The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-04
THE RACE PROBLEMS OF HAWAII

MOhOnk conference OF FRIENDS OF the
Indian and other Dependent Peoples,
October 20, 1919
One of the first things that was
told me when ] landed i'm the State
of Massachusetts, in my vacation from
the Territory of Hawaii was the story
of a little girl in the Sunday School.
The class was asked by the teacher
what a heather was. Several girls
gave answers and finally this little
one put up her hand, shaking it most
vigorously, and the teacher asked her,
and this was the definition she gave;
Heather is any one born outside Of
the State of Massachusetts" ! fear
that a great deal of our judgment
about alien races is based very much
upon the theory of that little girl
These not born within our own parti-
cular state or country we are some
times prone to think of as heather.
In a sense Eawau has no place ON
program for dependent people, for
Hawaii is not a dependency Of the
United States. If there is one point
on which the Hawaiians Of Hawaii
and those who are not Hawaiians are
very touchy, it is on the point Of
Hawaii being a territory and not a
dependency. Yet in another way Ha-
wall has a place in this Conference,
for we have a Philippine problem in
Hawaii; we have Porto Rican prob
lem in Hawaii, and incidentally seye-
raj other problems rolled up with it.
These different races were brought
into the territory to work on our SUI
gar plantations, for sugar is really
the basis of the wealth and the pres
ent prosperity of our Islands. consti-
tuting ninety per cent of our eX-
ports
Sugar, however, is not the only
thing we grow. There are a great
many other things-pineapples, which
have come to take second place, bana
mas, rice, tobacco, and coffee. Our
friends from Porto Rico this morning
told us that if we wanted a good cur
of coffee, the best cup of coffee was
Porto Rico coffee. | beg to differ
Now Porto Rico coffee may be good
but no doubt Old Kona Coffee yol
will find a great deal better CLaugh
teri
Now the Territory of Hawaii is no
so very large, consisting of a groul
of eight islands in very much of
semi-circle, lying on the bosom of tn
Pacific Ocean. She has had a varier
history, and it is my best belle
knowing the greed of the races o
Europe as I do, knowing how the
have seized territory in Asia and j
all parts of the world, that if tn
United States had not taken Hawa
under it's wing, undoubtedly on a.
count of its strategic position in tn
Pacific Ocean, some other countr
would have taken it.
OF our present race, the Japanes
compose forty-two per cent, and th
Chinese eleven per cent; so that fit
three per cent of our total presel
population is Oriental or Asiatic
addition to that, we have a gre;
many European races-Portugues
Spaniards and Russians have bee
brought there to work on the sug;
plantations. The Polynesians, the n
tives of the soil, are fast disappearin
The last census revealed about tive
ty-five thousand still living, over thr'
thousand having disappeared in Il
ten years from nineteen hundred
nineteen hundred and ten. The mi
ed races, however, have increased
numbers. This is one of the encoura
ing features of our mixture OF rae
there.
When the Islands were annexe
the natives and the Americans the
were taken over as citizens OF Il
United States, and the natives ha
: jealousy guarded their rights a
have always exercised the right
franchise, voting almost to a man
= all elections; and | believe, in spi
of differences on the part OF ma
friends, for whom have the hight
regard, that it has not been m
take to have given the native OF /
wall the franchise, II is a less
to him, and he will, in the long n
l believe, exercise it we'll and judi
ously as he has several times in
past. The great charge broul
against him is that he did not v,
to for prohibition and thereby show
unfitness to vote, but should hate
Q base a similar charge against "
9 nearly half the citizens OF the st
2 of Maine who have voted against +
X hlbition.
XII In our treatment OF Asiatic peo
= hoo, harah