The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-03
THE CHINESE CASE

A large class of people in the United
States regard the Chinese with the
same feelings as the old orthodox
divine regarded some of his unregene-
rate friends. You are unrepentant."
he said; and collectively deserve and
will get eternal damnation. But I have
much respect for each OF you, fndividu-
ally, and viii dine with you even if I
believe you ought to be damned"
This class of people denounce the
Chinese in their national form, but
gladly employ them, whenever they can
make money out of them, or save
money through them.
As members of the Chinese nation
they are regarded as heather, who wor-
ship idols, and cheaper wages. But
if money can be made out of them,
their heathenism ceases to be offensive,
and their acceptance of cheap wages
becomes a fiourishing virtue The ma
tionaI game played with the Chinese is.
Head 1 win, tail you lose
On these Islands, our local policy has
been to permit them to largely out
number ourselves (the AnglO-SaxonD, ,
so long as we could make money out Of
them, and they kept quiet.
The majority of the Chinese resident
here were cordially invited and tnan-
ciaIly assisted, we believe, to locate
here by our great planting interest.
They have been encouraged to improve
our waste lands and make them very
profitable in rice and bananas. Even
Mr. Flank Damon has preached openly
in this place. to the Chinese, the revO-
lutionary doctrine Of the brotherhood
of man. at the same moment that our
dominant political party declared that
the Chinese must go"
SO, on the whole, it is very difficult
to work out the correct moral latitude
and longitude on the Chinese question.
The Chinese naturally enough ask
that those invited to settle here, those
who have become Christians, those who
have married natives, should obtain
political protection of some kind under
the new organic act which shall govern
the territory.
Upon the principles of the. Declara-
ton of Independence, they are entitled
to have it, But their rights are no
longer governed by those somewhat OBJ
solete principles. Congress has adopt
ed a policy regarding the Chinese. AS
a matter of simple justice, it should
clearly protect our long resident
Chinese.
We believe that it is very doubtful
whether Congress will give them any
political rights. They have already
treaty rights which protect persons and
property Congress will hardly under
stand the situation clearly enough to
make any exceptions in their favor.
The commissioners may, and perhaps
will recommend that special provisions
be made for them in the organic law,
but the labor party will become suspi-
cious. and it's powerful influence will
oppose such provisions.
Uncle Sam will probably use this Ian
guage to them: You are much better
off than you were in China. You have
made and are making good thing out
of your residence in Hawaii. l used to
shout often about the dignity of labor,
but since you have cheapened it, it
ceases to be dignified unless it is purely
American labor Be eontented as you
are"
1t is fortunate for the Chinese that
their case was presented so judiciously
and clearly by Mr.. Hatch. They may
be assured that their case is we'll un-
derstOod by the Commissioners.