The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-06
AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION PERIOD.


~ Touis Never of the Advertiser
local staff describing the undevelopet
resources of this Territory. The article
was syndicated and it appeared stimuli
teneously in the most widely-read jour
mails of the United states. The results
are seen in a manifestation OF speclal
interest among American farmers III
what Hawaii has to offer to the small
pronrietor. Apparently if the lead no"
given is followed, this Territory WILL
in a few years, be built up into typlcal
American commonwealth, making use
of all its resources and supporting an
intelligent, prosperous and contenteo
middle class.
For want of such a middle class Ha-
.,, NOW has certain feudal charac-
teristics akin to those which marked
the old South as a thing apart from the
rest of the Union. Before the war
(and to a large extent now the south
was a place where barons lived among
serfs and where, between the very r1cn
and the very poor, was no well-popu-
lated middle ground. In such relation
are many interesting and even whole
sorne things, but the highest average or
civilization, the most general prosper
ity and enlightenment, the firmest safe
guards of patriotism and public welfare,
adhere to quite another social and polit-
zeal status. The North has been built
upon community of welfare, the South
upon special privilege, and as result
the South is far behind the North in,
all that goes to make the sum of ma
terial success, OF American ideas and
of individual weIl-being. If Hawaii is
to succeed it must copy the methods
of the North.
Events are so shaping themselves
that the feudal idea in Hawaii will have
to be given up. No matter how it now
profits, or lately enriched the individual,
it cannot hold it's own against the cir
cumstances which are slowly but sure
ly bringing the Hawaiian staple prod
net into a wider area of competition and
restricting the field in which it can find
cheap labor. That sugar will continue
to pay fair profits can scarcely be
doubted; that its bonanza days are over
is fact which every one understands.
Inevitably our people, to obtain what
they deem fair revenue, will feel COM
PEELED to make the soil produce not one |
staple alone but many staples embrace
ing the Territorys whole potential
wealth. For common prosperity's sake
we shall have to force Hawaii to yield
oil h0 do to Of hi T1crcl
that the worlds market is willing to !
buy. Between sisal. bananas, pine
apples, coffee, tobacco, rum, fruits, |
vanilla, poultry, eggs, butter and |
cheese, there is a range of products
adaptable to this soil and climate the
on an even keel and the culture of |
which would employ and remunerate
white men. We must come to them or |
accept a gradually declining prosper
ity. There is no other way.
It is a point of wisdom not TO wait |
until the hard necessity is reached. |
Hawaii is even now in a transition |
period and must make ready for the
same change in basic conditions which |
occurred " len the sandal wood industry |
failed and when whale oil was driven
out by petroleum. Not that sugar will |
fail. That is no: the point. We speak
of the time when it will become six
per cent investment and no longer bring
millions of revenue; when, to recover
those millions, every acre of land which
will produce anything that sells at
fair price must be drawn upon for the
crop it can grow best. To make sure
that there will be no interregnum of
lean years while the people are trying
to adapt themselves to new conditions
men should be encouraged NOW to
show what the soil can do
The soil is waiting for the tiller. 1t
is growing up to lantana and other
weeds and wild shrubs and is lost in
forest areas Land which, in Japan,
would be made to produce three crops
a year, is as non-productive of any
thing that can be readily sold, as the
veriest desert. This land lies too high
for sugar; but it is just right for a
dozen other products and it is suitable,
because OF its more temperate climate.
for white industry. These acres should
be at once put into enterprising hands;
and If they are we foresee the time
when the prosperity of the islands will
no more depend upon the fluctuations in
the price of sugar than that of Califor-
mia depends upon the changes in the
price of wheat; when the community
will feed itself and export a surplus;
when white civilization will be para
mount and when Hawaii will be fit for
all the obligations ard rewards of state
hood.
Nothing holsters up the health of Ha-
waf so much as a soaking rain The