The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-28
HAWAII IS
HIS THEME
Herbert P. Williams in
The Outlook.
POPULATION OF ISLANDS
The Writer Gays That a Property
Qualification for Voters Would
Foster Americanism.

In the OUTLOOK or April II is an ar
ticle on the political situation in Ha-
wall by Herbert p. Williams. the dis
tinguished Eastern writer. who is now
a member Of the Advertiser stan.
The article is as follows:
Pending the passage of the Cul1or, b,u
:hc Hawaiian Islands are left in "A cIIrfotIs
and uncertain position. Curious. on ac-
count OF the conflict between the pro,,is-
ions Of the resolution which annexed tho
islands to the United States and the sub-
sequcnt instructions which the Govern
ment here has received from Washington
which, unfortunately, do not hang to
Gethcr; and uncertain, because as vet We
can only guess what regulations Congress
VIII pass in regard to the suffrage and
the land laws. II is generally taken for
granted that the government OF these ISL
ards, as u VIII be provided for by Con-
gIess, Will be territorial, not colonial.
and this is exactly what is desired among
the people here chiefly because il will
pre- vent the imposition Of a duty on Ha-
Walian sugars IN their entry to the United
states. Everything here depends IIDOn
sugar The soil, the climate and the Gle
walton above sea level have combined to
make HAWAII the greatest sugar-grOwiups
country IN the world, large tracts of land
producing an average of thirteen tons to
IN" acre, and IT is a common remark that
every thlng VIII go well in the future pro
Vidtd nothing happens TO sugar. The
question Of contract labor worries no ou.
The sugar planters have imported a great
deal OF contract labor in past years. Seven
o. eight years ago II was found that so
many Chinese had been thus brought into
the country that there was danger OF
their becoming too powerful. The intro
ductiOn Of Chinese contract Iaborers vyas
then stopped, and since that time Japan-
esc have been introduced i'm such numbers
that If one race can be used as an anti
dote 70 the other no trouble need ba an
tiCipated. For the past two decades Por-
tugucse have been arriving here i'm small
M wol...rs
portion Of the community and as a class
they may b. considered the most desirable
plantation laborers. Between these va
riOus kinds Of workers and the natives,
the planters feel, In the main, that they
have a sufficient supply on hand to put
of for ten or a dozen years all necessity
OF thinking about where the labor Is
coming from to run their plantations The
Chinese are docile, very Industrious and
ureYcelled for certain definite branches
of the field labor inv olved in the prepara-
uon Of sugar cane for the mill. They are
very ambitious commercially. and those
who graduate from the plantations ami
establish themselves in some sort OF
small business, such as market garden
ing, stOrekeeping or laundrying, gener-
ally amass a considerable amount of
money. The Japanese, who are rather am
bilious politically, are preferred for GER
tain other kinds Of field labor which do
not consist in doing the same thing over
and over again. They are more intelligent
than the Chinese, more anxious to learn
and to advance, and also more apt to
give trouble, In a word, they are less doc
IL" and more Intelligent than the Chinese.
and the two races serve very well in COM
bination. The Portuguese make such
good field labOrers that ,ney generally
/ receive higher wages than any others,
and even these they often give up to be
come day laborers in Honolulu. In view
of the abundance of labor here now OF
fairly satisfactory kind, the planters
are quite willing to forego tn advantages
which the contract labor system has
given them in the past. They realize that
flNnfF To-.
Dor under a free system. nd they are
perfectly willing to accept this situation.
But the question of the su fls g is diff
feTent. Senator Cullom. one of the
shrewdest men who ever came down here
looked over the ground very thoroughly,
and saw Of his own initiative that there
should be property qualification at
taChed to the vote for Senators in the
local legislature. As originally drafted.
the Cullom bill contained a proviso to the
effect that only those persons should be
eligible to vote for Senator who owned
property to the value of Loco, or received
an income of $50 a month. This clause
was cut out in committee, and probably
few people who have not been here real
ize what IL means to the white people of
Hawaii, and indirectly to the United
States whole. In spite Of the large
number OF Hawaiians and Orientals on
these islands this is essentially an Am
erican community. White men chleny
and have made it one of the most tros-
porous and modern and progressive places
in the world. II is an almost Ideally or
dered community, with a very efficient
and exceedingly clean government. Prac-
tically all the respectable people are on
the side of the government Ever since
they overthrow the corrupt monarchy in
January, 1898. they have been working for
annexation to the United States. The
people who have built up, these Islands
from nothing. and who have in them
everything they possess, naturally desire
that this kind of government should be
continued. To that end they consider that
while the House of Representative
should of course, be elected by the suff-
RACES of all the population able to read
and write. the Senate should be composed
of men elected by those who have stake
i'm the country, some definite interest in
- of