Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1908-02-24
REORGANIZATION BY SETTLEMENT
ASSOCIATION.

Governor Frear has said in one Of
his public addresses on the settle
ment of public lands that the Settle
ment Association allowed under our
present land laws lis the worst OF
ALL" 1t is bad enough. There is no
doubt about that.
Here is a sample Of how the Settle
ment Association has operated in sew
eral instances of which the incident
related in a type. There is no neces-
sity for using names, but they can be
produced.
In the effort TO "Americanize' Ha-
wall certain lands on which the lease
had expired were turned over to a
settlement association. The land had
been under lease to a prosperous SUI
ear plantation. Presumably the cit
liens composing the Settlement Asso-
citation were to rescue this land from
the blight Of the corporation and its
. Oriental laborers. That is the basis
of the land-law theory.
out to members of the association.
The member to which the b u ] =
in has special reference was full
blooded, properly registered Ameri-
can from the mainland-of good
character, good health, and good
family.
He took a homestead of eighty-odd
acres. He proved up" according to
law. He lived in shack, and his
family roughed it with him for the
required period.
Is that American homesteader on
his land today?
He became an absentee landlord as
quickly as the law allowed.
He still owns the land. Not only
that. He is gaining an income of
$40. a year from 1t under lease to
the sugar plantation. The Oriental
lnburer and the sugar-cane and the
e. poratiou are still supreme in that
SO-acre field.
The only difference from the for.
aer condition is this: The people,
rs represented in the Territorial Gov
eminent, have lost their ownership
In that landIt is the "homesteader's'
10 do with as he pleases. He, instead
Il the people is leasing the land to
the "feudal employer of serfs" at a
higher price than the Territory re-
ceived. The net result is loss of the
land and increased expense for the
plantation.
Someone may say, We'll, the fact
that one more man has secured
i. source Of income from the sugar
plantation is a gain in the distribu-
ton of wealth hitherto held by a
grasping corporation"
This sounds well, until you stop to
realize that the demand for continued
dividends has very probably forced
the plantation manager to replace Il
number of citizen employees with
cheap aliens in order to even up the
additional price he Is paying the
homestoaders for the lease of their
lands.
This is Americanization with Il
vengeance.
The hOmesteadcr referred to Is still
in the Islands and in public employ,
He has not done a thing that is
wrong, but rs soon as he has gath
cred sufficient surplus he intends to
return to the mainland where he can
educate his children inexpensiyeiy
without sending them to school
with Orientals.'
A little more "AmeriCanizatiOn" OF
this type and Hawaii will be in the
hands of the uitlanders for keeps.
When this man took up the land
the probability of his remaining with
IL longer than was necessary to prove
up was undoubtedly as remote as it
could be. He took advantage of one
of the follies Of theorists and the
Territorial land laws to make some
money, by the way.
Had men of the European imnli-
grant class been put on that land
under "A straight homestead PROPOSE
ton the probabilities of their remain
ing with the land and growing cane
for the plantation would have been
very good. 1t would have meant a
home to them.
And there would have been no in
creased rental expense be offset Ivy
cheaper labor in some other depart,
ment of the sugar enterprise.