The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-08-07
THE WHITE MANS BURDEN.


The white mans burden, collectively,
is to be his brothers. keeper throughout
the world. He has assumed 1t as
duty to see that good government shall
obtain in every section of Gods foot
stool. that the enslavement of man
shall cease throughout the globe; that
without respect to color all parts of the
earth shall be free and open to the ac-
cess of the inhabitants of any other
part.
1t Is prognosticated that the Teutonic
race will dominate the globe, not per-
haps to rule every section, but that the
influence of the Teutonic or Anglo
Saxon race shall be so powerfully felt
in every section that its mandates VIII
be obeyed. The prime reason for such
prognostication is the love of home
which is inherent in the Teutons and
which they carry with them in their
peregrinations. The maintaining of
the purity of the home is unquestion-
ably the strongest trait of character
amongst those peoples. In ancient
times the women Of Germany fought
side by side with the men in defense of
their homes, and the continual incite-
ment they exercised over their sons and
brothers towards that end has been re-
peated by following generations in both
England and America.
In looking back over the history OF
Babylon, Egypt Greece and Rome we
note that those nations, and probably
as great nations who preceded them,
have utterly persisted off the face OF
the globe. In searching for the causes
hut ana n
clusion and that is their lack of having
any burden like "the white mans bur-
den" The manner in which they treat
ed their neighbors: the wagins or I'M
necessary war upon them for the
avowed purpose of enslaving them ana
carrying off the accumulations of those
peoples, that the conqueror might en-
Joy the fruit of the labors of others,
without the care of filling the soil or
manufacturing the products of the for
ests and mines.
without attributing this decline and
fall to the Creator as a punishment
meted out as avenging the oppressed
we know that the enslaving of man
and the forceful taking of his earnings
and products tended to enervate and
emasculate the conqueror and unified
him for the defense of his citadel when
in course of time he was in turn at
tackled.
The white mans burden, individual
ly, is to conduct himself, amidst
temptations, in such a manner as to
obtain the respect of his fellows with
out respect to color or previous condi-
lions of servitude. In all parts of the
world we find the white man, with his
superior cunning and power, individ-
ually taking advantage of the abOrig-
ines of those countries. We find him
cheating the native of his birthright;
wheedling him out of his land for a
few baubles; taking his services for a
mere Iittance of their value; and in a
thousand pseudo-legal ways imposing
upon him.
Probably the result will be the same
as we have seen in regard to nations:
the individual cheaters and imposers
on their fellow men will slowly estab
lish regulations which will ultimately
cause their social downfall All the
struggles they may eventually make to
retain their ill-gotten gains will be
futile and they and their children, who
will assuredly inherit the traits of their
fathers, will be as certainly lost as the
site of Babylon. 1t behooves, therefore,
each individual in his dealings with
aborigines in new lands to be fair and
honest in all his transactions.
The white man demands the right to
explore and exploit foreign lands.
Should he deny a similar privilege in
his own land to the inhabitant of other
lands he assumes a burden which may
crush him eventually. He claims the
right to use the rivers, waterfalls. |
mines, and the right to unrestricted
trade and travel in alien lands: let him |
be careful how far he denies similar /
privileges to the inhabitants of those |
lands in his own land. There is no
objection to these natural
aspirations, for the world was made for
the inhabitants generally, but we
should beware lest in denying similar
privileges to others that we are not
superinducing n burden
which will assuredly react to our great
injury.
Thus "the white mans burden" has
wo characters, national and individual.
In the one. nations must be reciprocal
n their dealings with each other, AMI
while insisting on good government and
I'll that implies, in it's neighbours ter
tory, ii must protect the weak against
he aggressor. In the other, individuals
must be fair and honest in their deal
ngs with their fellow men in alien
ands.
RumOrs of another Philippine upriS-