The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-26

was at the time of the war with Spain.
So much for ten years.
The great struggle for the mastery of
the Pacific and the freedom of China
may not come this year, or next. But it
is very likely to come within the next
ten years and Uncle Sam is very likely
to be>'in the serimmage. He is begin
ming to wake up to the seriousness of
that likelihood. In fact, he is in train
ing so far as the navy goes, and is
getting into form on public sentiment.
This great struggle will be in the Pa
eifc Ocean. In the middle of the ocean
is Hawaii Hawaii to the fore!
Hawaii has sore spot. 1t is so ten
der that one doesn't need to poke to
find it. 1t makes its presence felt and
every visitor from the mainland of the
United States knows about it before he
has been in Honolulu twenty-four hours.
That sore spot is that the people of the
rest of the United States doesn't seem
to know that Hawaii is a bona fde, in
separable, directlv-attached, seamless
part of the United States. The Ameri-
cans in Hawaii are just as American as
any man who ever shot fire. cracker on
the Fourth of July or ate turkey and
pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day. And
when fellow-American from Kalama-
zoo writes one of them a letter and puts
a five-cent stamp on it-well, there s
little volcano in Hawaii that the guide
books don t know about.
A great business firm in New York
recently sent half ton of advertising
matter to Honolulu. 1t was all printed
in SPANISH Some man had got. out a
scheme to reach the "insular posses
sions. - The Porto Ricans and the Fill
pinos speak Spanish, therefore it was
decided to give Hawaii dose of Span
ish, too Governor johnson of Mime
sofa recently gave out an interview say
ing he was in favor of looping off the
Philippines and Hawaii and all Gin
sular possessions. When that got to
Honolulu the local papers gave lyon
Yonson' lambasting that would have
delighted the soul of a Minnesota
Bryanite ! And Hawaii is right about
it. The United States could lop off
Arizona or Maine, or cut out Iowa from
its heart, just as easily as it could east
off Hawaii Hawaii became a part of
the United States in exactly the same
manner as Texas did 1t is Just as much
part of the United States now as New
Mexico is And Hawaii, looking into
the future and with the eye of faith,
can see a new star on the fiag-a star of
turquoise seas and opal skies, star
whose radiance casts over the azure of
the Union the greeting "Aloha!
Hawaii knows that the path to the
stars is beset with difficulties. No other
part of the United States has more
knotty problems to work out. 1t needs
the help of the rest of the country, and
now that the increasing Importance of
the Pacific will bring Hawaii into
prominence, shat help will be fortheom
ing.
So far as politics is concerned, and SO
far as the people now in control go. Ha-
wall is as thoroughly American as Ohio.
But its peculiar economic system has
overwhelmed it with an alien people
which has no sympathy for American
ideals, but which in time will become
possessed of the American right TO vote.
1t is Hawaii s present task to Ameri-
canize the children of the OFientals, If
possible. It is Hawaii S task to en-
courage immigration from sources which
will send men who can be assimilated
into American institutions. It is Ha-
wall s task to stand in the van of the
social and economic struggle between
the Occidental and Oriental civilization
These are tasks which no people
would approach without . due sense Of
their responsibility. In Hawaii they
are made more difficult by reason of