The Washington herald., 1908-05-11

The islands are under the business rule
OF King Sugar Sugar is a tropical pro-
duct which requires the expenditure Of
great labor. and that labor must be
cheap It also must be a class Of labor
which is content to remain in the cane
fields at SIS a month for a long time.
preferably for generations. It was King
Sugar Who brought the japanese and
Chinese to the islands and caused their
economical Decentralization. King Sugar
has also brought Portuguese and Spanish
labo-ers who have made good and whose
children are good American citizens
The policy OF the American party is To
/ encouI 2ge the immigration 20 Hawaii Of
American farmers who will take up small
! homesteads and become citizens. to form
a nucleus for a middle class to stand be-
1 tween great King Sugar and the semi
/ seTvile labOreTs Of the cane fields Small
+ farming is the hobby of many Of the
/ best men in the Territory But II must
| be admitted that conditions are such as
/ TO make this task extremely difficult
/ Hawaii has good homestead lands. and
/ 1t offers opportunity for making money
TO the hard-woTking farmer. But trop-
/ ical conditions are vastly different from
those which obtain in the great agricul-
tural districts of the United States and
/ Il is this difference that breeds difficult
ties.
King Sugar is not in sympathy with the
small farmer movement. Some Of ths
planters, it is true. are leaders in tie
cause, but the great majority throw cold
water and say it is impossible They
do not like TO look forward to a tine
when there will be host of citize.,
farmers TO oppose the plans Of the few
great planters who till the ground with
thousands Of contract laborers.
The japanese have already driven from
the islands the white artisan class. II
almost pathetic to hear the drift of the
talk in Honolulu about some things.
When the news came that il was prac-
tioally certain that Congress would ap-
propriate money to improve Pearl Har-
Dor there naturally was rejoicing. But
il Is 10 be doubted il Americans generally
could guess the burden of the self-cOn-
gratuIatory speeches. 1t was that the
Pearl Harbor work would bring 1000 or
1900 Americans to Honolulu to aid in
"Americanizing" the Territory.
Thinking men in Honolulu rejoice be- !
cause the United States is at last awak- !
ening to the value of Hawaii as a milf I
tary outpost. Not because the Hawaiians I
are hloodthirsty imperials drunk with /
sight of power. but because they hope /
it will mean a garrison of two or three /
regiments of American troops 'If they
put q big body of troops here it will /
mean that some of them viii take home
steads and settle here when their term
of enlistment expires" Truly. il is in f
spring TO see how these patriotic Ha- \
waiians grasp at every little thing that II
viii aid them IN making citizens Of the II
genuine American pattern.
Hopeless as the task Of intoxicating
American ideals into Oriental minds may
seem, Hawaii accepts the challenge OF
and Is trying manfully 10 ac-
complish what is all but impossible
Churches and schools bear the burden
Of this work. The church missionaries
have ali but foTsaken the work amaag
the native HaYaiians. who are all NOM
nally Christians or MOTmOns, ard are
devoting their energies TO extending the B
Christian faith among the japanese.
Chinese. and Koreans With religion
these missionaries preach the doctrines |