Blount Report: Affairs in Hawaii
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HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 599
The Portuguese have generally signed the annexation rolls. These, as I have already stated, are
nearly all Portuguese subjects. A majority of the whites of American and European birth who have
signed the same roll are not Hawaiian subjects and are not entitled to vote under any laws of the
Kingdom.
The testimony of leading annexationists is that if the question of annexation was submitted to a
popular vote, excluding all persons who could not read and write except foreigners (under the
Australian-ballot system, which is the law of the land), that annexation would be defeated.
From a careful inquiry I am satisfied that it would be defeated by a vote of at least two to one. If
the votes of persons claiming allegiance to foreign countries were excluded, it would be defeated by
more than five to one.
The undoubted sentiment of the people is for the Queen, against the Provisional Government and
against annexation. A majority of the whites, especially Americans, are for annexation.
The native registered vote in 1890 was 9,700; the foreign vote was 3,893. This native vote is
generally aligned against the annexation whites. No relief is hoped for from admitting to the right of
suffrage the overwhelming Asiatic population. In this situation the annexation whites declare that good
government is unattainable.
The controlling element in the white population is connected with the sugar industry. In its interests
the Government here has negotiated treaties from time to time for the purpose of securing contract
laborers for terms of years for the plantations, and paid out large sums for their transportation and for
building plantation wharves, etc.
These contracts provide for compelling the laborer to work faithfully by fines and damage suits
brought by the planters against them, with the right on the part of the planter to deduct the damages
and cost of suit out of the laborer's wages. They also provide for compelling the laborer to remain
with the planter during the contract term. They are sanctioned by law and enforced by civil remedies
and penal laws. The general belief amongst the planters at the so-called revolution was that,
notwithstanding the laws against importing labor into the United States in the event of their
annexation to that Government, these laws would not be made operative in the Hawaiian Islands on
account of their peculiar conditions. Their faith in the building of a cable between Honolulu and San
Francisco, and large expenditures at Pearl Harbor in the event of annexation have also as much to do
with the desire for it.
In addition to these was the hope of escape from duties on rice and fruits and receiving the sugar-
bounty, either by general or special law.
The repeal of the duty on sugar in the McKinley act was regarded a severe blow to their interests,
and the great idea of statesmanship has been to do something in the shape of treaties with the United
States, reducing their duties on agricultural products of the Hawaiian Islands, out of which profit
might be derived. Annexation has for its charm the complete abolition of all duties on their exports to
the United States.
The annexationists expect the United States to govern the islands j by so abridging the right of
suffrage as to place them in control of the whites.
The Americans, of what is sometimes termed the better class, in. point of intelligence, refinement, and
good morals, are fully up to the best standard in American social life. Their homes are tasteful and
distinguished
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