Template:1052-1053

-p1052-

Dr. William Shaw Bowen, of New York, undertook to get the Queen to sell her rights and abdicate. I took a part in that affair, and I could tell the story. I did not reduce to writing the observations that I made while in the islands. I have written a good deal to my own paper. That (alluding to article in Troy Budget of Nov. 26, '93), is more of a statistical matter, showing the history of annexation and leaving out the rest. There are some statistics about the population, showing that just at that time they were saying that they should have a plebiscite there to justify annexation. I investigated that subject, and I found that there never had been one in territory annexed to the United States, and if there had been, the population would have voted it down in each case. We have never seen a case of that kind. Even in the annexation of Louisiana there were two riots against annexation. That annexation would have been beaten had you taken a vote of the population.

The Chairman. You are the editor of the Northern Budget?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes.

The Chairman. In the issue of November 26, 1893, you have presented some views about affairs in Hawaii. Those are the conclusions to which you sincerely arrived in your examination of the facts on the ground?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes. I did not go into that part of it which would be more interesting to you. I found that the native population was somewhat against annexation. I never could get at the bottom cause of it; I think I did, however, get at what I thought were the bottom causes. It was the woman question-the color question. Some of the richest men in the islands had married natives. One, Mr. Bishop, of the State of New York.

The Chairman. You speak of white men?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes, white men-missionaries there. Of course the native population think it a great thing, an elevated thing, to marry their daughters to white people, and I found on investigating on the Island of Hawaii and on those of Lanai and Oahu that the report had been circulated all through the islands that among the people of the U.S. the men who married negroes were despised, and that they would lose their caste in Hawaii by marrying natives. It became a woman question to a great extent in the islands, and the women influence the men always. They thought their daughters ought to marry reputably, and they thought they would occupy the position that the negro does in the U.S. country in such cases.

Senator Frye. If the islands were annexed?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes.

The Chairman. That there would be a racial degradation?

Mr. MacArthur. Degradation. The women got hold of this question and went into every native household. When I got at the bottom of this matter, I found that every man, native, that I talked with, presented that phase of the subject to me. I made inquiries, and I found that this impression had been carefully circulated everywhere among these native people. I found it in the Island of Hawaii, the Island of Maui, and I found it in Honolulu. I naturally felt that they were a very clannish people. The chief justice told me that in every case in which a jury of native people was had, they never could convict a native-that they had to take this thing from the juries and from the examining boards, and segregate the lepers in these islands. In the criminal cases the chief justice told me, and two other judges told me also----

-p1053-

The Chairman. What would you think of the political proposition of incorporating those people into our body politic?

Mr. MacArthur. I think it ought to be done, because you do not build America for a little time; you build for a century; and the time is not far distant when the Pacific coast will have six or eight millions of people, and the native Hawaii population would be entirely rubbed out, at the present percentage of decrease, somewhere between 1920 and, say, 1930.

The Chairman. For similar reasons would you also think that it would be better for our country that the Japanese and Chinese should be brought in freely and incorporated into our body politic?

Mr. MacArthur. Mr. Blount said to me, "What are these people going to do for laborers?"

The Chairman. I am not speaking of that; I am speaking of the social effect in the United States of incorporating the orientals into the social system, what we call the body politic, of the United States.

Mr. MacArthur. The Asiatics can not vote or become citizens under the Hawaiian constitution.

The Chairman. I am not speaking of that, but the effect of annexation, in your judgment, as to Asiatics?

Mr. MacArthur. It is not that, because they are a hardworking people. They earn their money, and they get what they consider wealth and return to their own countries. The exports from those islands are $115 for each man, woman, and child in the islands. There are no such exports in the world. I think it is a detriment to confine themselves exclusively to sugar.

The Chairman. Do you concur in the prevailing opinion that the Kanaka population of Hawaii is passing away-perishing?

Mr. MacArthur. At the rate of decrease that is now going on, or in the last decade, they will be entirely wiped out in 1930. It has been carefully calculated. You see there are only 34,000 natives, and there are 90,000 of population. Of that, perhaps 12,000 are Portuguese. The Portuguese and white men there in voting would outnumber the native population, that is, the native voting population-outnumber them in the property qualification.

The Chairman. You speak now of the constitution of 1887?

Mr. MacArthur. I am speaking of this present constitution, under which the house of nobles and house of representatives were elected. There is a much lower elective power for the house under the present Provisional Government.

The Chairman. You are speaking of the constitution which Liliuokalani tried to overthrow?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes.

Senator Davis. What kind of people are those Portuguese?

Mr. MacArthur. They are mostly from the Azores.

Senator Davis. We know where they are from, but how do they size up?

Mr. MacArthur. They are a civil, orderly people.

Senator Davis. Industrious?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes.

Senator Davis. Are they law-abiding?

Mr. MacArthur. Yes,

Senator Davis. Do their children go to school?

Mr. MacArthur. Oh, yes; there is compulsory education there for all classes.

Senator Davis. Do they have their own homes there, to some extent?