The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-04
Chinese Citizenship


2 her shores, right and just? This is
question that will be asked, again an
2 again, and must be answered by tn
thoughtful citizens of the Unite'
: states. BY treaty agreements wit
q China, Chinese subjects in Americi
are to be treated as we'll as the sub
. jects of the most favored nation. I
) it fair then, for the officials Of thu
government to look upon the Chimes
as bad, and intentional offenders of th'
law, until they have proved the con
tude of United States officers in Amer
Iica. These men have often said: 81
would not believe the word of any
IChinaman without the confirmation OF
a white man" Can America continue
to stand for such an attitude toward
the people of a great and friendly ma
ton? No indeed! A prominent gen
tleman in Honolulu said to me the
other day: '"This Exclusion law
against the Chinese is one of the most
unholy laws ever enacted by the Amer
lean people"
CHINESE CITIZENS IN HAWAII.
The fact that there are hundreds of
| Chinese American citizens in Hawaii,
men grown, who take a part in the
affairs of the country, will help in
securing a better feeling toward the
Chinese. There cannot be rightly two
kinds of treatment for the citizens of
this great commonwealth. As Amer
lean citizens, all are free and equal,
and can demand right and fair treat
ment. Born within the United States,
the Chinese are as truly Americans as
the German or French children born
here. They are of good class, as has
been said before. The Chinese citizens
of Hawaii are not children of low
class coolies but as a rule are sons
South China. The Chinese American
citizen of Hawaii has a right to de-
mand, and should be given, the same
treatment given to all American citi-
zens. Those men. who break the laws
whether they are white or yellow,
black or brown, should be punished
alike. But those citizens who behave
themselves, should be treated with
equal fairness, without regard to their
race.
Dr. D. Scudder, the pastor of the
Central Union church of this city,
speaking of the strange and mistaken
view of the Chinese laborer, found pre-
vai1ing widely in the United States,
said: il
Throughout the mainland a mental
image of this type of Chinaman has
been formed, and has become such
fixture in the makeup of many Amer
leans that it will require almost an
cataclysm to destroy it.
Like the man made to pass before a |
concave mirror, the Chinaman among |
us has been forced into a situation |
where he is compelled to look as he
does, and then we triumphantly ex-
claim, See what a squat, hattened- |
out caricature of humanity the poor |
creature isl
Meantime, with the growth of this |
sweeping deduction in the minds of |
continental Americans, far out in the |
an experiment has been
conducted under totally different be-
cause more nearly normal conditions. |
One of the commonest experiences in |
Hawaii is to hear a mainland Amer
lean exclaim, Your Chinese are total
ly different class from ours on the
Coast. Exactly, but why, different?
The only difference is that Hawaii gave
the Chinese a fair chance, while Amer
lea did not. On the one hand, freedom
to be himself and to develop naturally;
on the other, repression and cruelty,
spell out the contrast
This freedom and fair treatment Civ
EN- to the Chinese of Hawaii, has pro-
1uced a class of Chinese American citi-
zens that compare favorable with those
Of any other race.
HOW TREAT THEM?
The question has recently come up
n Honolulu, How shall these Chinese
American citizens be treated? Can
hey demand the same privileges given
10 white men? Because they are Chi