The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-12
ANTI SNAIL FARMER.

small farmer is a poor deNA' out q
both knees, who, if he comes to tn
islands will borrow some land, run i
debt for his tools, fail before he raise
crop and become a charge on tn
community. This scare-crow has bee
set up by the men whose interest 1t
to divide the whole Territory outsid'
the towns. into a few large estates
Whenever anybody proposes to brine
small farmers here and thus "develoI
Hawaii on traditional American lines,
the scarecrow is posed at the cross
roads of public opinion and every
passar-by is asked if he will be party
to the disgrace of introducing such
transformations to Hawaii-nei? Inc
ehownen 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,
plentv of cattle. neat houses and large
barns, buggies and sleighs 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 well-to-do people who are turning
Oregon and Washington into garden
spots. They are the sort that con-
stftute 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 we'll; others want to come
but are kept out by methods as ex-
fraordinary 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 tunket as we are Informed by one !
OF the several labor men who went
along. was to discredit small farming. /
f0,- f,.iy
mand from Washington for more data
about the settlement of public lands
than was to be had in current official .
Well to be brief, the Pink
ham Commission-whosee expenses must
have been very great-visited all the
Islands accompanied by high-nriced !,
photographer; and whenever they
came upon an ignorant squatter or
shiftIess homesteader, or poor native.
they had pictures made of him, of his
place and even of the interior OF his
shack; but when they came to a 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
~ eoa4 +ha+ +a,, fory,,o,... {. Ya
snquiring of the committee about lands :
TO one tourist who is asking about hotel /
On that account it
Is urged that the committee has no
1t is going to be uphill work to adj
rance the small farm movement in
spite of the seIf-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
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
err who will vote in the American /
way. Planters who object are SO short |
miss seeing their meals; and as for the !
Territorial administration its attitude |
on the subject cannot be reconciled
with President Roosevelt's policy.
One of the best men elected to the |
Legislature this year is Carl s. Smith |
of Hilo. A thorough-going good gov
eminent man, of University training, |
i