The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-07
BLENDING RACES.

Inc only Sd1ety LOT QecayluS races
Is a cross with q stronger strain and
this fact, as the Rev. DIR. Bishop points
out in an article which we quote else
where, is having q limited local illustra
ton in the cases of the Hawaiians and
Chinese. Where the two races have In
termarried the result has been children
OF a far stronger type than the pure
Hawaiian and of finer fiber than the
pure Chinese. The man of mixed blood
has Chinese thrift, industry and pre-
cision ana Hawaiian dignity, adaptable
ity aid grace. We shall not be in
yidious but there are many personal
examples in Hawaii that might be
cited.
We do not doubt that if there could
be a general intermixture of Chinese
and Hawaiians, Chinese men marrying
Hawaiian women and Hawaiian men
marrying Chinese women, the result
would be population capable of hold
ing its own in these Islands against
all competitors and for indefinite CEN
turtles to come. 1t must be plain by this
time to observing Hawaiians that the
pure Polynesian strain is doomed. Why
1t Is doomed we need not say, but each
census shows that it is gradually but
9surely disappearing. It needs strength
ening from without and apparently the
yellow strain combines with it to bet
ter advantage than the white. For
.tunate the Hawaiians are in having
even this half chance for a racial sur
vival; more fortunate indeed than are
the decaying races of Southern Europe
for whom there seems to be no hope of
regeneration.
In ancient Europe when race be-
came weak In the elements CT self
perpe tuation and progress, some army
Of uncouth but virile savages arose out
of the abysses- of the woods or the
miragcs of the desert, killed the men
and mated with the women, producing
a race which was better than either of
it's progenitors. The descendants of the
Moors and Spaniards were, before they,
IN turn, came to a period of decay a
powerful element in war, commerce and
adventure. In fact all the great inva-
sions of Southern Europe were needed
to replenish an impoverished human
strain and they did so, much to the
advantage in the long run of civiliza-
ton. But now that decay has come
again what can De zone TO relieve 1t
The time has lassed for armies to, over
run a race in the old brutal way and
absorb 1t by main force; war no longer
does that high service to posterity
There seems, withal, to be no substi-
tute. The Southern European races dc
not intermarry and they have no taste
for miscegenating remedies for the de-
cay which Is entering their bones and
striking at their vitals. Probably the
negro could save Spain and Italy, but
who would Introduce him? How could
he "arrive?" The Chinaman might
make those nations great and power
full; 80 might the Russian. The SouTt
American republics which amount tc
anything, like Mexico and Chile, de-
rive their race advantages from the In
dian; but neither Indian, negro nor Slay
are at the service of the weakening
Latin peoples, and in the nature oil
things the latter must gradually disap-
pear. Even France, splendid as she is In
many ways, begins to see the hand
writing on the wall of destiny.
But so far as the Hawaiians absorb
Chinese blood they are safe. They get
1t from only one side, yet the results
are apparent now in a large and grow
ing element of island citizenship which
compares, in the hardy business and in
dustrial virtues, with any race that
ever set foot on these shores.