The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-31
STATEHOOD.



Delegate Wilcox has been quick to see
that Statehood. if it ever comes to Ha-
wall. will be a plant of SLOW growth.
Before he went to Washington he felt
sure that the great prize would be had
for the asking, but contact with Amer
lean politics at it's focal point taught
him better. He now classes his State
hood policy with mere preliminary
measures that look a long way ahead;
and doubtless, if he were to confess the
whole truth he would say that rev
PEOPLE now living may reasonably ex-
meet the day when Hawaii will ex-
change it's Territorial swaddling clothes
for the toga of State privilege and
dignity.
The history of New Mexico and Ari-
iona has been one of constant but I'M
availing. struggle for Statehood; and
vet New Mexico, ten years ago, had
l53, 593 population, or one trifie larger
than that of Hawaii now. Arizona was
organized as a Territory in 1863 and
New Mexico in 1850, so the latter has
been held as Territory for forty-one
years. Why did New Mexico not come in
long ago, seeing that other Territories
of later origin and smaller population
have become States? The reason Is
one that applies with singular fidelity
to Hawaii-the presence of a mongrel
voting population, not to be depended
on for carrying out the Anglo-SaXon
ideals of government. = In New Mexico
the mixture is Mexican and aboriginal;
here it has a marked aboriginal basis
with an infusion of Latin strains and
great confusion of strains in pros
pect OF the two Territories Hawaii is
least fitted for the exercise of State
duty and so long as 1t is necessary for
the safety of our sugar interests to
import alien labor, and while the ma
tives are in a voting majority, so long
will Statehood be withheld from us.
New Mexico and Arizona, when they
appeal for promotion on the ground
that Nevada and Wyoming and Utah
have had 1t and that Oklahoma is to
have 1t soon, are always told emphati-
cally that these Territories had a white
American majority and that, even
then, it was mistake to admit Ne
vada. The same answer would be
made to Hawaii.
The advocates of Statehood argue
alphabetically that the time may
come when Congress, if held by a mar
row majority, will admit Hawaii mere
Iy to gain two Senators and a Congress-
man to reinforce the party in power
That was the argument for admitting
two or three Territories, including Ne
vada, but the political results in those
cases have made Congress doubtful of
it's value. Each rewarded Territory
forgot its political creator and ran aft
er false gods. Admitted to help one
party it supported another, proving
how true it is in politics that gratitude
recks nothing of the past but is mere
ly lively sense of favors to come
Surely In view of the ease with which
the native majority here forgets it's
pledges and sneers at honor and pro-
bity as the Home Rule Legislature has
continuously done, there is nothing in
Hawaiian promise which would give
this Territory more credit as an appli-
cant for Statehood than would be
granted a Territory on the Mainland.
The part of wisdom Is for our people
to indulge in no iridescent dreams of
Statehood but to do their best to get
for Hawaii the guarantees that its
Territorial integrity will be preserved
Since the insular decisions were rem
dered even that is in peril and there is
already talk in the papers of altering
the Organic Act and sending COM
mission here to rule us. We must,
therefore, try and save what we have,
rather than to grasp for the greater
things that are unattainable. To be
sure, there are those among us who de-
spair of ever having honest and intel
ligent home rule and point to the rec
ord of the First Territorial Legislature
to show why But there is a sure way
of defense from the vote of the preju-
diced. the alien and the ignorant, and
that is In an American franchise which
shall conf1ne the suffrage to those,
otherwise competent, who can read and
write the English language. Once this
change has been made the political sit
1,e tiop Of Hawaii will he cJea red IN