The Garden Island. [volume] (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-current, 1916-07-11
0RATORY ON THE
FOURTH OF JULY

great weight to the literary Sec
ton OF he program on July
Fourth. These were by Governor
Pinkham and Rev. G. d. Mil
iiken. The former was published
the same dav in Honolulu, so is
omitted here. Rev. Mr. Milllkin
said:
Mr.. Chairman; Your I;xcellenCv,
Governor Pinkham. Members #
the National Guard; Fellow Citi-
zens:
1t is appropriate TO recall our
country's first birthday because Of
its association with the Declaration
of independence to the reading of
which we have been listening.
The thirteen British colonies in
North America were met in Con-
aress in the city Of Philadelphia
a member from Virginia intro
duced the resolution that the
United Colonies are and OF right
ought to be free and Independent
states. Five men were chosen to
draw up declaration embodving
that resolution. Thomas Jeffer
son, thirty three years of age,
afterward president, lawyer we'll
versed in both literature and poll
tical history was chosen to draft
the instrument. During its COM
posing he consulted no books but
wrote from the overhowing fulness
of his mind. On the 4th of july,
1916, one hundred forty years ago
the president OF the Congress, John
Hancock, of Massachusetts, signed
the Declaration of American In
dependence in h $ bold hand
which could be read without spec
tacles by the uear-sighted foreign
oppressor. Then those patriots
rang old liberty bell with joyous
peal. The thirteen British Colo
nies had ceased to exist. In their
place stood a new nation, the
United States of America, your
country and mine.
Last summer at the Exposition
in San Francisco it was my privi-
lege to see ahd touch this same
old liberty bell now cracked and
tarnished by the ravages of time.
Hundreds of thousands OF citizens,
young and old. thronged to gaze
reverently upon it, all honored
relic that shall be sacredly guard
ed as long as grateful land,
whose birth it's ringing celebrated
shall endure.
The Hawaiian Islands on which
our lot is cast, in the midst of the
vast Pacific are now part and
parcel of the United States. The
inhabitants, of different race and
color, comprise peoples who have
come hither from lands scattered
far and wide upon the surface of
the earth: and in these days when
other nations are being torn as
sunder bv hatred and the clash of
arms our Heterogeneous popula-
ton sends its sympathies. each to
his own mother land in the hour
of her trial; sends them naturally
as a child sends affection to a pa
rent in trouble, no matter how
widely separated child and parent
may be. But it is incumbent upon
us native citizens of our own
country, in tine midst of perilous
conditions like these, to do what
can be done to re-create in every
alien who has come hither to
make his home spirit of unfail-
ing loyalty to his adopted country.
loyalty of that true and reliable
quality that shall not be found
renegade should ever the dark hour
of war threaten our land.
The United States and its pos.
sessions are unique among the
nations of earth in that they have
allowed to enter their confines
peoples O f everv nation under
heaven, such as scriptural phraseo-
losy would designate, Parthians,
Medes, Elamites, Ethiopians and
1.-The dweliers in Mesopotamia,
Pamphilia, Pontus and Asia; and
we hear them speaking each in
his own tongue. A national diff
fculty now being encountered is
this Heterogeneous character of our
population being so SLOWLY re-
duced to a homogeneous civiliza-
ton. It is easier for this Terri
tory to become an international