The Hawaiian gazette., 1891-08-18
THE POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF SMALL
LAND HOLDINGS FOR THE
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
Read before the Social Science Associa-
ton by SANFORD b. Dole.

community lurnl~h SOul6 uilliCulb pOllIl'
cal problems, the solution of which will
sooner or later be required as an obvious
necessity to the continued administra.
ton OF government.
The nation is mainly composed OF five
heterogeneous races-the aboriginal
Anglo-Saxon, Chinese, Japanese and
Portuguese; and from the signs of the
times, this status-a community made
up OF races so dissimilar that they will
not readily amalgamate-is to be ouI
regular condition for an indefinite time
TO come.
1t is fortunate for the body polite that
the Anglo-Saxon element, with its pre-
objection for representative government,
holds and has held the preponderating
influence in public affairs But the pres
ent is transition period in which the
old system supported by voters of the
aboriginal race, largely led by Anglo
Saxon influence, is modified, and the
elective franchise is open to all residents,
except the Chinese and japanese. This
change gives the ballot to a large num-
Der OF Portuguese, which number will
be continually increased by the growing
up Of the numerous children OF this pro-
life race. Diplomatic pressure from
Japan together with our agricultural de-
pendence upon japanese immigration,
NAV vet give Japanese residents the bal
lot under some restrictions, and it may
even be regarded, by-and-by, as better
and safer to afford the same privilege to
Chinese residents who have had the
benefit of a common school education.
The influence OF our broad and vigor-
Gus system Of state education, is and
will be toward the homogeneity OF these
diverse races; but it may be doubted if
this influence will be sufficient cause
ior any radical results in this direction
for Il long time to come. IL the mean
time the 5ial growth and movement is
taking H., own course. Plantation work
is unpopular, in some localities deserved
ly SO, and there is a constant accretion
OF town population from plantation COM
munities.
This feature OF the population of our
towns particularly OF Honolulu, if not
dangerous element now, is likely to be-
come so as this class increases and the
proportion OF the wages to the individual
is correspondingly diminished.
For the purposes OF this paper | need
not refer to the reinforcements that such
an element would tend to furnish to the
criminal classes or the danger OF the init
alton Of pauperism in our islands from
its presence, but / wish to call your at
tention to the danger the state will
incur by the presence OF large body OF
voters in its towns, who are living in a
crowded condition, unsettled for want OF
regular employment and stable tenure
of house-holdings, unconserVative for
want of an investment in law and order,
so TO speak, that is, money interest IN
the permanence of law and order, and
Tor all these reasons and others like
them, disafected against society and its
authority and regulations. Such class
is common feature in large cities all
over the world, but its members have
not everywhere the ballot as they have
here; and it is matter of common ex-
perience that where they have the
ballot, they form political element
which from It's irresponsible and some
times communistic character is an obsta-
Gle to the attainment and maintenance
OF integrity and ability in the admins
tration OF government.
The large numbers of discontinued
voters attached to the sugar plantations
of the country as contract laborers, will
not tend to diminish or counterfeit the
evil, but rather to strengthen it.
What then is the remedy or rather
the prevention, for the evil is as yet in
its infancy in comparison with the
dimension to which it will attain, if it is
let alone? Undoubtedly there are many
influences which will tend to check the
growth of this danger, but the conserva-
tive effects OF education and religion will
be but lightly felt by many of this class,
and all of the other existing conserving
influences combined, will still, as in the
experience of other communities, be in
sufficient to meet the difficulty.
If there is any plan which will tend,
in the first place, to keep down the num-
bers of this class and, in the second
place, to counterfeit their unhealthy pol
itical pressure by building up a class OF
conservative voters, it would go tar to-
ward the solution of this problem.
The most effective and perhaps the
only way of accomplishing this result,
and which will, think, suggest itself to
the minds of those who give the matter
earnest thought, is generous opening
of our public lands to settlers, giving
particular attention TO the occupancy OF !
small holdings. The effect will be to |
constantly absorb the laborers VINO now |
flock from the plantations to the towns, |
and to draw away from the towns Ger
tain surplus population not wanted for |
the demands OF town employment, thus
building up a rural population under |
conditions more favorable to the develop |
ment of character and individual and
family independence than could posi-
bly, be afforded by town environment.
Such a system would also constantly
attract others not in the above-men-
toned categories, but men OF some
means, of intelligence, and with fond
ness for agricultural life; to whom the
climate and the soil, with favorable OPP
portunities of acquiring permanent titles
10 land, would be sufficient inducements.
some of these would become the men OF
influence of their respective communl-
les.
1t will be conceded that farming
population under conditions something
ike these, holding their lands in fee
simple and for cultivation rather than
would have a healthy in
iuence upon the national politics, as 1t
5 conceded everywhere that the massing
II the larger part of the population in
owns. creates a social condition which
S menaclng to the public welfare; and
his healthy influence would be some
what in the ratio of the proportion OF
such population to that of the towns.
The answer will be made by some, that
admitting all this to be true, there are
not sufficient lands in the Hawaiian Isl
.nds for the carrying out OF such
policy.