Home: The Annexation Of Hawaii: A Collection Of Document
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HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 999 men are very good. I am doing contract work with them. I give them watering and stripping to do at a certain figure. I find it works very satisfactorily. They work hard, and you don't have to have any overseer. Q. If the question were submitted to the people who voted under the old constitution with the only qualification for a voter that he should read and write, what would be the result-for or against annexation? A. So far as the foreigner is concerned there would be a very large majority in favor of annexation, and the Portuguese would be a unit for annexation. As to the Hawaiians I think that a majority would not be in favor of it. Q. What would be the final result of these combined votes? A. That is a question that would be rather hard for me to answer. Q. Suppose it was done under the Australian ballot system? A. I am inclined to think it would be against annexation. It might be in favor of annexation, if the Portuguese were allowed to vote. Q. They vote whether they can read and write or not; don't they? A. Yes. Q. That has been so from the beginning? A. Since 1887. I am inclined to think if the Portuguese voted under the Australian system, as a large percentage are illiterate, that perhaps they would be voting against annexation when they meant to vote for annexation. Q. Do you think you could have good government here if you only required of a voter knowledge sufficient to read and write the English language? A. I doubt it very much. Q. Why? A. Because I think we would go back to the old order of things. Q. What is the old order of things? A. The state we had under the deposed Queen. Q. What is that state? A. The Hawaiians getting control of the legislature and going in for extravagance which the foreigners were having to pay for. The money was not coming out of the pockets of the people who were voting the money. It was coming out of other pockets. The action of the Queen in wanting to spring this new constitution shows her feeling toward foreigners and her deliberate intention of making them pay the fiddler, so to speak, and without giving them any privileges. Q. What do you mean by privileges? A. That we could exist here and run our plantations. I have no doubt if she could have her way she would disfranchise every foreigner in the country and put it wholly in the hands of Hawaiians. Q. Why do you think that? A. I think we have had sufficient evidence of it in her actions in the Legislature. In removing men from the Wilcox cabinet, men of stability of character and influence, removing them to put in men who were irresponsible and would soon wreck us. Q. You think then with the privilege of any native to vote who could read and write the English language that you would drift back to the condition of things you have just stated? A. Yes. Q. What would you think of the Japanese as voters? A. I would most emphatically condemn any move toward giving the Japanese franchise. Q. Would it make the situation you speak of worse?