The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-29
LOCAL PHASES or EXCLUSION.

Hawaii occupies in the American Un-
ion the position of the buffer Territory.
being the first to feel the pressure of
Asiaticism. gonly. through an accident
of politics9did Hawaii fail to enter the
Union under a treaty, the passage OF
which would have secured her. among
other rights now denied, the right OF
obtaining labor in Hawafs cheapest la
Dor market, China.
The opposition to the importation OF
Chinese labor into Hawaii comes from
the labor unions, TO speak strictly, from
the delegates. The white man can work
in the cane fields. but he will not; it
is not to his liking.
what 1 do not see fit to do I will
not allow another to do in my stead.
That is his position. He forgets that
the Chinaman will but take up the
white mans cast off burden, thus leav-
ing the hands of the white man free
for more agreeable employment.
The malnstay of Hawaifs business
prosperity still continues to be sugar.
In taking a stand against the importa-
ton of Chinese laborers the white la
borer. skilled or unskilled, is but stand
ing out against the interests of his own
pocket, for the wage money that might
be his is a bounty reaped and distrib-
uted by the sugar planter. the mill own
er and the sugar factor. Cut off sugar
and you cut the tap root of Hawaii's
money earning power and starve her
industries.
One has but to compare the agricul-
tural industries of today with those of
a generation ago to appreciate the debt
which this country owes the Chinese
laborer. Look at the rice fields and
the banana fields of Waikiki and of Pa :
lama Thirty years ago they were
worthless tule lands. The patient Chi s
narnan converted them into mines of |
wealth, These are but samples of his
benefcence. Without his :
plodding industry where would be the s
fruits and vegetables for the white t
mans table? II
The argument of philanthropy, which $
points out that one of the essential s
safeguards against Asiatieism. which @
threatens our western civilization, is 2
10 be found in the introduction of that '
very civilization into the heads and O
hearts of the Chinese people, may count p
or little with the multitude. but if it a
.ounts for anything where can civili- f
.ation find better fulcrum on which t
20 poise its lever than right here in
Hawaii? S
There is an equity to which the law I
If nations does obeisance; this equity d
enjoins the same principles of honor c
Ind fair play which says to the individ- f
lal, pay as you go. demand no favor, t
accept no benefit for which you cannot o
make adequate return. If America d
:iaims the right to enter China, to Ia i,
nor in her fields, to exploit her indus b
ries. let her reciprocate and not refuse Ii
he Chinaman the bare privilege of $
lelving as a laborer in American soil. o
The arguments, then, from economic
elf interest, from Christian philanthro- v
~ and civilization, and from interna- t
-ional reciprocity urge that, under b
proper restrictions. we should admit the t
Chinese Iaborer to this country, that :
IN his return to his own land he may, t
n sense, be a torch bearer of civiIi- i
ration and an advocate IF international '
,omity. II