The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-22

large vessels 10 lie DIT d wharf, anu
render the handling of freight by light
ers slow and expensive. AT the last
session of Congress there was appro-
priated $500, 600 for beginning the con-
struction of a breakwater TO enclose
this harbor. A further appropriation
is now asked to complete the harbor
Improvement.
Pearl Harbor, about twelve miles
from Honolulu, will probably become
in time one of the great naval stations
of the United States. The Government
has secured a site upon the shores of
the harbor, with a view Of ultimately
building naval yards and docks. The
bar at the entrance of the channel is
now being excavated. Within the east
and west lochs of Pearl Harbor, divid-
ed by a tongue of land, there is an
area Of deep water, protected from any
storm, no matter how severe, and
capable of affording anchorage ground
TO any two navies in the world.
WHITE IMMIGRANTS WANTED.
The need of white immigrants who
will in time become American citizens,
is the vital need of Hawaii. DR..
Charles P. Neil, the present commits
sioner of labor, has visited the islands
to make a special study of the effect
which the Decentralization of the pQpu-
lation has had upon the character of
its citizenship. He has come to these
general conclusions, which will be
acquiesced in by those who have had
only about three weeks to gain a first
hand knowledge of conditions:
Although the Asiatics have up to the
present slight control of the wealth of
the. Territory, and although they ex-
ercise no appreciate control through
suffrage, the Decentralization of the
population of the islands has already
proved a serious detriment to their
civic interests. 1t makes Hawaii a
place to be exploited by a working pop
ulation who endeavor to maintain the
lowest standard of living in order to
have the largest amount of saving with
which to return home at as early a
date as possible. The earnings and
savings of this popula ton do not enter
into the industry of the islands, do not
go to the building up of homes. or in
any way enter into the development
of the community.
AS a further consequence of this
Decentralization there is practically in
the Territory of Hawaii nothing cor
responding to that element of citizen
ship which forms the backbone of our
commemorative on the mainland. An
agricultural community in America
ordinarily represents a very large pro-
portion of Independent, self-reliant
farmers. In no other part of the COM
munity is the proportion of men work
ing for wages so small and the pro-
portion of independent producers so
large. But in Hawaii, although a pre-
ponderatingly agricultural comm,nity,
the citizens represent largely J. VIZ
classes-a small group of emllL
and an overwhelmingly large .cepo8ss
derance of wage earners. There are
no successive gradations from one
economic class to another, as there is
on the mainland, where the higher
paid wage Garner and the smaller em>
ployer approach each other in econo-
mic Importance. In Hawaii there is a
wide gap between employer and wage
Garner.
LACK OF COMMON. POLITICAL
AND SOCIAL INTERESTS.
In American communities, however
great may be the diversity or OPPOSE
tion of economic interests between en-
ployer and wage-earner, they have
common social and political interests
that draw them together and ANAL
gamate them into the common body
of citizens. But in Hawaii, with it's
Oriental labor-p population excluded
from citizenship by law, and appar-
emily Indifferent to citizenship as a
matter of fact, there is no common
tie whatever, and the gap between
employer and wage-earner is at once
an economic gap, a social gap, and a.
political gap. There is no community
of thought, or of feeling, or of SYM
pathy. The character of an Oriental
coolie population degrades the idea of
labor, as did slave labor in the South
The Asiatic laborers are looked upon
with contempt by their white employ
ers. but they, in turn, reciprocate
thoroughly the race contempt which
the white class feels for them. Even
the second generation of Orientals will
develop a less desirable citizen class in
Hawaii than would be the case on the
mainland. The process of amalgama-
ton and assimilation which might to
some degree go on in a mainland COM
munity with its American ideals and
conditions fixed. settled, and dominant
and in which the population is over
whelmingly American, cannot be ex-
pected in a community in which only
very small percentage of the popu-
lation are even descendants of people
who have known Representative gov
eminent and have long had traditions
of free institutions.
But even if the white population of
Hawaii were larger. more homogene-
Gus, and more thoroughly imbued with
American ideals and traditions, it
could still exert but little influence on
the Asiatics of the second generation
The two nationalities, though living
side by side, are separated from one
another by every possible bar. They
differ in race. and their history and
traditions have nothing in common
They differ widely in their experience
of political institutions. They differ
radically in their spiritual ideals and
their religious beliefs. They differ
wholly in their moral and social con-