The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-09-06

themselves in this matter? | saw YOU have
no such right, and yet that is what you do
if you kill this bill. Second, | would call
your attention to the remarkable incOn-
sistenCy of some of the members of this
House. When this bill was up the other
day, a number of amendments were offered;
they were resisted, but the majority de-
Clined to pass the bill without them; they
were accordingly referred to a committee
which unanimously reported back the
present bill with every single one of those
amendments. And yet we see here to-day
one after another of the very men who
Said they will vote for the bill with those
amendments, getting up and arguing most
strenuOusly for indefinite pOstpOnement
without explanation of their reasons.
What does this mean? l do not know.
Perhaps some member can explain it. In
the third place would call Your attention
to the argument which is being harped
upon in regard to vested rights" Mem
bers claim that this bill interfered with
vested rights. The men Who talk in that
strain know no more WI t vested right
consists of than they know what the King
dom OF Heaven is like they have heard of
both, and their ideas are equally clear as.
to what each consists of. They say that
once a Chinaman lands on these shores
he has a vested right to engage in any
employment he chooses. | say he has no
such right. Every country has the right
to reserve to its citizens certain employ
mentS. If it makes a treaty with foreign
country guaranteeing to the citizens of
such country equal rights with its own citi-
Zens then that is a contract which is bind
ing, but no alien, not citizen of country
who has such treaty has any right to object
to a law reServing such emplOymentS. Now
what do we propose to do by this bill? We
simply propose to place IN the hands OF the
Legislature of 1892 the power which we
have not, to reserve certain trades and
emplOyments to citizens of this country
and of countries who have made contracts
with us that their citizens shall have equal
rights here. This bill does not propose to
take away any property which any alien
owns or may lawfully acquire, nor does it
propose to prevent him from continuing in
any employment he may now be engaged
in. What it will allow the Legislature to
do is to prevent the hOrdes OF Chinese who
are now working on the plantations or
filling the Slums of Honolulu, from beCom-
ing tradesmen and mechanics, and swamp
ing out the native HawaiianS and other for
eigners. This is no interference with vested
rights it is simply self-pTeServatiOn In a
perfectly Just and legitimate manner.
Another most remarkable fact is that
members of this House are declaring
against the injustice, the indignity, the
unfairness of this bill. Yesterday the paid
attorney of the Chinese in this matter, told
me that he was perfectly satisfied with this
bill as now amended-that he had no OBJ
jectiOns to it. What are we to think of
honorable members, who against the in
terests and the wishes of their constituents
fly to the rescue of the Chinaman, and re-
fuse to vote for the small amount of pro-
lection to their constituents which even
the hired attorney of the Chinese is willing
to cOncede. | tell you, Mr.. President and
gentlemen of this House, that the day will
come when those men humbly standing
outside of that railing will be your masters.
and when it is too late you will vainly wish
that your tongues might have been frozen
and your arms paralyze before you had
spoken and voted against a measure which
will afford some means of protection to
you and those whom yOu represent.
Noble Dole said: / am believer in true
principles of reciprocity. If the Chinese
nation and the individuals comprising the
same, were disposed to be tolerant Of the
presence OF foreigners in their own land,
if they allowed foreigners all the rights and
privileges which they desire US to grant to
them here, if they allowed foreigners the
privilege OF acquiring land and pursuing
their chosen occupations throughout the
length and breadth of their vast empire
without let or hindrance, | should be in
favor Of according to them the same favOrs
in this Kingdom. But how are foreigners
treated in China? Their residence is re-
StriCted to certain cities and this concession
was only granted because the Chinese
Government was forced to 1t by the guns
of more powerful nations. But if a for
eigner even ventures so much as to travel
IN the byWayS of that empire-tO say
nothing Of taking up his residence at a dis
lance from any of the localities assigned as
places where foreigners may live-he runs
the risk of being stoned and maItreated |
and even of being killed. A Chinaman in |
China hates and despises all foreigners. |
The common appellation among all ranks |
for every one who is not a Chinaman is |
- Foreign Devil" He belongs to a pro- |
scrbed race. When the Chinese Govern |
ment will pass laws guaranteeing to for |
eigners everywhere in the empire the same |
rights that their own citizens enjoy, then, |
and not till then, may the Chinese in this |
country come to US with good grace and |
present memorials, like the one presented |
to this House the other day. What do you
suppose would be the result if perchance a
colony Of white men who had settled in |
some part of China remote from treaty
port, should present to the Government !
similar to this which the Chinese |
residents of Honolulu have sent to this
House. l am afraid it would meet with !
contempt and sCOrn, and the memorialists
would not find their situation improved in |
the slightest degree. AS this amendment
now reads it affords to all Chinese, rights
and immunitles which the Chinese them
selves would never dream of granting to
foreigners III China, and to a large class of
Chinese residents here it comedies every
thing which the natives of the country
enjoy except the right of suffrage.
Rep Nawahine had been against the
amendments to the Constitution all along
ana he heard nothing as yet to induce him
to change his views to support this one.
The proposed amendment was indef-
nitely postponed on the following division:
Ayes = Green, Waterheuse, Luhiau,
Wight, Bailey, Richardson, Widemann,
Makee, G. n. Wilcox, Hustace, Kalaukoa,
Kauhi. G. Brown, F. Brown, Deacon, Ka-
mai, Mcguire, Kamauoha. Paris, Nawa-
hine, Daniels, Rice, Gay, Nakaleka, Pae-
haole-25.
Noes-Thurston, Ashford, Wilder, Rob
nsOn, Young, Smith, Motley, Wall, Town
send Hitchcock Dole NaOpa KaDbana