The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-12-13

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

that the president ion his message did
not understand the Hawaiian land
question. And Immediately the publi-
Secretary Cooper. both appointees of
the late President Mci.inloy, began to
Try and put the blame ON them. There
is mo- blame to be attached to anyone,
only if anything goes wrong, or goes
into some unexpected channel it is the
nature of some minds to at once find
fault with someone. We have the chro-
mic kckers always with us. one is al
most sorry for them. life devoted to
pessimistic views and chronic kicks
must hardly be worth living.
To illustrate how hard it is to drive
information home, let us consider the
number of books, magazine articles,
with copious illustrations, the number
of newspaper articles that have been
published about the Hawaiian Islands,
and yet not long ago, a senator's daugh-
ter meeting one of our Island girls ask
ed when she knew her sufficiently,
Where did you learn English? you
speak it beautifully. Where did you
learn to wear clothes?" Now that
senator had direct knowledge of the ISL
ands by correspondence and by meet
ing island people, and was very much
interested in the Hawaiian question,
then a very live issue in Congress.
That President Roosevelt in spite of
the information supplied to him should
not fully understand the situation here
is neither to his discredit nor to the dis
credit of those who have striven to give
him information. 1t is simply a matter
of Misunderstanding Presidents are
not infallible, whatever POpes may be,
and they do not claim infallibility. They
Try to do their duty as all erring men
try to do it, and sometime, like the rest
of mankind they do not see things in
the right light, and consequently go
astray.
one can easily understand what in
fuenced President Roosevelt. He spent
much time in cuba during the Spanish
campaign. cuba is a well watered ISL
and, and has large forest tracts, prim-
eyal forest tracts. Cuba is able to sup
port a very large small farm population.
Naturally the memories of cuba came
to the Presidents mind when he
thought of a Hawaii. This territory is
a semi tropical country, and he could
imagine here copious streams and roll
ing savannahs such as he saw in Cuba.
Unfortunately there are no rolling sa-
Vannahs and no copious streams
meandering through their midst. Our
savannahs are or have been represent
ed by miles upon miles of red earth af-
fording a very scanty subsistence to a
few lean cattle, and our streams are
mountain torrents which in times of
freshet roar down to the sea many feet
high and then run dry for months,
while bushes and grasses take root in
their rocky beds and make one think
that no water ever trickles down the
channel
The red soil is fertile, wonderfully
fertile, and the water though it may not
be on the surface sinks down into deep
natural reservoirs. If water and soil
can be got together brilliant crop can
be obtained. Such results have been
brought about, but they have come
through the investment Of much capital
and the ability to improve land and ma
chinery on a large scale while waiting
for dividends at remote period.
One has only to remember what all
that stretch of land almost from the
outskirts of Honolulu to the confines Of
Waiauae used to be. In rainy times
weeds used to spring up copiously, i'm
the dry season they died down, and the
dust used to rise i'm little whirl winds
gathering i'm force as it gyratei to the
sea No small farmer ever wanted any
of that land. He could not have fed
goat off twenty or thirty acres Of il.
Now look at it, one magnificent sweep
of cane, from the foothills TO the very
sea beach, and across the lagoon on to
the Islands which formerly only raised
Algaroba for fire wood. There IS labor
for thousands of men, far more Amer
leans and Europeans are empl)ycl on
these plantation than ever would he
found on small farms, and the ncI-
chants and importers make heir profit,
nay, even the California farmer makes
his profit and the California manufac-
turers make their profit and the viticul-
turalists make their profit, out of those
magnificent fields of cane. Would they
make these profits if this land was cut
up into homesteads, which no one would
take. For to keep those ields fertile
immense pumps, working night aud day
pour water drawn from the bowels Of
the earth upon the fields, millions Upon
millions of gallons, and pumps mem
capital, coal, labor, which no small for
mer could pay for
But as was pointed out a paragraph
is not going to destroy the sugar in
dustry of this Territory. If the Prcsi-
dent does not understand conditions
here, there are congressman and Sen
ators who do from actual observation,
so we need not be troubled, The reci-
DropitU hing bpar NAV he ronSidarad 9