The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-06-21
THE ASlATIC AND THE NEGRO.

@tlC tlilihIIS5 men III THESE ISL
nnds as well as to the thinking man
of the Southern States of America.
the problem of dealing with the dark
or races will be the one absorbing
problem CT the future That problem
no longer in either section involves
revolution by arms, but it does in
volve social revolution. In the South
land the problem is in the hands Of
the whites, who are numerically su-
perior to the resident darker race,
but in these Islands, it is to be
solved by a small minority of
the dominant class. But we are
in a transition state. Although
the Asiatic population vastly outnum-
bers the whites, it has not become a
settled population. 1t comes and goes
The laborers, as rule, have no
homes, and it is not in the interests OF
the sugar industry, as the men who
control that industry seem to believe,
that its laborers should have wives
and children. Homes and wives and
children are expensive 1uxuries, and
If the laborers are permitted to have
them, there is at once a blow at divi-
dends.
But economic laws care nothing for
business views, and may dispose of all
of these laborers in some unexpected
way
In another column is reprinted from
the Southern Workman an article on
the history of the negro race in Vir-
ginia, by a negro, Professor e. D. Du
Bots, of the Atlanta University. 1t
treats briefly of the slave trade, and
the Introduction of slaves into the
United States, in such an impartial
manner that it almost creates a his
tOrical event. Instead of exhibiting
anger at the treatment of the slaves,
he presents the features of slavery
which benefited the negro as well as
those that did not.
But he presents the question clear
ly: What shall be the political and so
cial relation of the freedmen to the
land of their residence?
This is the very question that must
be asked here: What shall be the re-
lation of those Iaborers 20 the land of
their adoption?
In contrasting the problem of the
negro in America and the Asiatic
problem, or the Portuguese prob
lem in these Islands, the races in
volved in the problem ON both sides
show at once how much more compli-
Gated the problem is here than it is
over there. Excluding a percentage
of able, Industrious negroes, capable
OF taking rank with tine foremost men
OF other races, the remainder are at
the mercy of the organizing power of
the whites. But, in these Islands, the
organizing power of the Asiatics has
not been tested. That it is efficient
and far above that of the negro we
are certain. That it can overmatch
the organizing power of the Anglo
Saxons in commercial enterprises has
not been determined. 1t is admitted
that the China Merchants Steam
ship Company, with an ownership OF
seventy vessels, has developed a high
order of power. Those who know the
Japanese declare that they have great
gifts in the way of combinations.
AS the power to organize and exc
cute is the strongest gift possessed by
man, it appears that in dealing with
the problem here is a much more Sc
rious affair than in dealing with the
problem on the Mainland.
The ancestors of the present genera
ton in the South simply ignored the
problem. They wanted money. and
luxury, and comfortable religion
and they took it as it came, and asked
no questions about the future. They
found "unanswerable" reasons for any
commercial transactions whether in
human beings or in rice that gave
profit. Quite sufficient unto the day
was the evil thereof.
The generation living here. is dails
and hourly dealing with races supe
riOr in numbers and much superior TX
the present generation of negroes. II
fact. it is dealing with races which are
regarded as dangerous to the labor
ing man in the States.
Vast as the domain Of the United
States is, no more intensely interest
ing problem exists in any part OF II
than the social evolution quietly de
veloping here
If the Italians become a part OF ou
population will the composite race IL
these Islands, one hundred year
hence, be a mixture of Anglo-Saxon
Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese am
Italians? These are perplexing ques
tions. Shall we not better take thing
easy and let the Creator look atte
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