The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-14

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frage, and many other ideas and prin-
cipies that were being instilled at the
very time into the minds of the youth
of the land. Among all classes it came
to be considered a disgrace to be a
shipped or contract laborer. The Por-
tuguese who were brought here under
that system refused, almost universal
| ly, when their contracts We're out to
renew them. 1t was, in short, a case
where we had to reconstruct our ideals
or abandon contract labor. and thus,
naturally, 1T fell into disuse as I'M
wholesome and unfit for perpetuation
before ever the application of Ameri-
can laws made it illegal as well, when
but for the presence and the accept
ance of ideals that warred inevitably
against and with that system Hawaii
might well have been committed in a
wholesale and permanent way to a
system closely allied to serfdom.
Again, when the issue arose as to
whether Hawaii should be annexed to
the United States or remain indepen-
dent, it was after all our belief in
and our acceptance of the principles
and traditions upon which the great
IOunuPd
accept annexation and which brought
it about when it came. So far as the
material side of the issue was con-
cerned, the argument seemed to be
against annexation. Anti-annexation-
lists said, You will lose your labor
market if you annex, and then how
is the work of the plantations to be
dOne? In reply, it was said that an
nexation would make secure the mar
ket for the sale of our sugars and
that would compensate for the loss in
labor But the tariff was uncertain,
likely to be reduced and might be
abandoned. At any time the annexa-
ton of Cuba or the full admission of
the Philippines as a Territory might
end or materially curtail the benefits
of the tariff once and for all; and,
more than all, by remaining indepen
dent We did not necessarily forego
the benefits of the reciprocity treaty.
In some modified form the United
states would unquestionably have con-
tinued to discriminate in favor of the
products of Hawaii in order to main
tain her hold upon these islands. At
any rate, the dangers from an appar-
emily certain loss of our labor market
seemed far greater than the risks we
ran of losing the benefits of the tariff.
And from the mere standpoint of ar
gument we believe the anti-annexa-
tionists had the best of it. What
really turned the tide was the innate,
inherited, inbred belief III and regard
for the institutions ideas and ideals
upon which the government of the
United States was founded. 1t was
hard work to convince men that it
was bad thing for these islands TO
be annexed to that country, and an
nexation was. in fact, brought about
by an apparent unreasoning belief in
the wisdom of committing Hawaii
once and for all, reciprocity treaty or
no treaty, labor or no labor, to the
institutions, the ideals and the destiny
of the Great Republic across the
water.
Believing as we do that annexation
was the most momentous blessing that
ever came to the people of Hawaii,
particularly to the aboriginal Hawai-
ian, whose equity for a peaceful and
hopeful future hand in hand with the
white race is of the highest and most
imperative type, we bless the existence
of the ideals and ideas prevalent
among the people that brought that
transition about, when otherwise long
delays in securing annexation, if not
its total defeat, might well have been
our lot
Annexation as it seems to us has
swept away many barriers between the
people of Hawaii and the highest and
best ideals the wav rayar seemed
more clear or unobstructed for the
real progress of the people of Hawaii
than today, and in the establishment
of fine permanent library building,
the generous gift of our fellow towns
man, Mr.. Cooke, we recognize that
another standard has been raised to
the breeze in Hawaii nei in support
and in honor of the uncompromising
ideals of the past that have contrib
uted so largely to the advancement
of Hawaii nei- When we consider
what vast improvements have been
made here in the matter of education
under the impulse of closer relations
and annexation with the United
States, the great amount that is being
expended now within our present vi
sion for that purpose, the educational
Institutions that are being planned
just above us in Manoa Valley. and the
rapid strides that are being made by
the government in public educa ton, !
we see and appreciate the uncompro-
missing. unfaltering and almost old
fashioned stand for universal educa-
ton and for higher education for all