The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-02-17
HILO EDITOR
Continued from page nine)

labor. The native 7fawaians not be.
ing sufficiently civilized to appreciate
the blessedness of hard work and
little pay, It became necessary to inn
port laborers. Portuguese, Chinese,
Japanese, Koreans, Porto Ricans, Fill
pinos, Russians, and Spaniards have
all been tried; but the little brown
man from the Orient has been found
to best answer the purpose of the
planters, and consequently Japanese
have been poured into the Territory,
until now they are the dominant Gle
ment.
Combining our attention to the Jap
anese, let us consider the significance
of their increasing numbers. In the
first place, every Japanese born in
Hawaii has all the rights of Amer
lean citizenship, which are denied to
ksiatic immigrants. 1t is calculated
that there are now some $4,000 young
Japanese on the islands, who will have
these rights when they come of age
Within twenty years there will be
10000 Japanese voters in the terri
tory, and in thirty years from now
there will be $4,000. There is moth
ing, apparently, to prevent them be-
coming dominant in politics. 1t may
be said that this danger is remote,
and that Americans can view it with
complacency. But, apart from the
future, there is a present menace,
which takes various forms, and can
not be ignored
Take, first of all, the war menace.
What would be the condition of Ha-
wall over 1000 miles from California,
in the event of complications, in
volving Japan and the United States
in war? Would the twenty or thirty
trained to fight, and many of them
having seen actual service-would
| these be likely to remain peaceful
and loyal to America? No one ac-
| quainted with their disposition and
temper believes for a moment that
they would. On the island of Oahu,
they might be held in check by the
American forces concentrated around
Honolulu; but in the other islands the
Japanese could do just as they pleas.
Der the whites by a hundred to one
1t is terrible to contemplate what
fearful retaliation the hordes of Japa
nese laborers would take for the real
or fancied oppression to which they
have been subjected by their white
masters.
Closely allied to the war menace
is the industrial, which has two
fold aspect. There is, first of all, the
competition of skilled Japanese labor
with white labor in the towns. In
Honolulu, the Japanese have not only
taken hold of the fisheries and the
hack-driving business, from both Of
which they have ousted the Hawai-
ians, but they have also made grea
Roadway towards supplanting whites
as clerks in banks and commercial
establishments, as statesmen and a.
artisans. They are quick learner!
and tireiess workers, and they are
cheap. I White parents are often il
despair at the thought that their sons
and daughters, as they grow up, have
to enter into competition with Japa
nese workers and associate with then
in workshop, office, or store.
The other and graver aspect of th'
industrial menace has to do with thu
Japanese laborers on the plantations
These workers were stirred up re
Gently to condition OF disconten
with their wages, and apparently no
without cause. They are paid from
thirteen to eighteen dollars a month
against twenty-five dollars fifty cent
paid to other laborers; yet it is no
denied that the japanese are quit
as efficient as the best, and SOM
whites contend that they are supe
rior to any other class. Whateve
may be the reason for the low rat
of wages, the Japanese believe tina
they are Disseminated against solel
on account of their nationality. TIL
agitation had it's center in Honolulu
but it spread all over the islands
through the agency of japanese news
papers and the visits of agitators.
f, The OutCOInQ of thp agitation was