The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-01-24
Charity Problem Peculiar
To Honolulu Discussed
By Sanford B. Dole

A thoughtful essay on Honolulu's
peculiar problem of charity, among
her many races, was feature of the
annual meeting yesterday of the As
ISOLATED Charities. Another was the
report by Mrs. Whitney, the secretary,
which contained some suggestive
thoughts on the military fertilization
work going on here. The annual re-
ports showed much effective activity
of the officers during the year.
All of the former officers were re-
elected, as follows: President, Hon. S.
B. Dole; first vice president, Rev. w.
D. Westervelt; second vice president,
Frs c. du Roi; secretary, Mrs. j. NJ.
Whitney; treasurer, George G. Fuller.
]. A. Rath was selected to represent
the Associated Charities at the nation
al convention of charities and correc.
ton at Boston next spring.
Judge Dole's report as president
was as follows:
Is it matter or regret to me that
the results of the branch of the fed
eral census of Honolulu, taken for the
benefit of the Associated Charities,
and relating to matters such as cost
of living, family income, members of
families as wage earners and kindred
subjects, are not within reach of the
society, as l had hoped to make them
the subject of my paper on this occa-
sion.
With the growing race diversity of
our population, charitable enterprise
acquires an increasing interest and
perhaps also, develops increasing diff.
fculty. Some of the new-coming
strangers,-Porto Ricans, Filipinos,
Russians and others, until they get
their bearings and into touch with
conditions, are likely to require aid
and advice. This gives an opportun
ity for good educational work through
which they may be led away from the
idea of being permanently helped and
toward an ambition for independence
This lesson may have to be given over
| and over again, as ore and another,
firing of regular lab57 on the sugar
plantation or the pineapple field
steals back to the more varied and
less reliable life of the metropolis;
and in some cases to the conservative
hospitality of the Associated Charities
While serving the behests Of charity
with clear vision, unhampered by spu
J rious demands, it is our privilege, from
J these experiences, to study the initial
causes of the need for assistance that
enthralls so many of our fellows, am
to consider ways and means to Temov,
them one by one, with the confident
expectation that in some happy time
to come, poverty shall be a condition
of the past for historians to record
and for society to wonder at.
There is the danger that, in the mo-
dern machinery of charitable work
through which assistance to the needy
is conveyed by few representatives
of charity, the many of us, who give
financial support to such machinery,
are losing that stimulus to our SYM
pathies that. comes of direct touch
with the hardships and limitations of
the dependent poor. Our consciences
become placated with the stated Civ
ing to the almoner organizations, and
the separation between us and the
objects of our charity grows wider and
wider as our minds become habituated
to the practice. Herbert Spencer, in
his Social States, says, There could
hardly be found a more efficient device
for estranging men from each other
and decreasing their fello%feeling,