University of Northern Iowa
Hawaii Pleads for Statehood
Author(s): Walker Matheson
Source: The North American Review, Vol. 247, No. 1 (Spring, 1939), pp. 130-141
Published by: University of Northern Iowa
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25115082
Accessed: 23-04-2019 00:18 UTC
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Why Are We Dubious about Hawaii? Hawaii Pleads for Statehood WALKER MATHESON Strategically placed, and literally the crossroads of the Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands have the distinc tion of being farther from a main body of land than any other surface on the globe: San Francisco is 2,091 nautical miles away; Yokohama, 3,394 miles; Manila, 4,838 miles; Sydney, Australia, 4,420, and Panama, 4,685. The closest land of all, strangely enough, is one of the Aleutian Is lands of Alaska, which alone shares with Hawaii the status of a territory of the United States. As an integral and inseparable part of this country, Hawaii is knocking loudly at the door of the Union for admission into the sisterhood of states, and back of that demand is a story of international intrigues, royal romance, revolution, and a racial experiment that has made of the islands the Melting Pot for the East and West. The agitation for statehood goes back more than 80 years, to 1854, in the reign of King Kamehameha III. At that time annexation proceedings had started, and we seemed willing to accept Hawaii as the thirty-first State. We had been friendly to the little constitutional monarchy from its founding. The arrival of the first group of mis sionaries from New England ? more particularly Con necticut and Massachusetts ? in 1820, followed later by 130This content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 131 Americans from the Middle Atlantic States, had already set the character of Hawaiian civilization along Amer ican lines. The early acceptance of Christianity by the Hawaiian people, and the high confidence in which the Kings held the early missionaries, gave us great power during the formative years of the monarchy, as against British and other influences. The American Navy was another powerful force in keeping Hawaii out of foreign hands. As early as 1826 United States Navy officers, then practically roving am bassadors of their country, were advising the native government, acting as referees in disputes involving for eigners and the government, and supporting law and order "against those who would like to leave the Ten Commandments behind them when they entered the Pacific." Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, in 1842 paved the way for recognition of Hawaiian independence by declaring: "The sense of the Government of the United States was that the Government of the Sandwich Islands ought to be respected; that no Power ought to take possession of the islands, either as a conquest or for the purpose of colonization; and that no Power ought to seek for any undue control over the existing government or any exclusive privilege of preferences in matters of com merce. ..." The same sentiments were expressed in President Tyler's message to Congress on December 30, 1842, and in the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations written by John Quincy Adams. This strong stand England and France jointly to declare that: "Taking into consideration the existence in the Sand wich Islands of a government capable of providing forThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
132 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, they have thought it right to engage reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent State, and never take possession, either direcdy or under the tide of a protectorate or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed." The first formal efforts for annexation of Hawaii, as has been said, were made in 1854 when President Pierce in structed Secretary of State Marcy to commission D. L. Gregg to represent the United States in Hawaii and to negotiate a treaty of annexation with King Kame hameha III. The treaty was to provide for the admission of Hawaii eventually "enjoying the same degree of sover eignty as other States of the Union." The treaty was never ratified. Kamehameha III died and his successor, Kamehameha IV, was not interested, because the Hawaiians insisted upon being admitted im mediately into the Union as a state and not as a terri tory. Thus the matter of statehood lay dormant, the general attitude of the American Secretaries of State, following Secretary Marcy, being that the United States had a particular interest in Hawaii, and would not let any other Power take the control of the Kingdom. Ameri can industry and commerce, meanwhile, had come to dominate the islands. Hawaii provided the California pioneers with wheat and flour, and the Californians, lacking schools of their own, sent their children to Hawaii to be educated by the Boston and New Haven missionary teachers. In 1876 a treaty of reciprocity was signed that made Hawaii practically a unit of American economy. During the discussions of that treaty King Kalakaua, passing through on a world tour, appeared onThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 133 the floor of the Forty-third Congress in Washington, exchanged compliments with the Speaker. The reciprocal treaty gave the people of Hawaii a of security in their commerce with the United States, bringing about further development of its principal dustry, sugar. When the treaty was renewed in 1887, United States secured the right to establish a naval at Pearl Harbor, today one of the mightiest naval tions in the world. France and Britain, whom we accused several times in the past of trying to dominate the island kingdom under threat of force, were naturally suspicious of this move. They sought a guarantee of neutrality and independence of the Hawaiian Islands. With high moral unction Washington declared that a guarantee was not necessary. Six years later, however, a revolution took place. Liliuokalani (sister of Kalakaua) was deposed, and Republic of Hawaii established, with Sanford B. (cousin of the gigantic pineapple industry's founder) President. Immediately after the dethronement of Queen, on January 17, 1893, President Dole dispatched commissioners to Washington to negotiate a treaty the United States "by the terms of which full and plete political union may be secured between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands.55 President Harrison approved of the principles of annexation, but Secretary of State Foster, while not averse to admitting Hawaii statehood, pointed out that admission would occasion debate and delay, and suggested an annexation provided that Hawaii "be incorporated into the United States as an integral part thereof.55 President Harrison was pleased with the treaty in transmitting it to the Senate on February 15, 1893, said:This content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
134 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW "Only two courses are now open, one the establishment of a protectorate by the United States, and the other annexation full and complete ... I think the latter course ... is the only one that will adequately secure the interests of the United States." President Harrison's term expired on March 3, 1893, before any action was taken on the treaty. When the question came up again, his successor, President Cleve land, suspected a frame-up on the part of American com mercialists to set up a puppet American colony. He with drew the treaty from the Senate and sent a commission to Honolulu to ascertain the facts. The commission quickly discovered that the Hawaiian revolution was promoted by American interests wanting to have Hawaii enrolled as a State, and supported by American armed forces who raised the Stars and Stripes over the Royal Iolani Palace. So President Cleveland dropped all thought of annexation. Almost immediately after the inauguration of President McKinley in 1897, however, the Republic of Hawaii sent a second commission to Washington to press for annexation and eventual statehood. The treaty was jammed through, and ratified in 1898 by a Joint Reso lution of House and Senate. Meanwhile, war between the United States and Spain was brewing, and the Hawaiian Republic, disregarding every tenet of inter national law, put the port of Honolulu at the disposal of the American military transports and warships en route to the Philippines, laying itself open to possible reprisals from Spain. The battle of Manila Bay made Hawaii essential to the United States in the Pacific, and many observers believe that, had it not been for the Spanish American War, the joint resolution of annexation of the American puppet republic would have failed to passThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 135 in the Congress. President Dole was appointed the first Governor, and the citizens of Hawaii, regardless of race, became citizens of the United States. Hawaii's fight for statehood has been pressed continu ously ever since. In the forty years since annexation, Hawaiian taxpayers have paid $150,000,000 into the United States Treasury in excess of what the Federal Government has appropriated for Hawaii. Eighty-one percent of the 400,000-odd residents are native-born ? a larger percentage than in California or New York. Further, Hawaii is considerably ahead of many states in its social conditions: agricultural labor on the sugar plantations, for instance, receives a higher compensation than is paid agricultural labor on the average in the rest of the United States. Child labor has not been permitted for years. As a customer of the mainland of the United States, Hawaii ranks fifth among the nations of the world, and tops thirteen foreign customers, including Mexico, Cuba, Belgium, Italy, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, China, Sweden and British India. Its annual purchases are more than double those of gigantic China with its 400,000,000 potential customers. Hawaii therefore believes that it is entitled to be the forty-ninth State, feeling that it is just as much a part of the United States as any state on the mainland. As for size, it is larger than Connecticut, Rhode Island or Delaware. Its population is greater than that of Dela ware, Nevada or Wyoming, and almost as large as that of Idaho, New Mexico or New Hampshire. Thus, neither size nor population holds Hawaii out of the flag's field of stars. Besides, Hawaii had cost the United States nothing,This content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
136 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW whereas every other possession did, either in blood or gold. The Louisiana purchase was $3,750,000 (an al most astrological figure back in 1804); the accession of Florida from Spain in 1819 was thought worth $5,000,000; the Gadsden purchase cost $15,000,000 following the Mexican war of 1848, by which was ceded what is now southern Arizona and part of New Mexico. Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7,200,000 in 1867; and under the treaty of December 10, 1898, the United States paid Spain $20,000,000 for her relinquishment of all claims to the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, while under a later treaty, the United States paid Spain an addi tional $100,000 for the oudying Philippine Islands. For the Danish West Indies ? St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, now known as the Virgin Islands ? the United States paid $25,000,000. These tiny Caribbean dots, with a population of 23,000 have since been described as the "poorhouse of America," most of the islanders being on Federal relief. And the islands' trade, incidentally, is mosdy with Denmark. Hawaii knows that it is the "Japanese problem" that is barring the islands from statehood, despite a decrease in the alien Japanese population and an increase in island born Japanese. The argument is that if granted state hood, the Hawaiians might send Japanese to the Gov ernor's Mansion, the House of Representatives in Wash ington, and possibly the Senate itself. This argument hardly jibes with our much flaunted democratic idea. Hawaii does not deny that there is a preponderance of Japanese in the islands. It is proud of its Japanese popu lation, and points out that since 1924, when Japan in stituted a dual citizenship law by which everyone of Japanese blood born abroad could be registered at theThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 137 Consulates as a subject of the Mikado, the great majority of Japanese have ignored the ruling. The second eration of Hawaiian-born Japanese became American ized in speech and custom, scorned Japanese clothes, up baseball. Those who had the money and who been intrigued with their parents' stories of Japan, there and then hurried back, sore at heart that they been treated as foreigners rather than as Japanese Japan. It is obvious, then, that the third generation of Japa nese in Hawaii is as Americanized as possible. Japanese language schools have been reduced a great deal in number. Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on the Territories in Honolulu in 1935, Oren E. Long, superintendent of public instruction of the Territorial Schools, said: "Our youth have a growing appreciation of our Amer ican institutions. They are conscious of their citizenship and take pride in it. I am certain of this: no greater com pliment can be paid to them than to think of them as Americans; no greater insult than to question their loyalty." The subcommittee on Territories, meeting at the Sen ate chambers of Iolani Palace, the Capitol Building of Hawaii, cocked antipathetic ears to Hawaii's statehood plea in 1935. Why? Surf riders, battling the combers off Waikiki Beach, thrilled the Congressmen; so did the hula dancers and the business of eating poi and pit and fish cooked in underground ovens. The Mighty Minds of Washington had been delighted with everything, but they had seen too many Japanese. Not only had they seen Japanese, but they had heard a lot of adverse criticism about them ? that they were all spies, working as servants on the^Army posts and atThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
138 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW the Navy bases; that the Emperor of Japan had secretly enrolled them as members of an army which, at the word of alarm, would seize the islands; that those who were not employed at Army-Navy posts were equipped to poison the water supply and do other dastardly deeds, including the disemboweling of all non-Japanese. The Congressmen sailed back to the American mainland and reported thumbs down on statehood for Hawaii. Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles thought it had a solution: if Hawaii wanted to become a part of the United States, the simplest thing to do was to incorporate it as part of the City of Los Angeles. That city, which had just succeeded in becoming a seaport by the expedient of annexing San Pedro, forty-odd miles away, and which already included some vast desert stretches, was then advertising itself as the "biggest city in the world." The inclusion of Hawaii, 2,100 miles away, would, the Los Angelenos thought, add considerably to its tourist bureau promotion list, which could include Waikiki Beach, frothing volcanoes, the prospect of skiing down Mauna Loa (13,675 feet, the eleventh highest peak in the world) into the tropical plains; and surf-board riding off treacherous Queen's Beach. But Hawaii was unimpressed by the Los Angeles in vitation. It had distinctions of its own ? Honolulu is geographically the biggest city in the world, Midway Island, 1,000 miles westward, being incorporated within the City and County of Honolulu. Hawaii rejected the California offer with few thanks. It wanted to become a State. On June 9, 1938, Delegate Samuel Wilder King intro duced a bill in Congress to enable the people of Hawaii to enact a constitution, form a state government, and toThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 139 be admitted into the Union on an equal footing original states. In August, 1937, both the House Senate adopted a resolution for the appointment committee of twelve Senators and twelve Representatives to conduct a comprehensive study of statehood and subjects relating to the welfare of Hawaii. They the territory to be a modern unit of the American monwealth, with a political, social and economic ture of the highest type. Sixty-seven witnesses, jority of whom favored statehood, testified. Due to the strategic location of Hawaii the Islands of prime importance from a military standpoint, they are well fortified, a hostile country could not them except at the very highest expense. The Army building its forces up to a strength of 25,000 officers men, while the Naval force consists of approximately 4,000 officers and enlisted personnel. It costs about $35,000,000 to maintain the defenses of Hawaii. It was the Japanese question again that arose course of the hearings on statehood, those opposing idea citing the fact that the Japanese would probably a menace to the safety of the country where, it ported, they were ready to organize their own army, conduct an internal war at the back door of the themselves. Testifying in favor of statehood and terming anese "menace" absurd, Louis S. Cain, Superintendent of Public Works of the Territory, summed up the nese problem thus: "In these discussions the word Japan is not commonly used, but it is such common knowledge that we might well use it. There is no other Oriental Power would have sufficient strength even to dream of thing. I would like to discuss a rather divergent, but content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
140 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW I consider a practical, view of that question. Japan is the only major Power not Caucasian. Now, Japan has suffered from race prejudice and discrimination more than any other Power. She knows what it is too well. She knows better than we do the futility of even so much as considering occupying the west coast of the United States and running it as a colony of Japan. It would be too impractical. It would not work. She knows that bet ter than we do, too. And the Islands themselves are not worth the major conflict their conquest would precipitate. I am urging the temperance of the military hysteria over fear of attack by Japan on these islands. I am contented the great numbers of us here have no fear of secret and organized societies of Japanese whose object is to rise up and take the Islands for Japan. We who live here and know these people have no fear on the question of dual citizenry of the Americans of Japanese ancestry. I have never heard any question raised as to the dual citizen ship of British, French, or certain other nationalities." The discussions of Japanese in the Islands recalled an interesting historical fact that in 1881 King Kalakaua, on a voyage around the world, was the guest of the Emperor Mutsuhito. In the course of a secret interview a matrimonial alliance between the Japanese Imperial family and the royal Hawaiian family was proposed, and the King suggested that his niece, Princess Kaiulani and heir to the throne, would wed into the Japanese house. At that time Princess Kaiulani was only six years old and the Japanese Prince whom the King had in mind was a youth of fifteen and a student at a Japanese naval academy. The Japanese Emperor declined the proposition so as not to aid in any scheme which might impair the "sphere of American influence over Hawaii." At that time KingThis content downloaded from 72.253.70.70 on Tue, 23 Apr 2019 00:18:49 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
HAWAII PLEADS FOR STATEHOOD 141 Kalakua was fearful regarding the future of his kingdom in the face of increasing Occidental population. The Japanese problem, in the discussions on statehood, was brought up again with regard to the loyalty of the Japanese should the United States become involved in a war. It was pointed out that during the World War the Japanese flocked to enlist into the American Army, none of them waiting for the draft and none of them claiming exemption, although nearly all were heads of large families. Not all of the Japanese were accepted, but out of the total of 11,000 non-citizen Japanese and 596 Hawaii-born Japanese who volunteered to enlist, a com pany was formed of the first regiment of the Hawaiian National Guards, and was the first Japanese military unit under the American flag. In October, 1917, typhoid germs were discovered in the water supply and Honolulu authorities requested the Governor to place guards around the reservoirs. It was the Japanese company that was called upon for this duty, probably the first American "activity" in the World War. The Japanese further showed their patriotism toward their adopted country when they over-subscribed all five issues of Liberty Loans, amounting to approximately $20,000,000. The question of Japanese patriotism toward the United States in the event of a war with Japan has fortunately never had to be tested. At the General Election in Hawaii in 1940 a plebiscite will probably be held on the statehood question. What the vote will be is certain; what the United States will do about it remains to be seen. The Hawaiians will be satisfied if we practice toward them the democracy we preach at home.
Note: the above downloaded for issues of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
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