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3723 for the maintenance of a safe and stable government, arid I do not pretend to say that a thirty days' sojourn in the islands better qualifies me to judge on this point than those who have thorough personal knowledge of the conditions. I am, however, on general principles, opposed to a proposition to deprive those who are able to read and write and therefore inform themselves, and who have had a reasonable training by participation in or by actual contact for a considerable length of time with the institutions of self- government, of the right to exercise the elective franchise for the reason that they are not the possessors of real estate. It is pointed out by those who desire to restrict the franchise in Hawaii that the number of Caucasians in the islands is but a fraction of the entire population, as though upon our race rested the entire responsibility of government there: and those Who hold this view seem to regard the less than 10,000 native and foreign born of American, English, French, and Scandinavian parentage as the saving remnant, the leaven which must be depended upon entirely to leaven the whole lump of Hawaiian citizenship. I should feel much discouraged about the future of the newborn Territory did I share in the views of those who imagine that its future political weal depended entirely upon this restricted contingent of her citizenship, though I am willing to admit that undoubtedly the great proportion of her leaders in all matters, for the immediate future at least, will come from these latter classes, and for the comfort of those whose faith in the future of the islands is pinned solely to its Anglo-Saxon citizenship, I wish to bear testimony to their high character and intelligence. Almost without exception, they are people of education and refinement, of industry and force, of energy and of high ideals, and I think 1 can also safely say, generally, or earnest piety. The new Territory of Hawaii seems never to have been the haven of those "who left their country for their country's good." The foundation of this portion of the citizenship was the families of the first missionaries, from which has sprung and to which has been added traders, planters, professional men, and latterly a liberal sprinkling of stalwart young Americans, rich only in honest character and ambition, who have sought these shores to establish homes and build up communities. Such is the character of the men whom we all will admit are the first line of defense, the strongest bulwark of the Territory. While all this is true, those who fail to appreciate the sterling qualities of the 18,000 representatives of the Latin race who came to these shores first as contract laborers but a few years ago from the Azores mistake greatly the character of the people upon whom they pass judgment. I know no people who in the same length of time have so much improved their conditions as have these Portuguese, and I give more credit for this to their good qualities than to any advantageous conditions which have surrounded them. They are the best gardeners and small farmers in the islands, and their little farms are scattered over every island from Hawaii to Niihau. They are mechanics in the towns, the machinists, engineers, and teamsters on the plantations. Their little homes each with its garden spot, luxuriant with its well-tilled profusion of the products of this favored clime, are models, and their youth eagerly seek the advantages of the splendid school system there established. A people who seek education, till the soil, learn trades, and have good homes can be depended upon anywhere to maintain the institutions of free government. But, Mr. Chairman, the new Territory which we shall create will not have to depend, for the maintenance of the institutions which by this legislation we perpetuate, rather than establish, by any means wholly upon aliens to her soil or their descendants. Her native sons of the aboriginal blood will furnish the majority and by no means the least desirable element of her electorate. These people who have been so loyal in their devotion to the government of their fathers are and will be no less loyal to the great Republic whose honored citizens they now become. It is but, natural and in fact commendable in them that they clung tenaciously to the monarchy, even when it had become but a shadow of the authority of their race over the land of their birth and affections. Let us remember that though barbarians they were not savages when the first white man's bark approached their shores. The ruins of their temples and the water courses hewed from solid rock are still eloquent reminders of their skill and industry. When the Caucasians first sighted these isles of enchantment, their kuleanas, or homesteads, in a high state of cultivation dotted the lowlands and extended high up the hillsides, made verdant by ingenious and laborious irrigation, and their cunning handicraft fashioned from the woods and fibers of the land cloths and utensils of utility and beauty; endowed by nature with splendid build and form, kindly and generous to a fault, courageous and, under proper incentive, industrious, always venturesome and seldom vicious, they possessed, even as a primitive people, many of the virtues which other races have only attained after centuries of civilization and have now comparatively few of the vices that ordinarily characterize a primitive people's contact with civilization. Thanks to a good school system and a laudable ambition to secure an education, illiteracy is rare among them and many members of the race have distinguished themselves in business affairs, statesmanship, and in the professions. Their young men and young women will compare favorably with the young men and young women of any race in ability and aptitude to learn, and of their grace and charm of manner our race may well take lessons. In working out the future destiny of their country they will perform an important and honored part; if I mistake not, a more important part than they performed even under their native monarchy. The committee very wisely, in my opinion, amended the original bill by providing for the appointment of the judges of the supreme court by the President of the United States instead of by the governor of the Territory, as provided in the original bill; and I am of the opinion that the committee would have done well to have also provided for the appointment of the judges of the circuit court by the President of the United States, providing, as in the case of the judges of the supreme court, that such judges should be citizens of Hawaii. I know of no reason why we should depart from the established custom in other Territories in this respect; in fact, I believe there are even stronger reasons why the judiciary of this new Territory should be appointed by the President than exist in connection with the appointments of this character on the mainland. I am an ardent believer in home rule, and I think under all circumstances men appointed to these positions should be citizens of the Territory, but I fear the centralization of authority which might result in leaving those appointments in the hands of the governor. It is with somewhat of reluctance that I call attention to one amendment made by the committee in the bill, which I understand was given careful consideration, but which I believe is neither wise nor necessary. I refer to the proviso in section 73 which provides for the reference to the Secretary of the Interior of all transactions under the public-land laws, with the power to confirm, reverse, modify, suspend, or annul. From a somewhat careful though, I admit, hurried investigation of the Hawaiian land laws and their workings, I am of the opinion that the present land laws of the Territory are better adapted to the conditions there and to accomplish the actual settlement, cultivation, and improvement of their public domain than are the land laws of the United States to-day, under the conditions existing, to bring about the same results here. I believe these land laws have been honestly and, in the main, wisely and intelligently administered, and in my opinion a people who had the wisdom to enact wise laws and who have satisfactorily administered them should be trusted to continue the administration of those laws, unhampered by a supervisory authority 5,000 miles distant, which can not, in the very nature of things, judge accurately of the equities or give proper weight to the testimony in real-estate transactions under laws and conditions essentially dissimilar from those existing here. This legislation marks the beginning of Territorial government for insular possessions and is not necessarily a criterion for legislation for other territory, and in view of the much discussed question of a tariff for Puerto Rico it may not be out of the way in this connection to again call attention to the fact that nearly two years ago Congress legislated for these islands over which our sovereignty unquestionably extended and provided that its people should pay on goods shipped to our ports not 15 per cent or 25 per cent but 100 per cent of our tariff rates, and that our merchandise going there should pay the full rate of the Hawaiian duty, a rate which is absolutely prohibitory on many classes of our goods, and these rates are still in force and will be until this bill becomes law. If the question is a constitutional one, how is it it did not apply to Hawaii as well as to Puerto Rico, if one of policy, and it be claimed that the tariff rate proposed for Puerto Rico is an injustice? Can it be said we owe more to Puerto Rico than to the people of these fair isles, the only people who have voluntarily brought their territory under the flag in all our history? This legislation meets the hopes and expectations, I believe, of those for whom it is to be enacted, and in my opinion is admirably suited for them. They deserve the most generous treatment at our hands, for they became freely, voluntarily, and gladly part of us and our territory. Every American citizen should rejoice that our flag waves over these beautiful islands; that here, at the meeting place of the thronging trade and commerce of the Pacific, where the Orient first meets the Occident, shall be seen of all men an object lesson of that peace, progress, and liberty which ever abides beneath the starry banner of the free. [Applause.]