The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-07-23
MISSIONARIES AND
THE SILK BUSINESS

| The Friend, which is out for July, is
| a humber of special interest. Among
the notable articles is one by Rev. S. E.
| Bishop, D. D., headed, Ibid the Mis-
sionaries Destroy the Silk Business in
Hawaii?" 1t is as follows:
Such an allegation used to be heard
here over fifty years ago, among nu-
Imerous charges made by persons hos
tile to missionaries. That stale charge
was revived last year and published by
President G. Stanley Hall of Clark Uni
versity, in Worcester, Mass. He found
it in a book published by some German
visitor to Honolulu. The present writ
| er was asked by the editor of The In
| dependent of New York to report the
truth in the matter; but his statement
was anticipated by Mr.. Gorham D. Gill
man of Boston, who had personal
knowledge on the subject.
| The substance of the charge was that
the missionaries would not permit the
4 natives u ltcd the SllhN VI iiiS Oli liz
Sabbath day. in consequence of which
the attempt to produce silk became a
failure with great loss to the white men
who had undertaken the business. That
charge was absolutely denied by all the
missionaries and their friends. Those
excellent people were all anxious to
have the silk enterprise prosper, as fur
nishing needed employment to the ma
tives; and while they taught the people
religiously to observe the Sabbath, they
carefully instructed them that it was
lawful to perform any necessary labor
on that day.
The present writer is able to testify
, that at the age of eleven, in 1888, he
visited the home of Rev. P. ]. Gulick
at Koloa, Kauai, where he saw silk
worms fed and silk reeled in Mr. Gu
lick's own house. At the same time,
Mr.. Titcomb had a considerable plan
tation of mulberry-tre in the vicinity,
and was breeding silkworms and reel
ing silk on a considerable scale. The
missionary Gulick, certainly favored
the undertaking. Mr.. Hooper was at
the same time conducting a small sugar
plantation at the same place; and
much was said about the immense adj
vantage it was to the natives to be able
to earn twelve and a half cents day
by their labor, as they could do no
where else in the Islands except in the
sea-ports.
The failure of silk-culture as a COM
mercial enterprise appears to have been
owing mainly to the absence of the
trained and patient skill necessary in
the laborers employed. Hawaiians were
incompetent for success in such work,
which needs a rural population like
those in China, Japan or France. Mr..
Gilman quoted Mr.. James Jackson
Jarves in reference to the latter's own !
failure in silk production, which he at !
tributes to various difficulties in the |
care of the worms. making no allusion |
to the Sabbath question. Mr.. Gilman |
was himself in the later forties a luna |
on a plantation under Mr.. Titcomb at
but does not recall Mr.. It's
his failure to any Sunday
1t is not improbable that some fric-
ton might have arisen on the Sabbath
labor question, but not owing to mis-
sion influence. The natives inherited !!
from pagan times extremely rigid !
habits about the observance of any
taboo days. The Sabbath was always
known as ''Ka La Kapu.' the Taboo
lay. Under heather regime, it was
death for any one to be found working
IN a tabu-day, and the people trans
-erred sach strict notions to the Chris
ian Sabbath. As an example, the late
Mr.. +. -. Hall. when missionary. was
Dnce stopped by a native constable
when crossing the street to his own
house on Sunday with a pail of water.
So it is quite possible that native en-
Dloyees may have shirked duty on the
plea of Sabbath violation. But that
vas not the missionary's fault
s. E. BISHOP. "