The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-10-21
A PROBLEM TO SOLVE.

The Annexation Of Hawaii May Give
the COmmi.sioners Some
Trouble.
In half the troubles of Hawaii, and
it has had its share since Capt. Cook
masqueraded in the feathers of God
Lono, there has been one catch-word.
the rallying cry of the element of the
population making toward something
better, making successfully toward
constitutional monarchy, toward pro-
visional government, toward republic,
toward being a part of the American
state sisterhood. It has been the cry
of citizenship.
The beachcomber, the runaway
whaler of the early days, did not care
for citizenship. So long as he had
his share, or could grab his share, of
the things which attracted him to the
islands he was content to become a
subject of savage monarch in a
feather cloak. But others settled who
were less easily satisfied, men who
came from America as missionaries of
civilization, who brought the church,
the school and the store, and set them
side by side in every hamlet of I'M
reclaimed savagery. They had some
thing to lose, some respect to main
tain; they could not rest happy as
subjects of any sort, having been born
citizens, least of all could they be SUBJ
jects of any Kamehameha, drunk or
sober, but most commonly drunk. Still
less could they content themselves
with neutral state in which the saw
age and the beachcomer could legis-
late foolishly or wickedly, just as whim
might dictate.
Through their discomfort was de.
seloped a system of denizenship. The
better class remained citizens of the
United States in the foreign land. By
becoming denizens of Hawaii, they &C.
iuired the right to a voice in it's af.
airs, without casting off their rights
IS Americans. Denizens could vote
could hold office. The real cause of the
sverturning of Liliuokalani was her
attempt to take away the rights of the
3enizens, to force them to dilemma
choice, either to renounce their cher
shed American citizenship or to leave
hem with no voice in affairs and help
less.
Now, the conditions being reversed.
he Hawaiians themselves will become
interested in discovering their civil
status. So far as the law stood on the
nay before annexation was accom-
olished, the Hawaiian could not be-
come a citizen of the United States,
because he was not eligible under the,
constitution-his race barred him out
This was the decision of the supreme
court of Utah while it was still a ter
ritory. A male Hawaiian of full age.
satisfying all the conditions of suffi,
cient residence and necessary famil.
iarity with the principles of the gov
eminent, applied for papers Of natural.
ization. He was rejected by the lower
court to which he made his applica.
ton, and on appeal the decision was
upheld by the supreme court That de-
cision has to stand unless overturned
by the supreme. court of the United
States.
His race barred him in this particu
lar. The constitution provides that
citizenship may be attained by white
persons and those of African birth or
descendants; no others. The two
courts held that the Hawaiian was
not in any sense an African, also not in
any sense a white person. The court
did not undertake to settle Just what
race the Hawaiian did belong to. But
it firmly settled on one thing. that
this Hawaiian, and by legal conse.t
luence, every other Hawaiian, could
not become a citizen of the Uniteo
States.
On that question the Hawaiians, an
nexed but not citizenable, will de-
mand to be heard. This is thing the
commissioners on annexation will have
10 figure out to some satisfactory So
ution. On one side the constitution
md courts of law against civil rights;
On the other, some $4,000 citizens of
Hawaii by birth and race now sudden
v become citizens of nowhere.-N. Y
sun.
Parents Are Unfair to Teachers.
That existing. methods of educa ting
the young fall short of the ideal there
Is scarcely any. question. The most
prominent educators of the land admit
this fact. Every effort is undoubted-