The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-15

chances like white girls, who are toll
ing and struggling everywhere, and are
left entirely TO their own resources
They are entitled, as a matter of po-
Iitical and social right, 10 education
such as other girls get, and to the best
that can be had. After that, 10 carry
them as wards of a Christian conmu-
nifty is unreasonable and fatal % the
character of the girls.
The truth is that the excellent
women who are educating these giriS
fail to see the new light Of industrial
education which is beginning TO glow
over so much Of the Mainland. Are
these good women not aware that
they take a grave responsibility IN re-
fusing to see this light
The author of the paper suggests
that the native girls should be employ
| ed as domestics These good women
| do not employ them as such, because
| experience shows that they are not
desirable. Charity in the cooking de-
partment is out of place. The native
girl is inferior to the AsiaLic domes-
| tics, and there is no rule that imposes
on any one the duty to take an infe-
rior article for a good one. Time and
again the native girls have been tried
in this relation, and, With few excep
tons, have failed.
Moreover, domestic service is
Stunned by intelligent, though poor,
girls in America, because 1t is the
meanest of all services as now ,:"n-
Quoted in Anglo-Saxon countries.
There might be some force in the
suggestion as a charitable ac5 if there
were no other occupations which can
be carried on in the homes of the peo-
pie, and in which these girls could
make comfortable wages, live At nome,
and be, if they chose 20 he, in meas
ure independent.
The Advertiser has from time 10
may be carried on with reaS onGbla
profit, and with hardly any outlay Of
capital if the girls were properly "i'i-
Gated to follow these industries, such
as the raising Of flowers COR perfumes
the cultivation of the vanilla bean, and
many other small industries. But
there seems to be lacking the energy,
the study and the faith, on the part OF
those who have regard s0r the Ha-
waiian girls, which alone can secure
at the Hampton and Tuskegee schools
who can wisely instruct these excel
lent friends of the native girls in the
needs of the hour.
The friends of these girls must un-
derstand the conditions of the times. |
There is a surplus Of native men over
native women in these Islands, to the |
number of over 5000 There is a sur
plus, also, of about 10000 Chinese and
over 80 900 Japanese males in the coun- |
try. Besides, and it is a serious mat
ter, there is a large number of white
men here, whom the native girls prefer
to the men of their own race. Can it
be expected that these girls will &C
cept domestic servitude under these
conditions? or become poor seam
str sses?
The problem is perplexing one, and
must be solved on new lines. All that |
can be done by the wisest philanthro- |
Ply is to give these girls the best in
dustrial chances, and then if they re-
fuse to accept them, it is the decree
of Providence that they and their race
must pass away.
1t may be said that this is a cold. a
heartlesS view of the case. It is not
more SO than the view which Christian
philanthropists take of the destruction
by shot and shell of Filipino women
and children, or Of the lives of mill
ions of tOiling, half starved women and
children in Christian lands When
that is done which, not merely reli-
gious sentiment dictates, but thatl
which the largest knowledge OF the
secular education of the weaker races.
and of Ignorant people, directs. then /
O o Q 9 9 9 9 O O O o O o. o. {