The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-02-04
.JAPS IN LEAD IN HAWAII.
RESULT OF RECENT SUR.
VEY THERE
Momentum of Race Puts All
Other Racial Groups Out
Of Running
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch]

ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch]
Honolulu T. H., January 31.-A
federal survey commission, headed
by DR.. Frank F. Bunker of Washing
ton, which recently surveyed educa-
ton conditions in Hawaii, in pre-
liminary report declared that the
Momentum" of the Japanese race in
Hawaii puts all of the racial groups
out of the running in respect to num-
bers and that the momentum If con-
tinued will carry the Japanese race
into increasingly dominant numeri-
cal position giving their Hawaiian
born progeny in 1880 about twenty
eight per cent OF the electorate of
the territory.
The report, which is freely inter-
spersed with tables of figures OBJ.
tanned from federal and territorial
official sources and from the office
OF the Japanese consulate general IN
Honolulu, says in part.
with an actual population now in
the islands of 114,137 Q919), as re-
ported by the Japanese consulate
general against $4,000 Portuguese, the
next largest group, ii is Clear that
the Japanese race has acquired mo-
mentum which puts all the other
groups out Of the running with re-
spect to numbers.
THAT this momentum inevitably
will carry the Japanese race into an
increasingly dominant numerical po-
sition, if continued, is clearly shown
by tables compiled from information
obtained from the office of the Jap
anese consul general and from the
records of the territorial board OF
health"
Need of Cheap Labor.
Dealing with the PARALLEL presented
by the methods of adjustment to is
land influences represented by the
Portuguese and the Japanese races,
the report says: while both groups
were originally were brought into the
islands to satisfy the need for cheap
with both a pronounced tendency to
seek a better economic position by
breaking away from the plantations
and engaging in other activities Civ
ing promise of a freer and more am
pie life.
"The Japanese are ambitious to
become tenants, to own land, to set
up business, to enter a profession, to
rise above the category of unskilled
labor and as they individually
achieve their ambition, they are, like
the Portuguese, participating more
and more in the affairs of the islands,
socially, educationally, politically.
Furthermore, they are all at work.
among them. There are now, ap-
proximately, $4,000 male and '27,000
female adult Japanese in the islands.
A table, based upon information OBJ
tanned from the Japanese consulate
general shows that 50,149 of them
are employed in gainful occupations.
Few Japs Convicted.
"It should be said in fairness that
there are few Japanese children in
the juvenile courts and in institutions
for delinquents; and there are pro-
portionately very few Japanese
among the convict labor gangs and in
the jails. Few, if any are support
ed by public charity, nor are any beg
savings bank deposits rank third
among those of the island races, be-
ing exceeded by the Americans and
Portuguese only.
"All of which activity, laudable in
itself, can be explained adequately
on the basis of racial qualities, inher-
ent in the Japanese, of patience, per-
sistence, thrift, initiative, endurance.
ambition, group solidarity, coupled
with acumen and astuteness, which
give them the ability to get on where
other races have failed. Indeed so
well have the Japanese adjusted
themselves to island conditions, and
so rapidly are they increasing in the
number of Hawaiin- born children,
that this group soon will have a ma
jority of the voters of the islands"
Jap Children in Schools.
The commissioner report then de-
duces from a table of births of Jap
anese children from 1898 to 1919 that
1926 Hawaiian born Japanese will
have become old enough to vote by
1880; that 22,921 more will have been
added to the list of eligible voters by
1940 making a total during twenty
two year period of 35,1S7. Deduct
ing thirteen per cent to cover posi-
BILE losses by removal and death, the
report estimates that by 1910 there
will be an aggregate of japanese vot-
ers in the territory of 30,857 including
2S7 now registered.
Pointing to the fact that Japanese
children in the public schools of Ha
wall in 1910 were 27.27 per cent of
the total enrolment and that in 1919
this school groups stood at 40.55 per
cont of the whole. the report say this
! Indicates that the place in the cleo
torate. that the Japanese will occupy
in 1880 and gain in 1910 may, indeed,
| be underestimated.' The concrete
deduction then follows:
Whether or not the Jr%anese de-
sire to achieve political control,
without doubt, within a few years,
they will be in a position to do so If
they choose"
Interesting comparisons of the de-
gree of intermarriage INDUCED in by
different races in the islands next
are taken up which bring the COM
mission to the conclusion that, I'm
general. Japanese marry only Japa-
nese. 1t is clear that all races, ex.
cept the Koreans and Japanese. are
fusng rapidly through intermarriages,
but that the Japanese group is main
tanning it's racial distinctiveness."