Hawaii Organic Act: Congressional debates on Hawaii Organic Act
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4457
Lave no doubt there will be difference of opinion in the Senate,
and I will read the whole of the section:
That In case of failure of the legislature to pass appropriation bills provid-
ing for payments of the necessary current expenses of carrying on the gov-
ernment and meeting its legal obligations as the same are provided for by
the then existing laws, the governor shall, upon the adjournment of the leg-
islature, call it in extra session for the consideration of appropriation bills-
Down to and including that word it reads exactly as does the
Senate bill. I call attention to the remainder of the section. The
Senate struck out the remainder of the section, the House restored
it, and finally the conferees agreed to it. It reads as follows:
and until the legislature shall have acted the treasurer may, with the ad-
vice of the governor, make such payments, for which purpose the sums appro-
priated in the last appropriation bill shall be deemed to have been reappro-
priated. And all legislative and other appropriations made prior to the date,
when this act shall take effect shall be available to the government of the
Territory of Hawaii.
That provision was not in the Senate bill; it was in the House
bill, and the Senate conferees finally agreed to it.
Mr. BACON. I think that is a question about which there was
a great deal of discussion when the bill was before the Senate.
Mr. SPOONER. The Senate struck it out.
Mr. BACON. I understand that. The Senate struck it out after
elaborate debate. It is true it is limited to current expenses; and
if there were a provision there which limited the time within which
the governor should call the extra session of the legislature, I do
not know that there would be any very great objection to it. But
there is no limitation of time; and if the governor - of course we
will not presume that he will fail to do his duty --
Mr. SPOONER. If the Senator will pardon me. it says the gov-
ernor shall, upon the adjournment of the legislature, call an extra
session.
Mr. BACON. I understand, but it does not state within what
time it shall be convened. He might put it off ten months.
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Upon the adjournment of the legis-
lature, I should think, means immediately.
Mr. SPOONER. Yes.
Mr. TILLMAN. What about the situation in Pennsylvania?
Mr. BACON. Very well, if it will be so construed.
Mr. CULLOM. While that is not a usual provision in legisla-
tion, yet after considerable contest and controversy and discussion
the Senate conferees agreed to it, believing that if it did not turn
out to be satisfactory and work well it could be repealed here-
after.
Section 55 contains an amendment made by the House and agreed
to by the conferees, which is to strike out the word "or" and in-
sert "and;" so that it will read:
That no corporation, domestic or foreign, shall acquire and hold real
estate, etc.
I have not quoted the whole section, but Senators can see the
provision in the bill. The purpose of it is to limit the holding of
real estate by corporations to a thousand acres.
Mr. BACON. It seems to me that this is an exceedingly drastic
amendment. I think the limitation of the number of acres a cor-
poration may hold is all right. We have a similar law in my
own State; but for it to go on and prescribe that whenever such
title shall pass to a corporation it shall immediately escheat to
the Government of the United States, it seems to me, is an ex-
tremely rigid provision. There ought to be rather than that
some provision by which the court could distribute the property
or administer the property in the interest of those justly entitled
to it. But it ought not to say that if, by any means, title shall
vest in a corporation --
Mr. SPOONER. It may take it in payment of debts.
Mr. BACON. Certainly. There are a number of ways in which
a corporation may come into title, legal or equitable, to property,
and to say that it shall be immediately forfeited - I do not know
that there is any parallel to such a provision in any law, State or
Federal. I certainly have never heard of one.
Mr. CULLOM. The Senate Knows and the country knows that
the tendency in those islands - and we are not entirely free from
it anywhere else in this country - is for corporations to accumu-
late immense tracts of land and prevent the ordinary citizen or
newcomer from getting a footing at all in real estate; and the
purpose of this was to stop that if we could.
Mr. BACON. I think that is entirely proper.
Mr. CULLOM. And let the people get homesteads and tracts
of land to cultivate, and for other purposes.
Mr. BACON. I think it is entirely proper to stop it, but the
question is whether the remedy is a proper one. It would be very
well to prohibit it, and then leave it to the courts to say what
shall become of the property. Of course, if this last provision
were not in it, and legal proceedings were not had to prevent a
corporation from holding it, the courts would distribute the prop-
erty necessarily to those who are entitled to it. They would admin-
ister it in the interest of those who are entitled to it. But here is
an express provision that if a corporation ever does acquire such
title, it shall immediately, without any possibility of appeal or
redress of any kind, be forfeited, and escheat to the Government
of the United States. I think, if there is no other thing, that
that single provision ought to be sufficient to induce the Senate
to send the report back to the conference committee in order that
it may be corrected.
Mr. CULLOM. My judgment is that it is a tolerably salutory
provision for that Territory for a while; if not always, and I hope
it will remain in the bill.
Mr. TILLMAN. I notice that accompanying the same pro-
vision there is no interference with existing or vested rights, and
therefore the question arises at once whether or not there are not
now corporations which hold in excess, and a good many of them,
and that these existing corporations, the sugar companies of which
we have beard so much, will thereby, under this provision, have
a monopoly, so to speak, of the right of having enough capital,
for instance, to organize a sugar factory. We know that unless
there is something like a thousand acres or more than that tribu-
tary to a large sugar mill it can not run; and would not the ex-
isting sugar mills force all the balance of the country capable of
being planted in sugar to be tributary to them by reason of the
fact that no other corporations could organize? There must be
some hidden purpose here. I am not now insinuating that the
Senator from Illinois is cognizant of it or in anyway mixed up in,
it, but I should like to know why this provision is put in here.
Mr. CULLOM. If the Senator wants to find out how it got in
here, he will have to go to the House of Representatives.
Mr. TILLMAN. It was put in in the House, and the Senator
said he thought possibly it was a salutory one. I threw out the
idea which occurred to me, and I should like to have the Senator
explain it, if he knows anything about it.
Mr. CULLOM. The Senator knows, and he has already stated,
that there are very large corporations there --
Mr. TILLMAN. And they are not interfered with.
Mr. CULLOM. How are you going to interfere with them?
You can not interfere with them by law.
Mr. TILLMAN. If one corporation is good --
Mr. CULLOM. How can you do it? You can pass a law that
will prevent a continuation of the grasping spirit of these people
and restrict their power to get possession of all the land.
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Does the Senator from Illinois admit
that corporations now holding more than a thousand acres would
not be limited by this provision?
Mr. CULLOM. They will be limited as to buying any more,
but we can not interfere with what they have if they have a deed
to it.
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. I should think the Government has
power to limit their right to hold real estate. In this paragraph
the language is to acquire or to hold.
Mr. PETTIGREW. The Senator will see in the latter part of
the paragraph a provision for the protection of corporations now
in existence.
Mr. SPOONER. It is prospective in its operation.
Mr. CULLOM. It is prospective entirely.
Mr. PETTIGREW. The paragraph will be entirely harmless
for the reason that any body of men can organize just as many
corporations as they please, each holding a thousand acres, and
run them all under one management. Further than that, the
land is all taken up anyway. There remain nothing but vol-
canic fields of lava and a few thousand acres of high ground
between the two great mountains of the island of Hawaii, which
is adapted to grazing purposes. The missionaries have captured
it all and organized corporations, and got the control of every
thing worth having.
Mr. TILLMAN. Then why put in this provision prohibiting
them invading that beautiful paradise any more?
Mr. CULLOM. I do not know whether or not the Senator from
South Carolina is answering the Senator from South Dakota, but
the provision is in there, and on its face it is for the future; to
prevent hereafter the accumulation of these immense estates as
against the masses of the people who may want to go there and
get homes, if they can. That is all there is of it.
Mr. BACON. You allow corporations which have land in
excess of the limitation to retain it?
Mr. CULLOM. Will the Senator tell me how he is going to get
rid of the ownership of land by the corporations or individuals,
either, to which they have title under the law?
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. I think the Government has the right
to limit the power of these corporations to hold real estate.
Mr. CULLOM. Certainly it has.
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. They are under the control of the
Government, and the Government can do what it pleases with
them.
Mr. CULLOM. That is the purpose of this provision.
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. No.
Mr. CULLOM. Are yon going to take away from them what
they already have?
Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Why not say that no corporation in
the islands shall hold more than 1,000 acres of real estate?
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