The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-11-15
ANTI SNAIL FARMER.
ORION Sundays Advertlser)


The common idea In Hawaii Of a
small farmer is poor devil, out at
both knees. who, " he comes to the
islands will borrow some land run In
debt for his tools. fail before he raises
n crop and become a charge ON the
community. This scarc-crow has been
set up by the men whose Interest II is
to divide the whole Territory outside
the towns, into "A few large estates.
Whenever anybody proposes to bring
small farmers here and thus develop
Hawaii on traditional American lines"
the scarecrow is posed at the cross
roads of public opinion and every
passer-by is asked If he will be a party
to the disgrace of introducing such
tatterdemalio ions to Hawaii-nei? The
showmen seem far more sensitive on
this point than they did about bring
ing in Tennessee negroes and moribund
Porto Ricans
But the farmer of local imagination
is no truer to life than the hayseed of
the comic weeklies. In the Eastern
States there are hundreds of thousands
of solid, prosperous yeomen, possessed
of one and two hundred acre farms,
plenty of cattle. neat houses and large
barns, buggies and sleishs for pleasure.
who have comfortable bank accounts
and go to the Worlds Fairs When
their sons grow up they are started
on farms of their own. From this class
the prosperous Riverside orange grow
ers and Napa vineyardists come and
the wellto-do people who are turning
Oregon and Washington into garden
spots. They are the sort that con-
stitute the backbone of the American
nation: the builders of commemorative,
of schools and churches, the safeguards
of loyalty and good government. the
salvation and hope of the land. Some
of them are in this Territory now and
are doing well; others want to come
but are kept out by methods as ex-
traordinary as they are underhanded.
For instance, a commission lately |
spent several weeks travelling over
these islands, one headed by President
Pinkham of the Board of Health, whose |
ostensible mission was to look after
sanitary matters. The real object of
the junket as we are informed by one
OF The several labor men who went
along. was to discredit small farming,
The incentive for the trip was a de-
mand from Washington for more data
about the settlement of public lands
than was to be had in current official
reports. Well. to be brief, the Pink
ham Commission-whose expenses must
have been very great-visited all the
islands accompanied by high-priced
photographers; and whenever they
came upon an ignorant squatter or
shiftless homesteader, or a poor native,
they had pictures made of him, of his
place and even of the interior of his
shack; but when they came to thrift !
ty, successful farm, like that of Mrs. |
Won Tempsky or Franz Buchholz their
interest in agriculture lapsed. Fifteen |
hundred photographs We're taken. 1t |
is presumed that the Pinkham report, |
with albums containing the views, is
now or soon will be on the way to
deceive Washington.
Nor is this all Two-thirds of the
opposition to the Promotion work is
due to the fact that ten farmers are
enquiring of the committee about lands !
to one tourist who is asking about hotel
accommodations. On that account IL |
is urged that the committee has no
mission.
1t is going to be uphill work to adj
vance the small farm movement in
spite of the self-evident fact that I'M
less white farmers are brought In,
voting Asiatics will own this country,
sugar plantations and all, within the
next twenty-five years. Some day the
thousands of Japanese boys born and
educated on this soil are going to vote
and elect legislatures and fix the sup
ply of labor and the tax rate and per-
haps determine leases. What then?
The only way to protect the planters
from such a calamity and keep the
sugar business in American hands, is
TO Introduce the white American farm
er who will vote in the American
way. Planters who object are SO short
sighted that, first they know. they will |
miss seeing their meals; and as for the |
Territorial administration its attitude |
on the subject cannot be reconciled |
with President Roosevelt's policy.
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