Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-03
The Senatorial Commission
Hearing Witnesses in Hilo.
D0LE'S ENEMIES ACTIVE
CHARGES AGAINST THE ADMINS
TRATIoN TO BlsLArER REFUTED.
Labor, Grown Lands, Revolution Of 'o3
and Convict System Dis
cussed.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

HILO. Hawaii, T. H., Sept 10, 1902.
AFTER week Of very busy sessions In Hon
olulu, Senators Mitchell, Foster and Bur-
ton, composing the United States Senate
commission on Hawaiian affairs, have come
to Hilo, where they held an open meeting
last night. On the steamer between Maui
and Hawaii the commission sat and heard
the evidence Of citizens of Maui, who board
ed the steamer at Lahaina, AMI within half
an hour after they landed in Hilo the COM
s1oners were at work again.
- Inc Honolulu sessions were largely taken
up by the enemies of Gov. Dole, who have
seized upon the opportunity of the visits of
the commission to bring forward all the
charges they can think of. Judge Hum
phreys was heard at great length, severely
oenouncing the planters for bringing Asiat-
les into the country. and the Dole admins
tration for having allowed it. In this he is
practlcaaly alone. The men who have APP
peared before the commission are nearly
unanimous In the opinion that Hawaii
needs oriental labor, and with few excep-
llons al 1aVor Chinese immigration, under
proper restrictions, for a limited period of
time. Every expert on the subject agrees
mat whites cannot be secured for the cane
heids, and that Chinese, if allowed to come
under laws that will compel them to do
only agricultural labor, will develop the
country, not only without injury to white
skilled labor. but with benefit to such labor.
Onder present conditions the Chinese and
JapS nave driven white skilled labor out of
business. and this is being made the most
OF. In both Honolulu and Hilo the Asiatic
skilled laborer is distinctly on top, but it is
agreed that the remedy is not in exclusion,
put IN immigration under proper conditions.
On every island the planters are unable to
secure labor for their crops. Whites will
not come to do the work but there is an
unlimited number of Chinese who will come,
under a law absolutely restricting them to
agricultural labor.
The Dethronement.
The reinforcement of ex-Queen L1iu ka-
lani receives much att ention from the COM
mission, and there is every indication that
the senators are dispo ed t. think that she
should receive some reimbursement for the
crown lands. While on the seamer be-
tween Honolulu and Hilo Primo CUPID was
exam med by the commissioners, ais Sena-
tor Cecil Brown. Both thoug IN Re-
majesty should be reimbursed. In fact,
nearly every witness that has come before
the senator's has taken tbs view. Prince
Cupid said that the overthrow waa the
direct result of the interference of A Y eri-
can marines from the u. S. S. Boston, while
Brown said that without the in; erve- t on
OF the American marines the revolution
could not have besn ACCOMPLISHED W thout
much bloodshsd.
After listening to Judge Fumph eys' at
tacks on the Dole administrati In H 1no-
lulu. the commissioners were p epared f r
similar attacks by Judge Little in Hio
Little Is quite we'll known in Washingt n
having been one of those who assisted In
framing the organic act of Hawaii and was
recently much talked CT as candidate for
governor He sailed into the Dole oil
garchy" in very vigorous terms. and de-
clared that the queen had been deposed
without right or pre:ense of right. TIE
marines from the Boston had done the
-or1<
revolutonists had had was that her mai
esty was about to promulgate a constitu-
ton under which natives would have had
the right to vote. Under ross-examinaton
by Secretary Cooper, Little admitted that
the queens proposed new constitution
would disfranchise the whites and that he
was testifying from hearsay, not having
been IN Hawaii when the overthrow oc-
CURED. He was testifying from common
opinion all over the islands" as he heard it,
City and County Government.
Little wanted city and county government
at once. During tho discussion of this
question the commission got into its record
the famous city and county government act
of the last home rule legislature. This
bill passed and was killed by pocket veto
by Governor Dole. who has ever since been
accused of being opposed to city and coun-
ty government. The bill consisted of a
lot of sections clipped from the laws of
various states and territories, and never
revised. So hastily had it been put to-
gether that in one section the words ter
ritory of Nebraska remained in the COW
that passed the house. Similarly there
were provisions for fuel for school houses.
clipped from some state law where such
things are needed. The sections overturned
and the whole act was a legal impossibility.
After it went to the governor nothing more
was heard of it.
Senator Mitchell asked for copv of the
oct fn1d of Dol a'c
Loebenstein a Hilo attorney. who attacked
the administration of Hawaiis land laws
Mitchell was promised one, and ordered it
made a part of the record. 1t is a whole
volume in itself, and will make the pro-
ceedings of the Hawaiian commission very
volumnous aside from the long transcripts
Of testimony.
The police department of the Island of
Hawaii was severely criticized in questions
from Senator Burton. He brought out the
fact that convicts were sometimes worked
on the public highways with ball and
chain attached to them. Sheriff Andrews
testified that this was only done in cases
Of convicts who had escaped and been re-
captured. Burton thought it was a brutal
spectacle for children to Witness and when
he found that the ball and chain were rivet-
ted on in such cases, and remained with the
convict day and night, permanently he ask
ed if Andrews considered such punishment
humane. you and I would differ as to
what is humane" he said in answer to An
drews' defense of the system.
Coffee.
Hawaii's coffee industry received much
attention. Witnesses brought out the fact
that the fall in the price of coffee, as a con-
sequence of the iH1portations from Guate-
mala and South America, had ruined the
industry In Hawaii. One firm had dropped
100000 in the business and one witness
testified that he had a crop of $4,000 on
his lands and would mot pick it at all.
partly owing to the lew price and partly
owing to the fact that he could not get
labor The land was running to weeds The
Brazilian labor rate was said to be Sc per
month, silver. a'''
The coffee men asked for protective
tariff of FIVE cents pound on coffee With
this amount of protection they thought
that Hawaii, Porto Rice and the Philippines
would soon be able to supply the entire
American market. The senators appeared
to think that tariff was impossible, but
that bounty might be given. Senator Bur-
ton inquired If a bounty of four cents a
pound for five years and two and a half
cents after that would set the industry on
its feet, and some of the coffee men thought
1t would If the labor situation was I'm
proved.
Changes Apparently Favored.