The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-09-17
oahu MUST Be
4MPREGNABLE
oFrOm Wednesdays Advertiser,

afternoon the audience instinctively
felt that mastery address was to
follow and one did.
Mr.. Prince pointed to the members
of the National Guard, in uniform, sta
toned close by, and referred to them
as in the first line of defense to the
nation, and that if war should ever
come they would be called upon by the
| President to move into the second line.
He thanked the men in khaki for their
| presence, for to him it mean that the
u5I9IoI lou 9IsM spupIsI uu1rpMprJ
possession, but an American group, and
as much American as the mainland.
He. said the people of the islands
needed better transportation facilities.
As one of the military committee of
the House of Representatives, he was
in favor of making these islands. and
particularly Oahu because of its being
the central or pivotal isle of the group,
as impregnable as Gibraltar itself. He
did not want it half done. He did
not want things done to Oahu as a
| first-class power had done them to Dali
NY and then permitted the place to
| go into the hands of its enemy and
| be turned upon its builders. He want
ed the American flag to stay up here,
| no matter who might seek to tear it
down.
If the United States were to engage
in a war the people of these islands
might be the first to meet the contest
and he wanted the group made safe
against all foreign powers.
The speaker also wanted to see the
harbors improved and made safe. He
would like to see good harbors on each
island where practicable, because the
| islands paid sufficient revenue to Uncle
Sam to demand this. He wanted to
see the Reclamation Service take hold
of these mountains and draw the water
down them to make the lower levels
blossom. The government can and
ought to do it, and in his Judgment,
will do it.
AS to the coastwise law he was frank
to say that he was not entirely familiar
with conditions to say just what should
be done. The matter should be so ar
ranged that we should have every facil-
ity to travel to the mainland 1t might
be wise to suspend the coastwise law
for while and the power given to
the executive of the nation to restore
the old law if the shipping concerns
made better passenger facilities, suf-
ficient to meet the demand. Give the
executive power to restore the coast
wise law, after suspension, in thirty
days, if the suspension went against the
interest of the country.
Mr.. Prince was particularly pleased
with the remarks of Senator Lane on
the land question. He had often
heard outcroppings of sentiment among
the people as to that law. To his
own way of thinking these were local
questions that belong to the people
of these islands more than to Con-
gress. 1t seemed to him that it was
wise suggestion for the Territorial
Legislature to pass some kind of leg
islation along these lines, advisory,
not mandatory, to Congress and if
Congress finds that such legislation is
unwise or is contrary to the best in
terests of the country, to let it say SO.
Padgett on Labor Matters.
Representative Padgett of Tennes-
see, member of the committee on
Naval Affairs, is quoted as follows:
'.The trip of our party to the Ha-
waiian Islands has been one of the
most delightful experiences imagin-
able Everywhere we have been re-
ceived with the greatest of hospital |
ity and courtesy Kindness has been |
piled upon kindness, and there has
been rothing left for us to desire.
'Durng my short stay here 1 |
have been particularly impressed
with the great development which
there has been of the natural re-
sources of these islands. 1 have ad-
mlred your great sugar industry, the
splendid water projects and systems
of irrigation of high lands, and your
pineapple industry also seems to be
making great strides.
''The one thing which the Terri
tory needs at present, as it seems to
me, is the building of homes, and
this, should be encouraged, as it is
absolutely necessary for the proper
development of the Territory.
81 have devoted some thought to
the question as to how this problem
of bringing in home builders should
be solved, and l have not found any
solution yet, and this problem is
largely one which you people must
solve yourself. However, l feel that
sthe general trend of the legislation
by Congress touching the Islands
will in the future have a tendency
towards the helping and encourage
ment of the home builder.
"There is one great problem which
the Hawaiian Islands will have to
face, l fear, within a few years, and
that is that of getting labor for
your plantations. / understand that
out of population of 10000 there
are ninety thousand japanese and
Chinese, and these are in the main
depended on for the tilling of your
cane and rice fields. Now the immi-
grafton of Chinese has been shut off,
and the immigration of japanese has
been practically stopped, so the qpes
tlon arises whore are you going to
get the men To take their places Il
understand that you have begun TO
Import Europeans, but the white
man will not do the work which has
been done by The Asiatie, at least,