[ Previous Page ] -- [ View PDF ] -- [ View in MS Word ] -- [ Next Page ]

 
3776
set apart for the support of schools. These lands are patented to a 
board of education, which was empowered to sell and lease. Part 
of these lands is used for sites for school buildings, part is leased, 
and part has been sold.
In 1884 a homestead law on a small scale was provided for but 
was little used, only 256 patents having been issued.
The republic came in in 1894, and the legislature of that year 
passed "the land act of 1895." By this act the crown lands were 
treated as having vested in the republic and are now embraced as 
public lands. The public lands were placed under the control of a 
board of commissioners, composed of the secretary of the interior and 
two persons appointed by the governor, and by this bill they pass 
under the control of a commissioner of public lands.
The islands are divided into six land districts, with a subagent of 
public lauds and ranges for each.
The public lands are divided as follows;
The commissioners are authorized to dispose of these lands in 
the following manner:
1. At public auction for cash in parcels not exceeding 1,000 
acres.
2. At public auction, part credit, in parcels not exceeding 600 
acres.
8. Without auction sale, in exchange for private lands or by 
way of compromise.
4. By lease at public auction for not more than twenty-one years.
5. Homestead leases.
C. Bight of purchase leases.
7. Cash freeholds.
By this bill the "commissioner of public lands" takes the place of 
the board of commissioners, but the laws relating to public 
lands, the settlement of boundaries, and the issuance of patents 
on land commission awards continue in force until Congress shall 
provide otherwise.
This bill provides for an internal-revenue district comprising 
the whole Territory, a customs district comprising the whole Ter-
ritory, with four ports of entry, and for a Delegate to Congress.
To the proposition that the government proposed by this bill 
will be taken as a precedent and example for that of Puerto Rico 
and the Philippines, I answer that each territory - using the word 
territory now as meaning only land and the people thereon - each 
territory must be treated according to its own needs and condi-
tions*
Hawaii has shown itself capable of establishing and maintaining a 
stable government. Its laws are copied from our laws; its 
jurisprudence runs back to the same source from which we de-
rive ours, and is enriched and illuminated by the decisions of 
American courts. Its people are familiar with our institutions 
and our language.
On the island of Hawaii there stands a monument where Captain 
Cook, the discoverer of these islands, was killed by the natives in 
1778. He was followed by Vancouver. Then came the missionaries 
and civilization.
Philosophers have philosophized and theorists have theorized as to 
whether man may not be happier in a state of nature than under 
the restrictions as well as liberties of civilization. But in 
practice no weak or undeveloped race has ever appeared to have 
any rights of inertia or retrogression which stronger nations were 
bound to respect.
The world moves on toward "the parliament of man and the 
federation of the world," sometimes by compulsion, sometimes by 
spontaneous advances.
As to Hawaii, she comes to us without purchase and without 
price; without bloodshed, and even without solicitation, and has 
voluntarily merged herself into the onward march of the nation 
which is the standard bearer of the noblest ideals which ever ani-
mated any nation since time began.


Mr. MCALEER. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to 
the gentleman from New York. 
Mr. SULZER. Mr. Chairman, this bill is intended to give a 
stable civil government to the Hawaiian Islands, and is entitled "An 
act to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii." Owing 
to the fact that nearly all my time for the past few weeks has been 
taken up by the investigation of the Idaho mining troubles now 
pending before the Military Affairs Committee, of which I am a 
member, I frankly confess that I have not had an opportunity to 
give this bill the study and the attention the importance of the 
subject under consideration deserves. From a superficial reading 
of the report submitted by the committee, and from a hasty analysis 
of the provisions of the bill, I believe, however, I can safely say that 
the bill now before the House is far from perfect and can be, and 
ought to be, materially improved by amendment.
I am informed that a number of amendments will be offered, and I 
indulge the hope that before the bill becomes a law the objec-
tionable features it now contains will be eliminated and that the 
bill will be as nearly perfect as we can make it at the present 
time. These amendments should be adopted; and if they are, I 
trust this bill will pass.
Ever since the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United 
States I have favored granting to our fellow-citizens there the 
very best form of Territorial government it is possible for Congress 
to devise. They deserve it; they are entitled to it; and Congress 
should have vouchsafed them this important right long ere this. I 
favored and voted for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, and 
I gave my reasons for doing so at that time. I am now, and always 
have, been, anxious to give the people there the best and the most 
liberal kind of Territorial government.
There is imperative need of early enactment of an organic act 
for the government of the Territory of Hawaii.
The joint resolution of July 7, 1898, providing for the annexation 
of the Hawaiian Islands, declares that the Hawaiian municipal 
laws not contrary to the United States Constitution or inconsistent 
with the terms of that resolution remain in force until Congress 
enact laws. It was undoubtedly expected then that a Territorial act 
would soon be passed, and a bill was introduced in each House of 
the Fifty-fifth Congress. But other matters of great national 
importance so occupied the time and attention of Congress that the 
bill was not passed.
Meanwhile it has become apparent that there is much doubt of 
the extent of the power granted to the local government of Hawaii by 
the provisions of the joint resolution, and in many important 
respects it has created something like an interregnum.
Many doubtful questions of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction 
have arisen, as well as of criminal procedure, rendering it 
uncertain whether there is now any tribunal for the decision of 
important questions affecting property and any existing method by 
which criminals may be indicted or legal juries impaneled for their 
trial.
In anticipation of Congressional action, the election to fill va-
cancies in the Hawaiian senate was not held last year, and there is, 
therefore, no legislative power for appropriating money for public 
purposes.
There is also grave doubt concerning the power of the Hawaiian 
government to grant franchises for industrial and commercial 
enterprises, or for railways which have been projected, and the 
Attorney-General of the United States has decided that the Ha-
waiian government has no power to grant or lease any of the public 
lands for homesteads or for any purpose, notwithstanding the fact 
that the treaty of annexation declared that the proceeds and 
revenues of such lands should be devoted to the benefit of the in-
habitants of Hawaii.
In many respects the business affairs of the Territory are 
brought to a standstill. Many Americans have bought government 
land since annexation, on which they have built residences and 
planted crops, but their land titles are now in dispute and can 
not be settled until the passage of this bill.
Meanwhile Americans can not settle in Hawaii on homesteads or 
land bought from the government, and a very desirable class of 
citizens is thereby shut out of this new Territory. The local 
government is unable even to make public roads over any part of 
the public domain of Hawaii, or carry out plans based on legislation 
prior to annexation for widening and straightening the streets of 
Honolulu.
The presence in that city of the bubonic plague is calling for 
drastic measures by the Hawaiian authorities, involving the. ex-
penditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  In order to provide 
for these expenditures, and to compensate the owners of 
buildings which have been burned in the effort to suppress the 
pestilence, it is proper and just that a Territorial legislature be 
provided by Congress with no unnecessary delay.
Since the adoption of the resolution of annexation large numbers 
of Japanese contract laborers have been brought into the

Return to Top