The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-15
LlBELS ON HAWAII.

chief New England port, with signal
ability. His retirement only came
when Hawaii ceased to have consuls;
but Notwithstanding the end of official
relations Mr.. Gilman has continued to
serve this country with all his former
zeal and in an even broader and more
effective way than before.
Every now and then some influential
man, who has been misled about the
history of Hawaii, in turn misrepre-
i sents the people or the institutions of
i the Islands. If the attack is one that
ought to be repulsed, Mr.. Gilman meets
! it with an array of facts and arguments
which at once settles the questions in
dispute. The latest instance of this
kind Of service was reported in yes
| terday's Advertiser. It shows how Mr..
/ Gilman worsted Prof G.. Stanley Hall
| Of Clarke University. the man who had
; charged the early missionaries here with
checking the growth of native popula-
ton, lowering native culture and de-
Z
! least one legitimate means of liveli-l
hood. 1t was an astonishing charge for
! university professor to make and it
! served to show, in its evidence of wide
spread and deep-rooted nisapprehen-
sions about Hawaii and it's civilizers,
! the need of the kind of service that Mr..
! Csilnon ;s raudarinp
The missionary is everywhere a
much-maligned person. It pleases
| those who do not think well of religion
| to describe him as disturber of the
peace in Armenia, looter of palaces
| in China, sybarite in India and Japan
and a land grabber in Hawaii. In for
| ty-nine cases out of fifty the charge has
nothing but prejudice TO rest upon.
Certainly it has little else here, where,
SO far as we can learn, but one. or two
of the throng Of missionaries to Ha-
wall left their children a decent COM
netency IF many of these children,
! not missionaries themselves, have done
well in business, that is no fault of the
mission fathers but, If a fault at all,
it must be attributed to the industry,
sagacity and thrift of business men of
New England blood. Unfortunately
the total accommodations of all white
people here, the veriest minority of
whom have a missionary origin or de-
scent, is laid to the discredit of the
missionary class, until it would appear
as if the professional religious workers
of Hawaii had done nothing but steal
from their converts since the day of
their landing on this beach. An analy-
sis of the assessment roll would con-
vince any one to the contrary, but no
alien investigator ever takes the
trouble to make it.
The charges uttered by Professor
/! Hall. are however. new. No one, so
| far as we know. has ever before made
the missionaries bear the blame of the
introduction of those pestilential dis
eases which, during and after the
time of Cooks discovery, swept away
so many of the natives and undermined
the constitutions of the rest. Hereto
| fore the blame has gone where it be-
longs. to sailors, beachcombers and
| other adventurers. AS to an indigo
nous native culture" here, the phrase
| is somewhat indefinite; but the critics
of Hawaii may rest assured that any
thing worth preserving and building
carefully held together by the mission
aries as foundation for Christianity.
But there could not have been much
in a race given over for centuries to
4 idolatry, witchcraft, war and individ-
ual vice. What culture the native race
). has It acquired from white example
!, and teaching. Az
4 The final accusation made by Profess
, sor Hall. namely that the missionaries
, killed the native silk worm industry by
! a too rigid observance of the Sunday
i law, is almost diverting., AS Mr.. Gill
, man points out in a letter to a Boston
paper, the cultivation of the silk worm
was made improbable by the warmth
l of the climate and was attempted by
E a white man, who. though not in sym
pathy with the beliefs of the mission
r aries, bore frequent written testimony
:, to their unselfish usefulness. Where the
$ Blue law story came from can hardly
! be fathomed. 1t may have been
e dreamed.
: Considering the high place held in
: New England by Professor Hall it Is
< most fortunate for the truth Of history
that there was man like Mr.. Gilman
on the ground to challenge and correct
I his statements. The former consul gen.
Il eral is defender of the good name o.
0 Hawaii whom the boldest accuser i!
: soon taught to respect; but it is pit,
u that he is forced to enter the fray 81
q often. Long before this time the trutl
. about the civilization of Hawaii at mis-