The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-31
WHAT DOLE EXPECTS.

N such grave matter as the destruction of the
autonomy of nation, the slaughter OF its
ercignty and its absorption by another power, it
is ueedful that there be distinct understanding, in
advance, Of all the conditions OF the act. We
i'll Ireland and Scotland example OF what may fol-
low the reckless surrender of autonomy and what
may result from careful consideration OF every
question affecting the interests of the parties to the
transaction:
The crowns of Scotland and England were merged
by the succession of James VI of Scntland to Eliza
beth, becoming James l of England. But Scotland
retained her autonomy, her separate parliament her
separate church. budget and every power and au-
thority affecting the material interests of her people.
In 1901 she surrendered all this by making parlia
nentary union with England. But with characteristic
Scotch prudence her statesmen first drove hard bar
gain with England in reference the materalities of
the Scotch people SO it came to pass that the Lon
don merchants and English fnancers objected to
the union at all and long complained that the Scotch
got far more than they gave away. The people have
remained contented subjects of the British empire
loyal to the crown, because they got an equivalent
for the surrender of parliamentary independence
ireland, the other hand, was by conquest and
force merged in the British crown but had sue
cecded in maintaining parliamentary independence
The Irish revenues for the benefit of the British
were proposed in the Irish parliament as a
regular budget and might be refused, reduced or
postponed.
Grattan took advantage of this in 1888 and led the
parliament to refuse to vote the budget until the
crown guaranteed reforms which he Protestant
demanded in behalf OF his Catholic fellow country
Seventeen years later there met in the same
hall Irish parliament, which for bride of eI5,-
100000 sold the parliamentary independence OF their
fO Rrita the
mitted in such haste that of the advantageous
guarantees secured by Scotland were even proposed
The result has been commercial dependence, fnan-
cial weakness industrial paralysis for Ireland in con-
trast with Scotch prosperity The lesson is useful in
considering the Hawaiian case
What sort of government will we give the islands
ii we take them? Their industries and revenue de-
pend upon form of labor obnoxious to our people
and opposed to interests The planters who en-
ploy this labor and who cannot survive without it
are the power behind annexation. They have sus-
tanned Dole They have for four years sophisticated
the news sent out from the islands. They have paid
the of excursions Honolulu by the past mas
tiers OF American jingoism. They have persuaded
the American newspapers which have janussed on
this question. They have organized the Washington
lobby which misrepresents the feeling of this coast
Now, if they have bargain with anybody in this
country by which our labor laws are not to so to
Hawaii with our flag it should be known Such bar
gains under Our system OF government must be car
ried ont by Congress- but that body cannot record
finalty. Under our government the only approach
to fnality is judicial not Legislative nor executive
What one Congress does another can undo What
enc President adopts another may reject
An examination of House executive document I
part l. pages $3.50, shows the testimony of good
witness to what the planters expect Asked
"Is it your impression that the calculation of all
Hawaiian sugar planters who favor annexation that
the United States will modify their laws against con-
tract labor that system of contract labor can be
maintained in the islands," The planter answered:
81 would not say contract labor. They say we may
have to give that up, but get all the labor we
want from Japan"
How"
well we can send an agent there with money and
he send labor to Hawaii, and when it is here we
can make contracts"
''Do the planters think in that way to get around
the laws OF the United States?"
ayes, we think we can get around the laws that
way"
Whereupon President Dole sad II have be-
lief that the United States will give us separate law
so that we can get laborers here" Now on what is
that belief based? Who is promising such thing
and who is to be cheated? White labor in the
United States or the cooe hiring planters of
Hawaii?