The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-01-17
HAwAlIS NEW ERA.

The planters acted with their usual
saeacitv in the matter of small farm
ers for nobody knows better thap they
what must happen TO sugar interests
II as is now threatened, the political
control OF the islands shall pass 20
American, citizens of japanese descent.
For fifteen years and more the Japa-
nese Iaborers have been adding chli-
dren to the census faster than any
o.ber class. There are thousands OF
growing Japanese boys in the Terri
terry today who, at the proper age, VIII
have the right 10 vote. 1t is useless
10 suppose that these young men, even
III they return to Japan, VIII stay
there. This is their home. They are
az much attached to it as white boys
and nothing in the hard conditions OF
japan, the low wage, the military
duty. the-to them-foreign environ
1nent, could tempt them to cut loose
from Hawaii So these lads must De
reckoned with in the electorate few
years hence, and in the legislature
Naturally they viii vote to forward
the interests of the people Of their own
race and this would mean that, where
the interests of field hand and planta-
tion clashed. the plantation would get
the worst of it. Labor statutes passed
by lawmakers of Japanese blood,
arbitration boards of the same origin
would not give white planters the
benefit of any doubt or of any prefer
ence; and it is indeed possible that 50
yiriIe, enterprising and sagacious a
race as the japanese would, sooner or
later. force out the white planters alto
gether.
The only way, therefore, for the
planters to make sure of holding their
ground, is to encourage the coming
here of white people who viii stay and
identity themselves with the progress
of the country. Nobody sticks like
farmer who owns the land he lives on;
nobody takes a greater interest than
he in the welfare of the body polite;
If he is an EngIishman or an Amer
lean, no one does more to propagate
the Anglo Saxon ideas which enter in
to the warp and wool of the political
system of which Hawaii is a part.
With such farmers on all the suitable
land not required for sugar, and act
ing in political harmony with the
natives, the Territory of Hawaii could
be kept in the hands of the men whose
ideas of law and whose social and
business tendencies are the things that
put the American stamp on the Ter
ritory
That there is no economic reason
WHY the farmers should not succeed,
is admitted now by the Planters AS
ISOLATION. It is a point upon which
the Advertiser, with the help of many
experts, has been able to throw a great
deal of light. Nobody save those of
slight consequence or those of alien
sympathy denies that the climate and
soil of these islands are good for more
than one tropical product; that sugar
is not the only latent asset of our agri-
culture. Tobacco has long been the
king of tropical agriculture and now
that science has been brought to it's
cultivation here, it is again proving
itself of sovereign attributes. Sisal
and pineapples and bananas are COM
mercial successes vanilla and rubber are
going to be. Here are the foundations
of new industries and a greater self
supporting white population; and both
will come if the progressive people of
Hawaii, including the majority of the
sugar men, have their way.
It is UP to the Government to open
some of its large tracts. as yet I'M
occupied. and for the Legislature to
pass measures, as suggested by the
Planters Association, to remit taxa
ton, for a few years, on bona-f1de
small farms. Another stroke of enter
prise would he to turn the Promotion
Committee into a bureau for the In
PRODUCTION of settlers. One white
farmer who stays, is worth several
tourists who don't come.
The very large shipment of bananas
from Hilo shows that the coast is an