The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1905-05-30

Add the American, British. German
and Scandinavian figures in the above
table. You get 152S-the salt that is
to SAVIOR the mass of 1929 souls in
the upgrowing generation. The most
virile and dependable element next to
that tiny 1928 is the "menacing' 4570
who hail from Asia. Our yellow peril
Is to be either our salvation or our
perdition. Ask any teacher in our
public school the question, who are
your brightest and best pupils?" l
have yet to find one who will not an
swer unhesitatingly, Chinese and Jap
anese," and that, too, in this order The
president of the largest bank in Homo
lulu said to me recently: II cannot ex
plain how it is, but l can take a young
Chinese out of the Mills institute (our
mission school for Chinese in Honolulu)
l tell him in any branch, learning
quickly and proving reliable, while 1t
takes a white young man much longer
and he will make many more mis-
takes" If Americanism Is to succeed
here it will be through the instrument
atty of these American born men from
Asia. They will develop our leaders,
for they have the capacity, the indus
try, the persistency and the citizenship.
VIII they have the American spirit?
They will if the churches of America
will help us to train them.
outside of Honolulu the Japanese and
Chinese are found upon the plantations
in small camps. Plantations often
cover many thousand acres, and as a
rule reach in a long line parallel to the
sea coast They are as isolated as a
Western farm and each is sufficient
unto itself. The manager and a very
few of his staff are Americans or North
Europeans. The one thousand or more
laborers comprise Japdnese. Chinese,
Portuguese, Koreans, Porto Ricans and
a few Others
RACES LIVE IN NATIVE CoNDI-
TIONS.
At convenient points in the planta-
tons the camps are located, containing
sometimes only men of single nation |
ality. Where two or more races are
herded in the same camp the laborers
are, as rule, housed in separate quar-
'N'', ''e Sopoiese Wy themselves, etc.
Considering the climate and the condi-
tons which the laborers were accus-
toned to in their homelands the hous-
ing is good. The camps are sanitary,
the men healthy. well paid. and gener-
ally contented But the Japanese camp
is Japan, the Chinese are in China, the
Portuguese live in the Azores Nothing
purely American is anywhere to be
seen. These foreigners bring their
strange habits of life, their conceptions
OF personal modesty, or immodesty,
their differing moral standards and
their vices. Hawaii lives In continual
danger OF becoming the one American
territory where the social evil is not
only condoned but licensed, But for
the Edmunds law the world might even
be treated to the spectacle of these
islands adopting a system of legalized
vice which the moral sense of Japan is
being educated to discard. A menac-
ing reflection sounds in the air. us
Hawaii to become the saloon keepers
Paradise?" Pay day comes around on
the plantations and a crew of Oriental
gamblers swoop down upon the Asiatic
camps and reap harvest Tragedies
and comedies peculiar to Hiroshima
and Canton make life alternately grave
and gay. The children grow up in a
nondescript atmosphere unlike any,
thing the world can show elsewhere.