Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-12-04


as the western outpost for the defense
of the Pacific Coast. But until Hawaii
is peopled with citizen population 1t
would cost more to defend than would
all the rest of our western coastine.
said Jared G. Smith, director Of
the U. S. Agricultural Experiment Sta.
ton, delivering an address on "Agri.
culture in Hawaii before the Farm.
ers' Institute. Saturday evening.
AS long as its citizens are few in
number. Hawaii would be more of
menace than a protection to the main.
land in time of war. \ large garri-
son would have to be fed and would
require large naval defenses TO keep
| open the lines of communication and
prevent the starving on of tie defend.
ers. But establish in Hawaii hun.
| dred thousand white farmers aud
these islands will become actually
what they are now Only in thcoret.
teal sense the western outpost and first
line of defense, country which could
not be starved out by simply cutting
off or destroying transpacific COM
| nuniCation.
1T seems to me that We should look
conditions squarely in the lace. Ha.
wall Is weak because of the poverty
OF four.hffths of her present popula-
ton, who have absolutely no resources;
on an average hardly enough accumu.
lated wealth to tide over a weeks en-
forced idleness. Such utter depend.
ence OF weak race on strong one
does not tend towards economic or 20.
litical stability. Substitute men who
cultivate and live upon their own lands
and while the initial cost OF production
Of raw materials may Increase to the
detriment of some mems fortunes, the
wealth and political health Of the
whole body polite will become immeas-
urably greater.
What Hawaii needs mos of all is
not an abundance of cheap laborers,
who. through racial incapacity and
stress of daily necessities lend them
selves to the indefinite supremacy of
particular industry or system. but
| 9 race of men who have faith in both
| the present and future of these Is.
lands. Citizens who will constitute
the support of the State in times of
peace and its defense in periods of
danger are worth more to Hawaii and
10 the United States, and constitute a
greater endowment than a million
acres of government land leased in
large areas.
Il have chosen this subject (Agricul.
ture in Hawaii as the title for a pa.
per because agriculture Is Hawaii =
all-in-all and one may in discussing IL
safely touch upon any phase of the
social or political situation and yet
not transgress its bounds. In Hawaii
agriculture Is synonymous with pol.
itics and State policy, private and pub.
lie business, commerce and the prac-
tice of the professions. Every phase
of our social life Is part of it, not to
be separated from, and absolutely de-
pendent upon II.
Hawaii has always been dependent
upon one industry. First, It was san.
dal-wood, then supplying wheat and
potatoes to the California gold miners,
next the whaling industry, then a short
regime of pulu and coffee, and finally
sugar. 1t has been sugar so long and
to such profit that we have almost for.
gotten that land which has only one
industry is weak and vitality vulner-
able. Whatever affects our one indus.
try influences the whole social and pc.
ltical fabric.
when prices rise or seasons are
good we are all prosperous, but short
age OF labor, a plague Of pests, oyerpro-
duction of beet sugar by the German
growers, or phenomenal crop of cane
in Louisiana or Java react here in Ha.
wall. so that the very foundations Of
business are shaken and we live in fear
of what the morrow may bring forth,
Agriculture has become a compli.
Gated problem, not simply here in Ha.
wall, but the world over. Today's price
OF -four in London Is influenced by yes.
terday's advices in regard to the wheat
outlook in Argentina and India or a
snow storm in the winter wheat belt OF
Kansas.
No country dependent upon other
countries for its food supply can ever
attain that economic stability requisite
to the building up of self-sufilCient
commonwealth. No country can stand
upon one leg without danger OF over.
throwal by very slight displacement
OF the center of gravity.
Agriculture has been variously de-
fined. At first 1t was the cultivation
of the fields or of the soil; modern
scientists say it is the cultivation and
care of plants to supply mans necessi'
ties; but politically, agriculture is
something more, for mans necessities
are not simply bounded by hunger and
thirst or the desire to be clothed. The
field of agriculture has broadened 50
that States now consider the means
| employed in production equally with
. the nunlitV nf tho nrndurt and its