Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1901-02-13
IMMIGRANT INFLUENCE ON
The HOME.

p'NllNG lNhllsI ANS upOl luc uOluSS VI
the country?
This Is the first question that arises
In the minds Of the so-callcd middle
glasses in every civilized community
This middle class in Hawaii is best dc.
scribed as those families whose income
will not allow them to send their chill.
dren to private schools the people
whose children must perforcc be
thrown in close association with the
offspring of he immigrants in the COM
mon school and on the street and the
teachings Of the pure and upright home
destroyed by association with low
ideals or held true to their course by a
high standard Of morality pervading
the whole community. Hawaii's mid
die class Of this character is compare
lively small unfortunately. but upon
the preservation of its integrity upon
Its increase through immigration de-
ponds the future standards of progress
sive honest citizenship in this Terri
tory. The philanthrOpists may build
their churches. establish schools. the
narrow minded newly rich may endow
the institutions. but If these people
with the other hand spend money or
lend their support by active effort
or Indifference to the influence of a
servile or degraded class of labor they
thereby fill the trojan horse that will
yield a product which neither the per-
functory influence Of the church or
the bencfcient power of the common
school can successfully combat
History of our own Islands. our own
country and every other country on the
face of the globe has taught this les
son with such unfailing regularity. that
none though a fool need go astray.
The philanthropists know II. the prac-
teal men and theorists know it, the
middle class fully appreciates the fact
and the newly rich" are not ignorant
OF IT, though the knowledge of this last
class doesn't amount to much since
its people are so taken up with their
own assumed self Importance.
Hence 1t is that with the anounce-
ment that several thousand negro fami-
lies are to be imported to Hawaii. the
people renew the question. What Is to
be the influence of the negro In the
homes OF Hawaii?
The latest bulletin of the Federal de-
partment of labor contains "a social
study Of the negroes of Sandy Springs.
Maryland. This thorough study of a
mixed community close to the national
capital, surrounded by the best of in
fluences Is not such as to raise the
hopes of citizens of Hawaii when CON
templating the importation of large
numbers of negroes. The negro popula-
ton Of Sandy Springs dates back to the
earliest days OF the American Repub-
lie. The sentiment against slavery was
such that many were freed before the !
Civil War They had their schools
then. they have more progressive |
schools now. They have churches. OF
the $50 males and females in the town.
80 per cent are engaged in agricultural
and domestic service. A good proper
ton of these negroes operate their own
farms though omparatively few own
their homes.
Gagged by Surroundings and oppor-
tunlties past and present, the negro Of
Sandy Springs ought to be a man or
woman Of high standards If the race as
a whole has capacity for high develop.
ment.
Figures do not show the negro of |
Sandyville to be a criminal. He seems
to be law abiding But what Of the .
home? What of the surroundings Of .
the children? Legitimate children
are common; Informal separations Of
married people have been followed by
more or less formal marriages with
third and fourth persons" more than
once two widows have been seen ami
cably and deCently mourning by the
bier of the same defunct husband"
These are cited as matters that put |
the statistician in a dilemma" There .
is no necessity to draw attention to the
standards of morality thereby exempl,
fed.
Speaking Of the value Of negroes in
domestic service the statistiCan says,
I'm spite of the good example given
them they do not seem in any large pro-
portion at least, to learn to honor the
" DIRK they have chosen to the extent
Of doing it from a sense of duty.
promptly and thoroughly, nor to re-
rain from the very human desire to do
else more agreeable and less
There Is a small
group Of women, several of them orr
ylnally slaves, who are as shining Jew
us inthe hOusekeepers' eyes; but only
few Of them are in domestic service"
Taken by and large this report tends {
o show that Hawaii Is to add TO its |
its community of homes, a {
'eople of lax morals, a people who I
york not from a sense of duty or from I
IN interest in what they are doing, an |
Irresponsible class that must be edu-
'ated to higher standards having few f
nborn or racial tendenc' rs to high a