The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-07-09
MEMORIAL,

to the Legislature, expressive of the
Unions views on the Chinese ques-
ton -
GENTLEMEN: The Hawaiian Anti
Asatic Union, an association of
electors and tax payers of this king
dom, formed for the purpose of
seeking to protect themselves CON
stitutionally, against the evils and
competition of Asiatic immigration,
have caused n petition on this sub
jcct to be drafted and circulated for
signatures, which will be submitted
to the present Legislature, through
the honorable Noble w. Il. Foster.
AS sequel TO this petition, the
members of this A. A. Union do
hereby also wish to respectfully
place before you the following i'm
portant considerations, which they
according to the constitutional
rights granted to all citizens of this
country-desire to submit, as the
true expression of their opinions
and wishes, to the Mobiles and Rep
resentatives who have been elected
by the people to defend the peoples
interests.
At the present time the whole
world is going through q period of
distress for the working classes;
but the hard times are more especi-
ally felt in all the countries where
the inferior and cheap labor of
Asiatic races is allowed to compete
freely with the laborers of the civil
lied races. Thus the results of this
competition are now growing so in
tensely disastrous in the United
States of America and in the Aus
tralian Colonies, that the people
there are determined to obtain strin-
gent legislation, to the effect, not
only of preventing any further i'm
migration of Asiatics, but also of
ultimately compelling those already
abroad to return to their flowery
empire.
In this Kingdom we are also pass
ing through serious economical
and commercial crisis, which our
population is beginning to feel more
keenly than it otherwise would do,
were it not for the fact that about
$4,000 Chinese and over 5000
japanese find themselves in pres
ence of less than TO- 900 white people
and 10000 native Hawaiians.
Thus, competition in labor and
trade, which would hardly have
been felt had we no Asiatics to di-
vide with. is daily made more bitter,
at the very time when work is
growing scarce and living difficult
on these islands. 1t cannot there
fore be surprising to see that from
this incipient crisis, combined with
Asiatic competition, has already re-
suited the exodus from this country
OF quite large number of white
laborers with their families, which
constitute the real backbone of the
nation, and which we cannot afford
e. to lose. Aside from those already
gone, many more intend to leave be-
fore long, and this situation ought
our Representatives, as every man
of this kind who goes away, is o
dead loss to every one of us who re-
mains, to such Il degree that if pro-
per measures are not taken, it can
safely be prognosticated and seri-
ously feared that, at no distant
future, Asiatics alone will be found
on living these shores.
All these dangers, which threaten
the stable and industrious popula
ton of these islands, are nothing
new and they have already beer
foreseen to such an extent that dur
ing the last session of the Legisla
ture, very wise, although yet only
partially effective law, was proposed
for putting stop to any furthe
Chinese coolie immigration. Blu
unfortunately, the Legislature, no
realising the true state of things
yielded to the pressure of few in
terested men, who wanted that i'm
migration to be continued on condi
tions which, practically, make it un
restricted.
The Anti-Asiatic Union, and tn
petitioners who sympathise with it
views, do not ignore the usefulnes
of the Asiatic colonies already SET
tied here, and which no sane min
could want to drive away. nor d
they wish to interfere with tn
planters interests, wants, and neces
stiles; if some think that they mus
continue to use Chinese and Japa
nese, let it be so by all means.
But what the country cannc
stand is, that the cheap laborers il
troduced for or by the plantation;
be allowed TO quit them at will so a
to enter, all over the country, int
competition against white men an
Hawaiians alike, in all branches c
other labor, handicraft, trade {
commerce, the consequences @
which cannot end in anything els
but the departure of all the whit
population and the ruin of the nj
tive Hawaiians, who already no
are being gradually superseded an
substituted by Asiatics, in all the
ordinary occupations, even in til
culture of taro and manufacture {
the national "poi."