The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-01-03

ton In HAWAII. so long as the Jap
anese, the Chinese, the Portuguese,
the Porto Ricans, the Filipinos, the
Koreans and all the other babel of
foreign peoples keep on working
quietly, we're all right. The only
noteworthy Oriental peril" in Ha-
waii is the fear that the Orientals
will not continue to work with docil-
ity on the land of the white man.
When the white man first began to
get control of the land, he set the
native Hawaiian to work for him; but
the Hawaiian has never been really
good worker Therefore, in an early
day, the planters began to bring in
Chinese and later, stimulated by a
protective tariff on sugar and free
trade in labor, they drew in thou
sands of Japanese, Portuguese, Porto
Ricans, Koreans and others.
OF shipload of Russian peasants
from Siberia, which arrived a year or
so ago, large proportion would not
even go to the plantations to work.
Although Governor Frear said Of
them that they were in some respects
the best immigrants ever brought to
the islands, they simply would not
work there, under the prevailing con-
ditions. / saw some of the Russian
families living in the utmost squalor
and misery in Honolulu waiting Tor
the men of the family who had gone
to California to earn enough money
to send for them. The only reason
that many Japanese and Chinese re-
main in the islands is because they
cannot, under the new regulations, go
to California. Both the Chinese and
Japanese in the islands are to this
extent enforced laborers; and is it
ever really possible to make free
laborers compete with laborers who
are not free?
No, excellent as are the intentions
of those who would thus import white
men, how can they succeed? If the
present feudalism, the purpose of
which is to raise the maximum of
sugar at the maximum of profits for
few rich men, is to continue, then a
depressed, DISTINGUISHED, half-free Ia
Dor is the necessary concomitant. But
if the islands are to become more
democratic, if they are to place the
making of good men and good citi-
zens as the prime object of a state,
then they must change the present
system of oligarchy control. There is
no other way out.
At present, the great majority of
the plantation interests-and their
word is law--don't want men who are
likely to become ambitious; they
don't want citizens. They are even
now agitating the idea of persuading
the United States government to so
modify it's exclusion law as to let in
few more" Chinese workers under
a sort of contract system. One of the
chief troubles with the Japanese in
the islands is that they rear large
families, and the boys of these famil-
les, born on our soil, will soon be vot-
ers. And that introduces a perplex-
ing If not alarming element in the
situation asked one of the big
planters on Maui whether he thought
that the coming generation of Japan
ese would make intelligent citizens:
ooh, yes" he said, they'll make
intelligent citizens all right enough,
but not plantation laborers-and
that's what we want"
The planters discover that not only
are the young Japanese and Chinese
coming along soon as voters, but that
the Japanese are displaying extraor
binary ability in getting into business
in acquiring property and otherwise
In threatening the present equilibrium
of control. Consequently decided eff
forts are being made in the islands to
keep the Japanese out of certain
trades and business and to prevent
them from acquiring land. An impor
tant official of the territory put the
situation quite boldly and naively to
me:
you see these young Japanese
born in the islands under the law are
as much citizens as we are. They
are therefore entitled to take VI
homesteads. The problem with us il
to interpret the law so that none Of
them can get n"
The impression left by such a de
fiance of law by those in power upoT
the working people of the territory
was undoubtedly very unfortunate. Il