The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-01-10
THE WHY AND WHEREFORE.

tempt to discredit the work Of those
who are trying to build up Hawaii OF
4raditionaI American lines and thus
carry out the noble aim of President
TzooseveIt as expressed in his first mes
sage to Congress. is about as follows:
The planters having agreed that 30
t6G Chinese laborers were needed in the
Hawaiian canefelds, an effort was
made 10 sound the leaders sdfaCongress
and the administration in advance as
to whether legislation admitting these
inhibited aliens could be had. We are
informed that Governor Carter, when
last in Washington. raised the question
and found the leaders much more dis
Iosed to encourage white settlement
here than Asiatic. Naturally they
wanted this Territory to be American
ICED. not put under the thrall of Asia.
eral opinion Of the planters that Ha-
wall can never become land of white
producers, though he was willing
enough to introduce white mechanics
in their stead. at once cabled Acting
Governor Atkinson to send out Mr.
to report upon agricultural and labor
conditions and to spare no expense"
Mr. Pinkham was, presumably, known
to the Governor as an opponent of the
small farm idea. for he never concealed
the fact: and if executive faith was re-
posed in his ability and willingness to
report that white farmers or laboring
men could not make living here and
that the soil must either be left until |
then such faith was surely not mis- |
placed. Mr.. Pinkham took up the task
Of discrediting Hawaii with great ca
gerness and by means of exparte meth
DDS. the nature of which has already
been described in these columns, he
produced a report which, from its APP
pearance of plausibiltty, may be used
in future to keep American settlers at
petuate, in it's special way, the baronial
traditions in agriculture of the South
before the war. Fortunately the trades
union interest, which supplied the la
Dor members of the commission, have
refused to let the latter sign with Pink
man, so the report will be a minority
one at best. But it is to be used, with
the assent of the Governor, to persuade
Congress that there is no virtue in
the patriotic argument against Mongol-
izing Hawaii.
That 10000 Chinese would be useful
here the Advertiser has no doubt; but
it has believed that, as an offset to
yellow and brown immigration, every
effort should be made to bring in farm
ers and fruit growers and establish (
the American middle class. 1t wants
TO see the planter and the farmer thrive
side by side. Governor Carter and the
planters, we are informed, offered the :
labor unions an opening for their ar c
tisans and engineers on the sugar es-
tates in return for their assistance in
making UP the Pinkham report, and it
was because of that the labor commits
scheme did not work in the last analy-
SIS. Il we understand the Governor T
Alright he honestly believes that an f
American middle class may be made ="
out of mechanics, and so it may, if the
mechanics stay on the soil, but as they =,
<ii q 1iO4AioOAS LASS liON OANCIA 4lOlile- y
builders, and as the plantations call for Il
d number far less than is required for 1
the population of single Eastern VIII :
1age, it is plain that, if we are to have
an American middle class, its basis Q
here, as elsewhere, must be agricultur- I
al The farmer buys land. settles down, I
establishes his home and builds his in !
s,ftutions OF every civilized country
he is the stay and the prop. Unless he
is brought to Hawaii 10 offset the
growth of Asiatic numbers and the 1t
threat of citizenship by Asiatics born /