BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-04-12
Governor D0e'S Work N H0VlII'

Governor Sanford B. Dole has been
summoned from Honolulu to Washing
ton to confer with the President in re-
gard to the affairs of Hawaii. The go
vernnent of that territory is being car
ried on under very difficult conditions,
and there is no doubt that Mr.. Dole is
highly unpopular with the exceedingly
mixed majority of the islanders. He is
out of harmony with the Legislature,
bitterly disliked by a small minority of
the American residents, and his visit to
Washington has evidently been arrang-
ed to acquaint the President with the
true state of affairs in Hawaii and to
Justify his course. His opponents are
trying to have him replaced by Col.
Parker, who is popular III many ways,
but not, therefore, best fitted to govern
such political and racial hotchzpotch
as the inhabitants Of Hawaii.
Governor Dole has evidently found
an American governorship more diff
cult than his former little presidency,
and if the accounts of correspondents
are true Americans have done the most
to unsettle and discredit him when he
was trying to do his best. They have
been fo1nenters of discord, inoculating
the natives with few cheap notions OF
democracy about Office holding, They
came to Hawaii for business gain after
anne sation, and, failing ti1at, for the
exploitation of the COVER. fnent to the
. methods of carpet-baggers. But they
found Governor Dole firmly conducting
political affairs and unwilling 10 give
: the carpet-baggers chance. These
men have turned against him and join
ed hands with the native in an agita-
ton for filling as many offices as poss-
ible with persons who are utterly inca
pab1e. If the political situation in Ha-
waii were to be described in a few
words we should say that Governor
Dole and small handful of American
officials are trying to establish a wise
and Just government while men Of
their own race are attempting to throw
that government upon the mercy OF the
crude political instincts end racial con-
fusion of Hawaiians, japanese, Portr-
guese, Chinese and a lew other m1Sce-
llanies.
Obviously the experiment of training
< Hawaii for the career OF a prosperous
t and law-abiding territory is one of the
! most interesting we can have. The
/ islands are admirably situated as a
: halfway station to control a vast
/ future Pacific trade and guards it routes.
5 But the spectacle Of 50 mixed people
+ being prepared gradually and success
f fully for self-government would be
2 far more interesting and creditable to
: us than the value. of Hawaii as a
Pacific port of call and the seat of a
naval station. Such being the case, the
duty of firmly supporting Governor
Dole is in line with the basic principle
we have already established in the
Philippines and Porto Rico, namely,
that in the government Of new posses
sions American administration shall
impose its own requirements first and
shall proceed upon the assumption that
those requirements must be met before
natives shall be admitted to share in
the government Governor Dole, in
keeping unfit natives out of Office and
governing strictly, is laying foundation
: of which these mixed races may after
ward avail themselves 1t is to be
] hoped the President will sustain him
1t would be as great a mistake, in
principle, to displace him as it would
!. be to displace the Taft Commission in
the Philippines.