Editorials

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Special powers
should have limits

The issue: Governor Cayetano is
asking state lawmakers to give him
extra powers to deal with Hawaii's
economic emergency.

If Governor Cayetano wants the state Legislature to give him special powers to deal with the state's economic crisis, he must explain to them and to Hawaii's voters why he needs them. And if lawmakers do grant his request, the powers should have a time limit.

Cayetano, before flying to Japan on a tourist promotion trip Sunday, sent the vague proposal asking the Legislature to amend state law dealing with the governor's emergency powers in disaster relief and rehabilitation. He asked that he be granted a $1 million contingency fund to use as he sees fit. Later, in a meeting with lawmakers, Attorney General Earl Anzai said the governor wants to be able to change rules quickly for state purchases, terms of state leases and tax measures. Beyond that, however, Cayetano's purpose remains unclear.

The areas in which the governor wants oversight surrendered may be pivotal for his plans to get the state back on its feet. He may be mindful of the Legislature's reluctance to embrace the measures he has submitted to them to consider during its emergency session and see the special powers as necessary to move ahead. For example, if he wants to speed up state construction projects, he may need to alter state purchasing regulations. Similarly, to extend fee waivers or tax cuts, he'll have to set aside laws on taxes and state lease agreements.

Although legislative leaders appear receptive, they should question the boundaries of those special powers. For lawmakers to yield their responsibilities, they must first be assured that there will be no abuses.

From another viewpoint, granting Cayetano special powers may be expedient, practically and politically. Without legislative interference, the governor may be able to get things done faster. Meanwhile, lawmakers, who are all facing re-election campaigns next year, can buffer themselves from criticism and blame the governor should things go south.

Whatever the case, the Legislature should place a limit on how long the governor can exercise these special powers. Anzai says Cayetano wants the powers to remain open ended because it would be difficult to say how long the current emergency would last. However, if the economic crisis runs beyond the time limit, the powers can always be extended.

The state's present problems are extraordinary and may require extraordinary solutions, but no officer of the government should be allowed free rein indefinitely.

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There’s no reason
to revive the draft

The issue: The prospect of a
long war against terror prompts
calls for reviving conscription.

Whenever the armed forces of the United States are called out to go in harm's way, there follows a muttering of "bring back the draft," which ended at the close of the Vietnam War in 1973. (Please see the column by Mark Shields on the Commentary page, opposite.) It comes from a curious mixture of liberals, who want to draft the sons of the upper-middle class, conservatives who think it would be cheaper than the volunteer force and a handful of racists who grumble that giving guns to too many African-Americans is dangerous.

A return to the draft should be resisted except in case of all-out war, for several reasons:

>> The military services do not need all of the young men who would be eligible for the draft and there is no fair way to draft one man and not another.

>> America has always been defended primarily by volunteers. Even in the unpopular war in Vietnam, 70 percent of those who served were volunteers.

>> Those who volunteer almost always perform better than those who were drafted.

>> It is more efficient and less costly to recruit one young man for four years than to draft two for two years each as the four-year man builds up invaluable experience.

>> The sons of the upper-middle class serve as junior officers, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at universities still being the major source of officers.

>> After more than a quarter-century of experience with the volunteer force in which large numbers of African-American and other minorities have served, there have been no signs of disloyalty.

There is the additional question as to whether women should be drafted. The Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that women were not subject to the draft because current laws precluded them from serving in combat. With the changes in the status of women since then, what the court might rule today is impossible to predict.

Since the founding of the republic, Americans have almost always done things better when they volunteered than when compelled. In 1814, after President James Monroe proposed a draft, Daniel Webster rose in the well of the House of Representatives to thunder: "The question is nothing less than whether the most essential rights of personal liberty shall be surrendered and despotism embraced in its worst form." So, too, today.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, President

John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com

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