The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-07-29
HAWAIIANS AS AMERICAN ClTI-
ZENS

abroad that Hawaiians as class
are ignorant, and that their adopt
ion into the Union would be an
evil. This is not the case by any
means. Hawaiians as a class are
not to be compared with the Am
erican Indians nor with the
negroes. They are superior to
either As class, they are intelli-
gent and comparatively well edu-
Gated. There are very few, we
might say none, who cannot read
and write in their own language,
and many of them read and speak
English fuently. There is no
country-not even the United
States, where the percentage Of
illiterates is smaller than in Ha
wall. This Is because all the child
rem are obliged by law to attend
school, between the ages of six and
fifteen, and are taught in the Eng
lish language. And within~a very
few years, all under thirty years
of age will speak English, as gen
eral rule. So with the Portuguese,
of whom there are about $4,000
here; all their youth are taught in
English, and it is now generally
spoken by them. As in America,
after the European parents die, all
the younger generation speak Eng
lish only; so it is with Hawaiians,
for the language of the country is
English, and the business of the
country is done wholly in it, and
a man or woman who does not
speak it, has little chance of sue
cess. Hawaiians are very differ
ent from the American Indians,
and are for superior to them. They
are ambitious to speak, dress and
live like foreigners, where they
are able to do so, because they see
that it gives them an influence and
position which can be acquired in
no other way Educated Hawai-
ians are superior to negroes, or
even to Spanish-Americans, mas
much as they are more amenable
to law, and more easily influenced
by sound teaching and example.
They have little in common with
the aborigines of either North or
South America.
There is one respect in which
more might be done for Hawaiians,
and this is the supplying them with
better industrial education or train
ing in the useful branches of in
dustry-both agricultural and
mechanical. Our coffee planta-
tons and sugar factories ought to
be manned in large part with Ha-
waiians, for when well, paid they
make as valuable workmen as any
foreigners In the growing coffee
industry, they can become useful
and reliable helpers, in almost any
branch of the work, whether Guilt
walton, trimming, cleaning, pick
ing or in the drying houses. All
through this process, natives of the
soil are preferable,-and none bet
ter than Hawaiian men and
women, who as a rule can be relied
on, far better than strangers. The
young Hawaiians graduating from
our industrial schools ought to find
positions without any trouble, es-
pecially if applications for hands
are sent to the principals of these
institutions. The more of these
schools that we have, the better for
our Hawaiians, who seek indus
trial occupations.
The Hawaiian newspapers, as a
rule, are read more eagerly of late
than ever before. The Kuokoa,
which is the Oldest among them,
is very popular, especially among
the more intelligent and educated
class The Hawaiians fully under
stand what annexation means, and
believe that it will be for their
benefit, and that all the privileges
that they now enjoy will be con-
frmed and perpetuated to them