The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1906-09-21

OF the white man to Hawaii has beer
Of sad disadvantage TO the native whs
has seen. as a consequence. his race re-
duced almost to the point OF extinction
his government ovcrthrown and his
land. to quite n degree, taken POSSES
sion OF by the foreigner.
This however, Is historical. What
are the present conditions OF the terri
tory OF Hawaii? II one may judge by
appearance and by what one Is told by
well Informed residents. Hawaii is now
suffering from arrested Industrial de-
velopment, due to an insufficiency OF
agricultural labor.
SUGAR CHIEF FARM PRODUCT.
Its chief farming Industry is sugar
cane growing, but coffee rubber. to-
bacco and other semi-troplcal and trop-
ical products could be added to these II
men were obtainable to work on the
plantations who could do this success
fully under tropical conditions. Even
the japanese. who are not the best OF
tropical workers. do not come in sufii-
cient numbers to Hawaii to satisfy the
wishes Of the planters; native service Is
meager and unsatisfactory; the incom-
ing of the Chinese coolie Is prohibited
by our immigration laws. and the white
man cannot endure the physical strain
of excessive heat combined with hard
out of door work. As a result the price
of labor is exceedingly high, as, indeed,
are the prices of everything else on the
island, making II one of the most ex-
pensve parts of the United States to
live and do business in. Honolulu has
been built up. so far as its business sec
tion is concerned, as though 1t were the
distributing center OF great and pros
porous tributary area. 1t has fine. COM
modious buildings. used by Its mer-
chants for their stores and offices: its
hotels are large and exceptionally well
appointed; the paving and care Of the
streets leave little to be desired, while
1t has in water, gas. electricity, ETC.,
the equipments OF first-class modern
city. But, unfortunately, the demand.
for which these facilities may be said
to form the supply, exists in only an
inadequate degree, with no immediate
chance of Improvement.
ANNEXATION A MISTAKE.
From observations made here and
from talks l have had with business
men of Hawaii, l am more convinced
than ever that Hawaii made a serious
the United States. In the term be-
tween the overthrow of the native
and annexation to our
country Hawaii was ruled by an oil
garchy made up OF a small number of
its strongest and ablest white citizens.
These would have had little difficulty,
by holding out threat of possible
attachment to England or Germany,
In having the equivalent of a perma-
nent treaty made with the government
at Washington granting free admis-
sion of Hawaiian products to the
United States, guaranteeing Hawaiian
Independence and possibly the continu-
ing form OF insular control.
The affairs OF the little Independent
oligarchic republic, which had its in
dependence and autonomy thus as
sured could then have been regulated
in the manner that best suited its
local needs. 1t could have obtained
whatever labor Its planters required,
while its tariff, the receipts from
which would all have gone into the
insular treasury, could have been so
est possible food supply for the work.
ing people, with n manifest encourage
ment in commerce with the entire
world
MlSJUDGED AMERICAN CONDI-
TIONS.
The Hawaiian promoters of anneXa-
ton entirely misjudged the situation,
and they and their neighbors are now
paying the cost OF their error. They
We're afraid that the beet sugar interest
in the United States would bring about
a repeal of the reciprocity treaty. over
looking the fact that their own ability
to bring English and German land hun
ger into the debate was diplomatic as
set much more than sufficient to neu-
tralize the influence at Washington of
Mr.. OXnard and his associates. An
nexation was forced by Hawaiian i'm
when resistance to il should
have been strongest with the sugar
planter interest. Those Identified with
his business we're led to believe, with
| Credulity for which no excuse can be
made, that special dispensations In
their favor would be made in the ma
.ional immigration laws and in the laws
regulating local elections. 1t did not
lake them long after annexation to dis
cover their mistake. 1t would have
been fatal to any American political
party to have made an exemption OF
this kind in favor OF one section OF our
national area, while II should have been
evident to the Hawaiian annexation
lists that the Republican party, upon
whose cooperation they counted could
not consistently deny suffrage TO the
natives OF Hawaii in their local cleo
tons and at the same time take credit
to itself for having given the ballot to
the negroes of the southern states,
TO BECOME RECONCILED.
Experience has been hard teacher,
and yet IL has not up to the present
taught its full lesson to our Hawaiian
They are seeking to be-
come reconcied to national labor laws
which have no applicability to their
industrial conditions-that is, in indus
tries where manual labor can never
be performed by white men: they are
making the best of national election
regulations. which make 1t necessary
that their territory should be repre-
sented at Washington by a colored
man, but they still believe 1t possible
20 have the general revenue laws OF
pur government so changed In their
'ayor that all but small percentage
II the customs collected at Honolulu