The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-22

| ing to write this up he said. You had
better not said the official; too many
have written about these islands and
made mess of it. If you want to
write about Hawaii, get Alexander's
History and copy out a few pages. and
then you will get it correct
II am quite sure that if you were to
remain here six months you would have
to revise many opinions which you
hold today.
! 1--WE have problems here which are of
peculiar interest. I am sorry that
under annexation we are not more free
to settle these problems ourselves. [
know how those at the head of affairs
believed that annexation should not be
delayed, but I can not help regretting
that greater freedom was not allowed
these islands in dealing with the prob
lem of labor.
II can not agree with the editor of
the Honolulu paper who has just spoken
in his statement that because We are
a part of the United States therefore
the laws made for Arizona and Okla
hona are sure to work for our ultimate
good. The conditions and needs of
tropical islands are not the conditions
of Arizona or Oklahoma, or any other
Territory past or present on the Con-
tinent of North America. If we had the
settlement of the problems which con-
front us l am confident that we could
work them out far better than they
ever will be worked out by applying
mainland laws to us.
Il should like just as much as the
editor to whom [ refer to see thousands
of American families here. I was a
c.
and I am an American, but that does
not prevent my judgment, seeing that
our problems are not the problems of
a mainland Territory and can not be
met as such.
II am not going to discuss the labor
question, but I will say that today, from
Hilo all up the Hamakua coast, and in
the Kohala district on the big island,
there is not plantation which Is not
short of 1abor-not one, believe, which |
could not employ from two hundred to
four hundred more men. The grass is |!
growing and there are not enough men /
to hoe the cane. This condition is !
serious one and means millions to us |
and to our trade with the Coast. It
is a problem that will not be solved by |
talking .Amercanization, but by the
of facts and not by the
of theory.
.tThen there is the problem of edu-I
cation. You have noticed, I am sure,
that children are plentiful here. There
are more children to the acre in Ha-
wall than I have seen anywhere on
the mainland. Our public and private
schools are crowded with children of
diverse race. We are living together,
we of different races, on good terms. /
am sure that no man with fair Judg-
ment and honest heart can live here
long, and coming into Intimate rela-
with different races, without
that however we may differ
in color, speech, dress or habit of mind,
yet the human heart is the same, with
the same loves and hates, the same
fears and hopes, the same sins, the
same sorrows. The problem of educa-
ton we are trying to solve to the best
Of our ability.
"You will know, when you leave,
of our difficulties and be in
terested in them, but do not think you
know all about them. Many who write
Of our affairs are like a Los Angeles
friend of mine who, after two weeks
here was heard calling his wife Lanai
asked him why he called his wife a
He said, I am calling her my
one oh, l said, you mean,
I suppose. to say "Lani." but you have
been saying Lanai
You can help us in many ways and
we know you will try to do it. =
And now, as the time of your de-
parture is nearing, let me say to you
hat when you are at Santa Monica or
sam Diego, or on the shore elsewhere,
md when You hear the sound of these
waves of the Pacific. as You hear them ;
low as you sit here, be assured that
hey bear from us and call out to you
,ur Aloha nui' -