The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-16
CHINATOWN MI ST 60.


The Board of Health has practically
adopted the plan. advocated by those
who do not think the plague can be
abated by halfway measures, Of burn
ing Chinatown to the ground. At pres
ent there is no intention on the part o.
the Board to leave anything standing
there except some Of the new brick or
stone buildings and not these in case
they should become infected. 4 glance
at the map published elsewhere in this
journal will show that about half OF
Chinatown has now been either burned
or condemned. In the largest block,
No. fifteen, bounded by Kukui, River,
Beretania and Nuuanu streets, the only
structure spared from condemnation Is
Kaumakapili church Blocks one, nine,
half OF blocks eight and eleven, and
block four are doomed TO early destruc-
ton while block ten, part of blocks
eight, eighteen, nineteen, thirteen and
fourteen, houses on Kuku lane and a
building on block two have already
gone up in smoke. There remain, in
whole or in part, fourteen blocks to
be dealt with and these, it is under
stood, are now being cleared of their
goods, inhabitants and merchandise
preparatory to the grand finale when
the major part of Chinatown will go
down in ashes. purified by fire.
AS paper which. from the outset.
has realized and pressed the need of
radical and searching measures, the
Advertiser feels encouraged at the
prospect for the first time. At last the
Board of Health is getting down to
business. 1t is able to do so because,
thanks in no small degree to the agita-
ton Of the press, public sentiment has
come to it's aid and sustained its arm.
The white people of the city, barring,
perhaps a few owners of Chinatown
property, are a unit for the obliteration
Of the city's plague spot so that, in
time, new and model Chinatown may
be constructed which will resist every
encTOachment of the pests that come
to us by sea.
There is no hostility toward the
Chinese as a class in the attitude which
the Advertiser has taken. We SYM
pathize with the feeling of Goo Kim as
expressed in his letter to the editor
printed elsewhere in this issue. No
doubt if the greedy owners of China
town shacks had given the Chinese a
chance to keep clean many of them
would have done so. But from one
cause or another the place has become
infected with the deadliest bacilH and
these breed for their work of death in
the putrid stew that underlies the
Asiatic quarter. II would be criminal
under such circumstances for the BoardI
OF Health TO neglect its duty out of
respect to persons. Whatever the
to Chinese, japanese, natives
and white owners may be they must
not be allowed to weigh against the
lives of the population here and against
the commercial welfare of the gronn
This ia the attitude Of the Board and
it is individually sound. 1t simply
means that the authorities have made
up their minds to stop dealing with
effects and to attack causes. The cause
of the epidemic-at least that of its
spread and continuation-is China
town. Remove this cause and the
effect will disappear.
With the policy we have described,
supplemented by the distrcung of the
city and the house to house inspec-
lions, the plague ought to be conquered
soon. The cholera yielded to these
measures and the bubonic scourge, de
prived of it's putrescent breeding
ground and assailed on every hand by
fire and dislnfectants, ought not to find
a foothold long.