The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-07-20
TOWNSEND TALKS.
To National Educational
Association.
Thoughtful Conceived Address
Upon the Subject Of the Educa-
tionaI Problem In Hawaii.

| LOS ANGELES, July lI.-PromptIy
at O'Clock the National Educational
Association was called TO order in the
Pavilion by Hon. r. Q. Story. o. the To-
cal executive committee. The pavilion
was crowded in every part and num-
bers of the visitors failed To gain adj
mittanCe.
After an invocation 10y Rev. {. Clark
Pierce, the Woman's Orchestra rem
dered the National Educational Asso-
citation March," a rather unique piece
Of music, composed for the occasion.
and then Governor Henry I. Gage was
presented to bid hearty welcome on
| behalf of the state to the assembled
teachers.
Mayor Fred Eaton, in behalf OF Los
angeles, welcomed the delegates To the
| city. He is a frank speaker. with a
sincerity in tone and manner that car
ries conviction, and was heartily ap-
Iplauded.
At the evening session DR.. W r.
| Harris, United States Commissioner of
Education, delivered a most appropri-
ate and decidedly interesting address
| icy for Our New Possessions"
Mrs. Emma l.. Dillingham; was to
| have dealt with the Hawaiian school
question to some extent by giving an
address reviewing the history OF the
existing schools in the islands. Owing
| to her unavoidable absence this phase
of the subject had to be foresone. but
Henry s. Townsend, inspector general
I OF schools of Hawaii, made a thought
| fully conceived address upon the sub
| jeCt OF THE Educational Problem i'm
| Hawaii" He said that minds i'm gen
| ral develop in accordance with certain
| fixed and asCeTtainable laws. vet the
| first principles of the science imply
that no two men think, or feel. or will
, CT develop alike, since no two have the
same temper and environment In like
manner, lie continued, il follows that
different races ard peoples develop diff
ferently and hence have their own ed
rcational problems, which are but
notifications of the worlds great cdu-
,cational problem.
Mr.. Townsend said in conclusion:
The environment and the temper OF
the children nj Hawaii are especially
diversified, although this environment
Of things IS comparatively homoEe-
nous. This is due largely to- the diver
sity Cf races, with all that that i'm
plies. The ends of the earth meet 1t
Hawaii, and no one race is predCmi-
,nart In numbers. Present indications
are that the generation next 10 be born
in Hawaii will consist Of white per-
sons and Hawaiians in almost equal
numbers, aud of still larger numbers OF
Asiatics. These latter will not be as
sinlilated with the other elements of
Our future population so as to form
one people, though it is possible that
the whites and the HawaiianS will thus
unite, IN spite of radical racial differ
enoes. One problem involves ut least
two races Of men in nearly equal num-
beTs living side by side within our
narrow boundaries without uniting
Polyresians and Asiatics cannot be-
made 20 think and feel as Anglo-SaX-
cns by the simple process of teaching
them the English language, or by any
other process which does not involve
evolution through nations. Yet. in the
meantime, We must live together.
What, then, is this great race problem
in Hawaii? ~ IS this: To develop q
truly Christian civilization. a civiliZa-
ton which, like the love of Christ. is
broad eCCUG;. TO embrace all peoples
81 broad that all the races may find
prosperity under its benign sway Our
Hawaiian civilization should he based
IIo~ bread charity and universal good
viii.
The civilization which the active
race has developed and in which ii has
teeu tr-ilgd, based upon an asSump-
tiou II universal selfishness. has pre-
cipitated struggle in which the pas
zivS race Is 1T great disadvantage.
- Is u melancholy fact that the inilu
eroc at the white man and his civiliza-
tion IN contact with the aboriginal
races t. generally the influence of the
IaElc of tie upas tree. From the time
Cf the ancient Hebrews, who shut from
the blessings OF their civilization prac
ticaliy All other peoples, down TO the
time Cf the americans, who have not
Yet developed a civilization sufficient
" broad and sufficiently Christian TO
bless The white man and the red. comes
the same monotonous story. Here the
native HaUaiians We're born and here
the- iii die. They call for more
than liberation. Who are we that We
should tolerate this remnant of the
people to whom God gave those fair
isles fresh from his creative hand and
who for nearly fifty generations have
known no other home? They are now
Americans in spite of themselves. and
for these reasons their silent appeal tp
their reightCrs Of the active race IS
strong"