The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-12
In THE WASTE PLACES.

By James w. Girvin.


AFFORDED Nv the great brick structure
which guided the immense store of
,,l..e4- conveyed - the hume L - b.
1-2 feet OF water).
Yes said my friend. 1.-The ingenuity
of the American will overcome every
! obstacle. The individual Americans
inventive ability, encouraged a s it has
been through the protective patent sys-
| tenn, will surmount any possibility
which may arise. There are some
things however, that he cannot do. He
carnot overcome the effect of the Bills
tering torrid sun and inure himself to
the requisite manual labor of cane
planting in the tropics. This must be
done for him and it is the foundation
of all agricultural success. Labor
saving machinery he can invent, pest
remedies he can discover, chemical
changes in the making of sugar he can
control, at marketing his product he
excels, but the foundation on which the
/ whole suDerstructure stands, viz: as
| the man with the hoe, for this he must
depend on the man whom nature has
provided with a pigment in his cuticle
which will Withstand the actinic rays
of the tropical sun
1 What an observing man you are
said 1. Here you have been wander
about our Islands for but few months
and you have discovered this. Do you
not know that we who have battened
on the wealth of the sugar industry for
the past forty years know well that
| what you say is true? Do you not
know that during all this time we have
! struggled in the maelstrom between
Scylla and Charybdis with a desire on
the one hand to build up Hawaii on
! American ideals and have a country
! full of schools and churches and all
| that goes to make UP an enlightened
| community. and on the other to raise
| wealth from the soil to support such
a community? You must have seen
| that with this object in view and with
a realization that American men could
not do the manual field labor we have
spent enormous sums of money in an
! endeavor to induce immigration of peo-
pie of the temperate zone from all pos
sible parts whom we might perchance
assimilate and our utter failure in this
respect Oh, Philosopher, tell US how"
II think said he. that you have
indeed made a struggle in the right di-
rection to cultivate the waste places of
the tropics and / believe that perhaps
if you had restrained your cupidity
ton to an Oriental which an American
could fill you would today have a |
larger community of the desired popu- |
lation. Farther than that l would not |
go. l should set the conditions faith |
fully and truly before Congress and |
those wise men cannot fail to see the
futility of attempting farther to induce
immigrants to Hawaii whose character
and antecedents proclaim that they are
unsuitable to life in the tropics
MY dear friend I replied. @'appar-
entity YOU know more of the conditions
of this country than you do of your
own. If an attempt such as you sug-
gest should be made it would meet with
sneers from opponents who would give
no credence to any assertion that the
ultimate welfare of the country was
being sought but that ''the wealthy
sugar barons'' of Hawaii We're seeking
their immediate benefit. That the Ia
Dor unions throughout the land would
rise en- masse to oppose the introduce
ton of Orientals, etc, etc.
We proceeded on our tramp up to-
wards Waipahu coming across a mass
of cherry tomatoes which appeared to
have grown wild there for many sea-
sons and with which we filled our
lunch basket. The ripe fields of rice
on either hand engaged my agricul-
turalist friends attention and he re- II
marked that he had never seen cereals
grow so rankIy.
The cosmopolitan population at the
depot and coming and going elected
from him remarks on the suitablenesS
of the airy garments of the Koreans
and Japanese and of the apparent at
home-ness they felt in this tropical
land. 1t was the Sabbath and a little
Sunday school of Japanese were being
marched to the train dressed in all the
colors of the rainbow. This stream
with a background of green rice made
a picturesque vision. Recalling that
each of these on returning to his ma
tive land would be more or less of a
of glad tidings of American
civilization my friend said. Hawaii
will have an effect on Asia which is
In many ways he could not refrain
from calling my attention to the Guilt
walton of the waste places by the Chi |
nese. Being of very observing nature
he noticed the great depth of alluvium
where cutting had been made for the
of the utilizing by the Chi
nese of every nook and corner. either
for a duck-pond or a little garden in
some otherwise waste angle. of the pos
sibilities of cocoanut tree planting in :
lands suitable yet useless for other
purposes He also took note of in
ebriated Hawaiians and acclaimed
against their being allowed access to
intoxicants. saying that in the wisdom
Of the American lawmakers they had {
prevented the Indian from obtaining
such and that it was wrong, in a peo-