portant and progressive work , was very
small in numbers if largo iu wealth and
influence. However the native Hawai
ian s may rest content or even rejoice at
the latest change of status they do not
carry pleasant memories of the chief
agents.
Of'course the commissioners can only
settle on the broadest base of suffrage
in determining that question at the out
side. It will bo for the territorial legis
lature later in Hawaiian evolution to
define conditions more accurately. Hero ,
the indications show , will bo the first
great political battle. The white man's
party will unquestionably struggle ob
stinately to establish ultimate suffrage
on a , property qualification sufficient to
exclude many of the natives. The
brown man's party will insist on a qual
ification not more exacting than the
ability to read and write at the worst.
This promises the first great collision.
A second issue already looms up , which
may split the whites among themselves.
This will bo the problem of the contract
employment of Asiatics , of whom there
are already 10,000 in the islands , inval
uable to the planter and the country in
terest , detested by the merchants ,
mechanics and artisans. It is the Paci
fic coast issue with the Chinese even
more seriously complicated. Those are
two of the questions , though the most
ominous at present , which will soon
sot the Hawaiian pot of politics boiling
over.
Discussing the death of Prince Bis
marck , the leading Socialist organ of
Berlin , Vorwaerts , repudiates the no
tion that so called men of genius are
ever of any use to the world. It says :
"We Social Democrats 110 longer be
lieve old wives' tales about great men
sent by Jehovah or Providence or the
police to guide poor humanity in the
way it ought to go. These superhumans
are just ordinary men who owe their
adaption of the collective labor of
nameless millions not to their person
ality , but to chauco conditions arising
in obedience to fixed laws. " Nothing
is truer than that it is the collective la
bor of nameless millions that makes
great men possible. But great men are
the conduits through which these forces
are obliged to run , the trumpets through
which their dumb , perhaps scarcely self
recognized , aspirations blow ringing
notes. Bismarck embodied in a colossal
form the patriotic longing of millions
of Germans for a united fatherland ,
and his genius realized it. The great
poet gives back to the world its vague
ideals and craving of beauty in exqui
site forms. So on we may run through
the whole gamut of examples , finding
that the really great man is ho who in
terprets to those who are without pow
er the things which lie deepest in their
own hearts.
