The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-12-06

supporting white population. Mr..
Kinney has the courage of his con-
victions TO an admirable extent. He
would have made magnificent
leader in cavalry charge. The
purity of his motives in this matter
as in all the conduct of his. life is,
in my opinion, not open to doubt.
He joins to the enthusiasm of youth,
the keenness of perception, and the
habit of acute analysts, which usu-
ally grow from experience only.
But while admirng the brilliancy
with which he discusses this ques-
tion of national policy, and the un-
relenting, unhesitating and even re-
morseless vigor with which he de-
ducts from his premises the conclu-
sion that we must and shall legis-
late this country into white mans
country, l think that he uncon-
sciously omits to consider facts and
conditions, which cannot safely be
ignored, and which when duly
weighed, will cause thoughtful men
to decline to accept his statement
as conclusive.
However magnificent this attack
on Queen street, and the wealth
producing interests of the country,
as well as on the Chinese, it is not,
as it seems to me, either statesman
ship or common sense.
There are enough Chinese here
now who are engaged in mercantile
pursuits and as skilled laborers, TO
do large part of the retail trade
and to furnish large part of the
mechanical labor of the country if
the white population see fit to en-
ploy them. Does anyone think of
any method of getting them out of
the country, or of debarring them
from any honest industry? If the
Chinese now here can be excluded
from trade and mechanical work,
how about the cheap work and
prices of Portuguese and Japanese
and the low wages of the large class
of skilled native mechanics who are
coming on? Can the white wage
Garner or trader keep down this kind
of competition? And yet if he
cannot do so, the exclusion of
Chinese immigration except for
agricultural purposes, would be
futile.
No one can more earnestly
than myself desire the sue
cess of honest, intelligent, skilled
labor. A serious objection to life
in Hawaii or anywhere else, is the
presence of a large degraded popu-
lation TO whom manual labor is
mainly given up, so as to cause
young men and women to look upon
it with aversion, if not with con-
tempt. No country, in my opinion,
is desirable as residence in which
such labor is not regarded as honor
able and dignitied. l look forward
with pleasure to the results of the
manual training which the Kameha-
meha schools are giving to Hawaiian
boys. TO extend the same privileges
to boys of other nationalites, and
also, as far as may be, to girls, will
L hope be the aim of our next Legis-
lature.
1t is true that Chinese were
brought here for no other purpose
than to work on sugar plantations.
They have developed the cultivation
of rice and vegetables and are likely
to work up other industries, like
coffee production for instance. But
here they are, and in large numbers.
Their labor, directed by capital and
skill, has served to enrich this coun-
try, and to make it possible to sus-
tain considerable number of skill
ed white mechanics, for whom there
would otherwise have been no en-
ployment. The stores and tene-
ments of that portion of Honolulu
known as Chinatown, rebuilt since
the fire of 1886, were built by white
mechanics and with Chinese money,
or only for Chinese purposes. A
large portion of money made in this
country by the whites from the en-
ployment of Chinese agricultural
| i"poi 10 CApcpucu WIN NlllIc JTdu-
ers and mechanics.
If Chinese are to remain for cult
waiting sugar, rice and vegetables,
and as domestic servants, and all
agree that they are essential for
such purposes. and that the material
prosperity of these islands depends
on sugar production mainly, can
they, under constitutional govern
ment, be kept as hewers of wood
and drawers of water, or must the
same opportunity be open to them
as to white men, to acquire, possess
and enjoy property, with all the re-
sulting inducements and ambitions :?
Can men born under free repre-
sentative institutions see a large
class in their midst who however
ignorant and debased, are not TO be
treated as equals before the law?
In civil equality, i do not include
the voting privilege, for that is not
natural right, it was not even one
of the inalienabIe rights of the Am
erican freemen who carried English
civil liberty TO new world. For
| L