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1920

deputy marshal of the republic of Hawaii. These offices were, of course, created as 
a part of the civil establishment of an independent government and, of course, ought 
to be abolished.

The bill recognizes the legislative department of the Territory, consisting of two 
houses-senate and house of representatives- after the fashion of our three great 
departments of government. It also provides that the senate shall be composed of fifteen 
members, who shall hold office for four years, but that of the senators elected at the first 
general election seven shall be elected for two years only and the eight for four years 
each, and the districts in which they shall be elected are as they now exist in the 
Territory under the republic of Hawaii. The commission thought they ought not to 
be disturbed at present.
The commission found that under the constitution of the re-public of Hawaii the 
qualification of voters for Territorial senators and representatives, as also the 
qualifications of senators and representatives, were not the same. The qualification of 
a voter for a candidate for the senate required that the citizen desiring to vote for a 
candidate for the senate should own real property in the Territory of the value of $2,500-
1 think in the law it is $1,500-should pay his taxes on such valuation, etc., and that a 
candidate for the senate should also own the same amount of real property and pay his 
taxes, etc., while a voter for a candidate for the house of representatives should not be 
required to own any real estate, and the qualification of a voter for a senator or a 
representative was that he should, in addition to the property qualification named, 
be a male citizen, 21 years of age, and be able to speak, read, and write the English or 
Hawaiian language, etc.
Since I prepared this statement I have been furnished with a memorandum which 
I wish to have inserted. It is from the hearing before the commissioners, and is as 
follows:

Commissioner DOLE. Voters for members of the house are not required to hare a 
property qualification, but the members themselves have a property qualification. 
The voters have an intelligence qualification.

Mr. COOPEB. It is practically a free franchise for native-born people for the 
house of representatives. For the senate there is a qualification of an income of 
$600 per annum, or real estate equal to $1,500, or personal property equal to $3,000.
This question of property qualification in addition to educational qualification, I 
confess, gave me some trouble, and yet the condition existing there and the 
appeals to the commission for a retention of a property qualification in the bill 
convinced the commission, and I think the judgment of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations agreed with it, that some property qualification should be required of 
voters for senators in the Territorial legislature, while it was deemed 
unnecessary to be required of voters for members of the house of representatives 
or of the representatives themselves.

Mr. TILLMAN. Mr. President, w old the Senator mind stating what those reasons 
are?

Mr. GULLOM. I will state them before I get through. I would rather the Senator 
would not interrupt me just now.

Mr. TILLMAN. I do not want to interrupt the Senator, but it is a very important 
matter he is discussing, and most of the Senators seem to be absent. I notice there is no 
quorum present, and I should like to get Senators here and have them listen to what is 
being said.

Mr. PLATT of Connecticut    I think that is a very good idea.

Mr. CULLOM.   I think so, too.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum being suggested, the 
Secretary will call the roll.
The Secretary called the roll; and the following Senators answered to their 
names:
Aldrich,     Gallinger,     McEnery,     Rawlins,
Allison,     Hansbrough,     McMillan,     ROSS,
Burrows,     Harris,     Martin,     Shoup,
Chilton,     Hawley,     Money,     Simon,
Clark, Wyo.     Heitfeld,     Morgan,     Spooner,
Clay,     Jones, Ark.     Nelson,     Stewart,
Cockrell,     Jones, Nev.     Penrose,     Tillman,
Culberson,     Kean,     Perkins,     Turner,
Cullom,     Lindsay,     Pettus,     Vest,
Davis,     McBride,     Platt, Conn.     Warren,
Deboe,     McComas,     Platt, N. Y.     Wetmore.
Fairbanks,     McCumber,     Quarles,

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Forty-seven Senators have answered to their names. 
A quorum is present.

Mr. CULLOM. Mr. President, I am sorry that the Senate is not disposed to give 
attention to this subject. If I were permitted to do so, I should endeavor to have the 
bill passed in their absence, if the Senators present would vote for it. The pending 
subject is one of very great importance, and it seems to me the Senate of the United 
States ought to give to it a little attention.
The commission and the committee agreed that the amount of property required, 
however, by the constitution and laws of the Territory as they now exist ought to be 
reduced, and hence the bill provides only that the qualification of a senator and the 
qualification of a voter for a senator should be reduced to $1,000 in real property in the 
Territory, or to the amount of $600 income for the year previous to voting, and that 
the voter and senator should be required to pay their taxes, etc. This qualification, in the
judgment of the committee, was regarded as proper for the time being, in the 
belief that in a little while, after matters became somewhat more settled in the 
Territory, such property qualifications could be safety gotten rid of.
I am not myself certain that such a provision is needed. On the contrary, I am 
somewhat inclined to the belief that it is not; but for the sake of being sure and 
safe I consented that this provision should be placed in the bill and retained for 
the present. The bill provides now for simply an educational qualification for 
voters who vote for members of the house of representatives and a receipt 
showing that they have paid their taxes, while a property qualification is 
required of the voter who seeks to vote for any candidate for the senate, and 
the same property qualification shall be required of any man who becomes a 
senator.

This question is perhaps one of as much importance as any other in the bill, and 
as likely to produce a difference in the minds of Senators as to what is the 
proper course to pursue on that subject.
I have a paper here, which was prepared by the late attorney-general of the 
			Hawaiian Islands on this subject, which I intend to read, because I think it sets 
out as well and as fully that side of the question as it can be set out by anybody. 
It proceeds--

Mr. TILLMAN. Will the Senator state how long this property qualification, 
which now obtains, as I understood nun to say, in the islands, has been in 
existence?.

Mr. CULLOM. There has been a property qualification there for very many 
years.

Mr. TILLMAN.   For how long?

Mr. CULLOM. I do not remember the number of years, but almost all the time.

Mr. TILLMAN.   Did it exist under the former government?

Mr. CULLOM. It has always existed, under the monarchy as well as under 
the republic. The republic has only lasted, of course, for four or five years, as the 
Senator knows, but there was a property qualification before that time under 
different rulers.

Mr. TILLMAN. So that the innovation of a property qualification for voters is 
not new under the Dole administration?

Mr. CULLOM.   No; it is not new.

Mr. CLARK of Wyoming.   It is very much less than formerly.

Mr. CULLOM. The property qualification which now exists is to the effect 
that a representative shall own property as well as a senator, but it does not 
provide-and I think there has been no such provision for some time back-
that a voter for a representative shall own any property, but that he shall simply 
be able to speak, read, and write the English language or the Hawaiian 
language.

Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. The members of the upper house were appointed by 
the monarchy?

Mr. CULLOM.   Yes, sir.

Mr. SPOONER. Will the Senator allow me to ask a question, not particularly 
pertinent, perhaps, to what he is saying?

Mr. CULLOM.   I yield to the Senator.

Mr. SPOONER. How many voters, if the Senator knows, are there now qualified 
under the laws of Hawaii?

Mr. CULLOM. I can answer that in a moment, if the Senator will allow me.

Mr. SPOONER.   Certainly.

Mr. CULLOM.   The statement continues:
Conceding that the foreign-born Chinese and Japanese will be hereafter, as they 
are now, excluded from the elective franchise, there remain as factors in the 
political problem the Americans, the British, the Germans, the Hawaiians, and the 
Portuguese.
Now I come to that which will answer in part the inquiry of the Senator from Wisconsin.
The last registration of voters under the monarchy was in 1891 as follows: 
			Hawaiians, 9,551; Portuguese, 2,091; foreigners, 1,770; total, 13,415.
That answers the Senator's question partly.

Mr. SPOONER.   Yes, partly.

Mr. CULLOM. I do not know that I can answer it more definitely without 
referring to the records.

Mr. SPOONER. Is the Senator able to tell me in the last registration under 
the monarchy how many qualified voters there were in Hawaii?

Mr. CULLOM. I can not do so for the reason that when the republic was 
established upon the ruins of the monarchy there was required a more rigid 
registration, and there has not been a very large vote of any kind since, nor a 
very large registration. Those who were not entirely satisfied to identify 
themselves fully with the republic declined to register, and therefore could not 
vote. Besides that, when there is no opposition the vote is very light, as is the 
case everywhere else.

Mr. SPOONER. Can the Senator tell me the largest vote under the republic?

Mr. CULLOM. I do not think I have the figures here, bat I can furnish them 
to the Senator.

Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000, was it not?

Mr. CULLOM.   In the neighborhood of three or four thousand

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