The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-08
ADMISSION DAY.

ADWiOSiON OhIs
Hawaii should feel something more
than a passing interest in the day
which Calfornians celebrate tomorrow.
the fiftieth anniversary of the adnis-
sion of that State to the Union. II Is
not only because California Is our near
est Mainland point under the Stars and
Stripes and the possessor of so much
of our trade. and because we have many
Californians among us, but for the
reason that the destiny of the Golden
state has decisively influenced our own.
1t was written in the beginning that
whatever master race should own Cal
ifornia would also own Hawaii. Had a
British Admiral on his way to annex
the great Mexican province arrived at
Monterey a day or two sooner than the
American Admiral bent on the same
errand, Hawaii to-day. in all probable
ity, would belong to the British Empire.
Had the Russians acted at an ear
lier time Hawaii might now be an out
post OF the Car. Our national fate was
held in the balance when California
came under peril of the Southern Con-
federacy. Seeing how vast an influence
the stream of California gold flowing
to Washington i'm the dark days of the
Civil War had upon the preservation
of the Union 1t is possible that the
secession of the treasure-house COM
monwealth might have established
the Southern Empire on a firm founda-
ton. In that event who knows but
these Islands would now be barony
of the Slave Power?
But the influence has not been all
one-sided. Mexican Dons of old cal
ifornia used to send their children here
to be educated by the French priests,
and after 1919 the rich pioneers follow
ed the custom and entered their sons
in our Catholic, Protestant and secular
schools. Now and then the obituary of
some middle-aged Native Son contains
the statement that he was taught at
Honolulu. Another thing to remember
in connection with the natal day of the
Golden State is that Hawaii helped TO
feed the Argonauts, who raised no
crops for themselves; and that the first
newspaper printed in California, or
anywhere west of the Coast range,
came from a press that had been ship
ped from here.
AS BELTS near neighbors at times mu
tually interdependent California and
Hawaii have always been on friendly
footing. Some great men at the other
end Of the long ferry owe their ducal
wealth TO Hawaiian cane fields; we, in
turn. owe for the aid given to the rec
iprocity treaty, to island commerce
and to the annexation movement, by a
friendly California sentiment. One day
when we want to be a State California
will help US in. Larger than some en-
pires she has no small prejudices
afnCf 49, lrlI
complain of Hawaiian State any more
than she did of a Nevadan. She will
be generous-Ininded in the future as in
the past.
The celebration of the semi-centen-
NAL should be enthusiastic wherever
there are enough Native Sons together
to set each others imaginations on fire.
New States have more to celebrate
han California. over a billion dollars
worth Of gold has been taken from her
streams and lodges. There is room
within her borders, judging from the
example of Japan-a territory of SINH
lar size-for half the population of
the United States. The agricultural
and commercial potentiality of Califor-
MIA Is so enormous that no one has I'M
dertaken to compute it. The time may
come when California will have more
people, more wealth. more commerce
and more fame in the contemporaneous
world than France. Fifty years make
but a brief span in the life of State
yet see what fifty years have done for
the land which Daniel webster, in 1874,
declared to be desert lair of wild
men and wild beasts. What may not
an hundred years do towards realizing,
in the broadest and truest sense, the
vision of old Timothy Dwight, some
time President of Yale who. in the lat
ter days of the Eighteenth century
wrote these lines on the expanding flu
ture of America?
All hail. thou Western world. by Heaven
designed.
The example bright to renovate mankind
Soon shall thy sons across the mainland
roam
And claim on far Pecific's shore a home
Their rule. religion. manners. art convey
And spread their freedom TO the Asian
sea.
Towns. cities. fanes. shall raise their tow
ering pride,
Proud commences mole the western
surges lave,
The long white spire be imaged on the
wave.
Where marshes termed with death shall
meads unfold.
Untrodden cliffs resign their stores OF
gold.
Where slept perennial night shall science
Ard new born oxfords cheer the evening
skies.