The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-01-29
THE HIGH WAGE
DISTURBANCE

terest Mr.. Fred II. Maxine g letter
which appeared in your issue of yes.
terday morning, relative to the higher
wage agitation, its origin and policy,
and il certainly looks from that letter
as if the public did not understand Mr..
Maxine or Mr.. Maxine did not under
stand the public. He seems to realize
that neither the planter nor the citizen
at large, take any stock in his agita-
ton. He does not seem to realize why
this is so. The manifest reason is that
Mr.. Maxine is using methods and
means that never carry with American
citizens.
The translations from the organ of
the higher wage agitation (the JijD +,
which have appeared in the local press,
have unquestionably dished Mr.. Maxine
and his agitation for good and all with
the citizen population. He says these
TRANSACTIONS are colored but any man
of average sense can see for himself
that with all due allowance for exag-
gerated translations, the whole move
ment headed by Mr.. Maxine and his
associates is tinctured with bulldozing
and threatening methods and you would
have to eliminate these translations, not
in part, but in toto, to eliminate that
spirit and tone. OF course the animus
of the attack is directed chiefly at those
Japanese and Japanese papers which
will not fall in line behind Mr.. Maxine,
but the bulldozing is not limited to
Japanese.
| How does Mr.. Maxine s organ for
this agitation, the Jill, start QUIT On
the fourth of December last, it hands
this out to>the public:
| planters, listen to us. If you do
| not accede to our demand, all Hawaii
will be turned to darkness. Our patri-
, otic spirit will burst upon your heads.
There are only two things to be de.
cided and that is whether you increase
the wages or not. We have no time
for consultations or for study of con
ditions.h This is but sample of a
series of articles in the same tone. Now
Mr.. Maxine, what do you and your as
sociates mean by handing out such
stuff as thatf Are you surprised that
an agitation beginning with that spirit
has received no recognition from the
planters. OF course it has not, and
what is more, when you started working
on those lines, you shut yourself off
from the consideration of every self
respecting and lawabiding citizen.
Mr.. Maxine and his associates have
however specially devoted themselves
to the intimidation of those Japanese
and Japanese papers who won't fall in
line behind the higher wages associa.
tion under his leadership. Mr.. Ma.
kino's organ, the Jill, hands this out,
for instance, to the Shinpo and Chroni.
Gle, (the japanese papers that do not
agree with his lordship):
Heaven will descend upon their
heads with an iron blow. If they con.
time to act contrary to the laborers'
interests they will not die their natural
death. Before it is too late, prepare
for an honorable death;'' and at the
mass meeting on the seventh of Jan
uary, Mr.. Maxine introduced to the
audience Mr.. Kako, who SAID of the
dissenting Japanese: ''The seventy
thousand Japanese must extermnate
these Japanese who are traitors.'
The issue of the eleventh of January,
the Jiji, says: "Take up the heavy
iron hammer and get rid of the odious
fools who are the planters spies and
traitors to our people. We
shall never enjoy our full rights and
privileges until we exterminate these
planters spies" And in the issue of
the thirteenth of January, the Jiji gets
off the following poem:
"You, the planters spy on shiba -bu
(turf,)
Know nothing of duty or respons,
Utility.
You are the enemy of the seventy
thousand japanese,
Beware of the shower of hsts."
What does Mr.. Maxine mean by such
language? We understand, according to
the Maxine dictionary, that all this
talk is fgurative;" that when his
organ announces to japanese who do
not think as he does" Beware of the
shower Of fists" that probably means
Beware of fistful of chrysanthemums
or cherry blossoms, equivalent to the
English saying" Hand him bouquet. ("
But the audiences at the mass meet.
ings, who responded to talk of that
kind, evidently did not understand
their own language and rose up and
shouted "Kill him, strike him to
DEATH (referring to Japanese editors
that were being roasted), and said
"Smash the Offices of the Chronicle and
the Shinpo." The truth is, the average
white man, Mr.. Maxine, thinks it is
effrontery on the part of yourself and
associates to come forward and hand
out to white readers the transparent
explanations of such talk that you do
in behalf of the Higher Wages Asso
clation. What you are doing or trying
to do is to menace and threaten any
Japanese who will not do the bidding
of the Higher Wages Association, which
probably, is in the control of half
dozen men like Mr.. Maxine.
Mr.. Maxine is off in his reckoning if
he thinks that talk and action of that
kind is going to wash here; and moth.
ing shows more his audacity or his
stupidity than an attempt here on
American soil and under the protec,
tion of the American flag, to openly and
publicly run any agitation, on these
bulldozing lines. He is very audacious
or very stupid to think that the aver.
age man cannot see through the motive
tone and methods of the agitation at
once, and treat it accordingly. 1t is re-
freshing, is it not, to read Mr.. Makino's
statement in yesterday mornings issue