The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-03
AN ADDRESS BY
JAMES W. GIRVIN
Congress Will Be Asked to Admit
5000 Chinese Per Annum
to Hawaii.

emit to hear an address by James W.
Siryin on the Exclusion Law. Lin Shin
Chow presided and w. Quai Fong acted
as Mr. Girvins interpreter. There was
much enthusiasm among the Celestials
present over what they believed to be
the prospects for introducing more Chi
nese labor here and for getting the en-
acting clause out of the Exclusion law.
1t was decided to draw up a petition
to Congress for the relief Of the Hawai-
ian labor market by the admission Of
!, 900 Chinese annually; also memorial
against the reenactment of the Geary
law.
Mr.. Girvin's address was quite
lengthy and concluded as follows:
Now. in Hawaii which was annexed to
the United States by joint resolution or
Congress, which went into effect on the
14th day of August, A. d. 1888, we nave
all the benefits 90 of this exclusion law.
To show you with what avidity the
Chinaman is pursued by the American
u, E
cial is to get job, it was ordered that
the exclusion act be put into immediate
effect, even before the United States
government had supplied the machinery
to carry 1t out. The first step was to re-
pudiate all permits to return issued by
the independent Hawaiian government.
This was the most dastardly attempt on
record. Some of the States of the Union
have repudiated their obligations to pay
their debts for goods had and delivered;
but this attempted reputation of con-
tracts made by an Independent sever
eign nation was carrying the repud!a-
ton scheme beyond the boundaries of the
repudiating country. The weak Chinese
on his return to the country of his adop-
tion, was refused landing, and that too
by an officer of the Hawaiian govern
ment, there being no United States Col
lector ,of Customs into whose hands
congress had placed the enforcement of
the exclusion act. The Chinese appeal
ed to the Supreme Court on writs of ha-
beas corpus, but this awaited them moth
ing. Not only this, but the Hawaiian
officials (who were largely paid by taxes
best obtainable counsel to defeat the
Chinaman. Finally, on seeing the failure
of all attempts to secure the rights
which nature and the Hawaiian govern
ment had granted to these rejected re-
turner's, 1 wrote a personal letter to Pres
ident Mckinley, explaining the whole
matter (since Congress had placed In his
hands the governing of Hawai), and ask
ed him to place it in the department
where it belonged for immediate remedy
The reply came Immediately, and by the
following mail came an order to "honor
all permits issued by the Hawaiian gov
ernment," and a ruling from the Attor-
ney General. Numerically the opposite
OF one he had made a few weeks pre-
Vlously. You thus had sample of what
you were to receive from American off,
Gals, whose decisions have the force of
law, until overruled.
Then came the organic act which went
INTO effect on the Nth of June, A D.
1900, which really supplied the machin-
cry for enforcing the exclusion act I'm
der it the Chinese laborers In Hawaii
We're given one year in which to register
under penalty of deportation on failure.
here we see some more of the nefarious
effects of this exclusion act A people
VINO had been given the rights of resi-
dence and the pursuit of happiness by
an independent sovereign power, are
forced on the accidental annexation of
the rights of sovereignty of Hawaii to
register, or wear a tag on their necks
IKE dog under the ban of the dog-tax
law. l am right in calling 1t the acct
dental annexation of Hawaii. as all the
pest thinkers of America and Hawaii
Know that but for the victory of Dewey
at Manila. Hawaii would not have been
annexed for many a year.
You have witnessed the enforcement of
the EXCLUSION act for some time, and I'M
fortunately have noticed some very
heartrending scenes. Such, for instance,
as the carrying off of wife by a United
States officer, and her screaming and
crying at being deported, to be placed
on vessel for deportation. Her husband
hao the right to live here and she had
not. The husband and his family fol-
lowing all crying at the unnatural out
rage. The ante-bellum days when slav-
cry IN the South was legal never witness
ed more shocking inhuman enforce
Weht or law. Then again, you have Wit
messed the separation of wives from hus-
bands, children from ia Tiers and mothers
etc, etc., until the very pen revolts at
the recital of them. You have heard a
United States Judge state from the
bench that he never did believe Chinese,
d.d not believe Chinese, and never would
believe Chinese testimony" This, too, in
country where Chinese testimony has
been given due weight for the past fifty
years, without materially affecting JUS
tice.
Not only have you seen the injustice
to persons from this most ubiquitous ex-
clusion act, but already you are begin
ming to feel It's balefui effects on the
prosperity of the country. For lack of
| labor several of the smaller sugar plan
tations have had to close down and sus-
pend operations. Ownership In sugar
stock has already deprecated on account
of the acknowledged scarcity of labor
The price of labor In the rice fields has
| SO greatly appreciated that some plant
| ers admit that without a remedy the
finish is In sight. Singular to say, th
only class of labor that can meet thi
contingency is Chinese, as they are tn
only people who can work in the ric
patches. This industry Is almost who'll
controlled by Chinese capital, and tn
loss in its enforced abandonment will b
theirs. Although misery loves compan,