The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-08-09
fcontinued from Page one.l

ing of much of this swamp land have
been submitted by the president of the
Board of Health, the estimated cost to
be several millions. There is a ques-
ton if this community is able to do
that work. Now it seems perfectly
proper for the United States to do the
work of filling in the swamps and do
ing away with possible pest-breeder
here to save the United States, the
same as has been done so we'll in Pa
mama.
THE second question for the United
States to consider is our position here
in an educational way. The popula-
tion here is small, from an American
standpoint, and it is really astonish-
ing what is being accomplished. Boiled
down to these people who are really
doing things, the Americans, German,
English, and to a certain extent the
Portuguese, there are actually only
about ten thousand. The rest of the
population is made up of sixty thou
sand Japanese, brought here as plan
tation laborers; twenty thousand Chi
nese, also laborerS and small store
keepers; Porto Ricans, the dregs of
that island, laborers, those who are not
in the jails, and these latter are
considerable proportion; Koreans, la
borers, and about seventeen thousand
Portuguese, who, while they have
made remarkable progress and ad-
vancement, were brought here as la
borers for the plantations. The Port
uguese are making splendid show
ing as American citizens, the younger
generations, brought here as children
or who have been born here. And then
consider that of the rest there are
thirty-seven thousand Hawaiians but
two generations away from savagery.
1t is only in the last twenty years,
that the Hawaiians have exercised any
constitutional privileges here, being
before that time bound down by their
monarchial system. l want to say in
passing that 1 have no fear of the
future with the Hawaiian voters in
the majority. I have been myself in
five legislatures and have seen the
advancement, and I can say that in
the work of the past legislature and
the one which preceded it, the legis-
lation was on a fair parallel with that
of the Union. Locally we are able to
work out our own local problems. We
have no wish to trouble you with our
local troubles and we want no tinker
ing with our local legislation. We have
more to fear from the tinkering with
our Organic Act at Washington than
we have with the works of the Act as
it stands. ~ nf
But the United States can assist
us legitimately. You see how the ten
thousand of us who are doing things
are working. On our backs has fallen
the responsibility of educating five
thousand Japanese and five thousand
Chinese voters of the future. We are
facing the problem of whether we are
to have an ignorant electorate or an
educated electorate in the future, and
We are educating this crushing burden
of aliens, who are free to go back to
their own country or to pass on to
kthe mainland if they wish after we
have educated them. And we cannot
stop them, we can only educate them
and make them intelligent voters If
they do remain here. We would not
be able to maintain American insti-
tutions here as Washington requires Of
us and as we require for ourselves
unless we educate these future voters.
Is it not legitimate that the United
States should assist US in educating
these children of aliens who will un-
questionably have control of the local
legislation if they keep on coming? The
United States has spent large amounts
in educational institutions in the Phil
ippines. Are the Filipinos to be treat
ed better than we in Hawaii? These
Filipinos whom the United States will
not admit as citizens? Such assistance
would be not primarily for Hawaii but
for the whole of the United States and
it is legitimate for the United States
to help the education of the children
here, half of whom are aliens.
In discussing the other questions
and small farmers and labor and i'm
migration and land to, treat each
separately. All are interviewer into
one whole and must be considered as
a whole. And in touching on these I
wish to speak of the Hawaiian cor
porations. Corporations are looked up
on on the mainland as menaces to the
country and legislation to curb and
punish them has been enacted of late
years. Here the corporations are the
expression of the business method of
the community, the best organized
business community not only of the
United States but of the world. 1 was
looking over the records of the Ter
ritory recently and 1 saw that there
are seven hundred corporations regis
tered here. All forms of business,
from peanut stand to sugar planta-
tations are cooperative. The largest
sugar plantations are owned by from
six hundred to eight hundred share
holders. You can scarcely find a busi-
ness man or woman, and even the
children, who have not put money in
to stocks of properties under business
like management, fair control and hon.
est methods. Corporation methods here
are in studied difference from the ag-
grandizing methods of wealth getting
and the viciousness attendant upon
the great corporations in the United
States.
This leads to the question of sugar.
Sugar is our existence. Ninety-eight
per cent. of our trade is sugar. With
cut sugar here there would be no CIV
ilization. Other industries are spring