The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., October 15, 1910, Page 709, Image 9

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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M\ LAS! KK 1 IKK from Hawaii dealt almost
exclusively with the sugar planters, their
laborers, and their farming and business
methods, with especial reference to some parallels
between the Hawaiian sugar planter to-day and
the great cotton planters of our own Southern
States fifty years ago.
Perhaps It is partly fanciful, but the parallel
seems to me to extend even to mental bent and
Physical bearing. One of the planters I talked
with looked as if he might have stepped incarnate
from the framed portrait of some Southern con
temporary of Toombs and Davis. I find, too, that
many of the Hawaiian planters I have met are dis
tinguished both for the same intense Interest in
public affairs and for the same exquisite courtesy
which marked the old-time Southerner, and. as in
the Old South, numbers of them travel in Europe,
and in some cases educate their children there.
Furthermore. I was interested to find the Hawaiian
Promotion Committee recognizing this similarity
to the South In one or two notable respects: "The
social life In Hawaii is altogether delightful.”
says one of their booklets. "One Is reminded in
many respects of the old ante-bellum days in the
South where hospitality was proverbial, while as
In many parts of the South also, family spirit
links Closely an Important faction of the Inhab
itants.”
Another Kc|>etition of Southern History.
There Is also a striking parallel between twen
tieth century Hawaii and the ante-bellum South
iu the attitude toward manual labor, and also in
the difficulty of getting small white farmers,—duo
to the same unwillingness to compete with low
grade labor of another race which stopped the
tide of healthy white emigration to the slave
South and sent thousands of our own non-slave
holding class to the North und West. "The cli
matic and natural resources of Hawaii," I found
an authority declaring, "are highly favorable to
the development of tiiat class which is the back
bone of every American State, namely, the 'plain
people,* property-ow ners of moderate means with
thrift, energy and high civic ideals, but while
natural conditions are favorable, the artificial con
ditions. those of human control, social and other
wise, such as arise from the preponderance of
Orientals, are inimical. Will the pioneer white
farmer bring his fumily to a community composed
largely of Asiatics or the poorer grades of Latin
races? Will he bo content to labor in the fields
whore most men of his race now act as over
seers or employers, and where coolies or peasants
aro hired for ail manual work?"
The Mongrvli/ation of Hawaii.
In this condition 1 find Hawaiian sugar planters
blindly anxious to make a bad situation permanent
by repealing the laws against importing Chinese
coolies, just as the old flics of l)e Bow's Review
show that largely attended industrial conventions
in the South fifty years ago were anxious to repeal
the laws against Importing African slaves. And
just an It is fortunate that our old slave-holders
did not succeed, so It Is fortunate that the Ha
waiian planter will also fall. The unrestricted Im
portation of slaves would have made tho South a
veritable Haiti, and war itself was a better fate.
Here on Hawaii the mingling of Japanese, Chin
ese, whites and native Hawailaus has produced a
seemingly unlimited variety of mongrol types,
picturesque indeed to gaze upon, but ominously
unsatisfactory when considered as the basis of
future Hawaiian citizenship—a situation sugges
tive of the most serious menace to the future of
our Southern States, namely, the development of
a similar population among us, inheriting the bad
qualities of the most vicious and depraved of both
Caucasian and negro, their condition the more
trugic becatiBO while bound by all the limitations
Imposed upon tho black man, there nevertheless
runB equally in their blood tho pride, aspiration,
and uncurbed ambition which the long ages have
bred into our white blood.
A Warning Note for the South.
The mongrelizatlon of Hawaii has impressed
•Them letter* ere partly protected by copyright, but we shell be
sled to have editor* reprint not more then one-third of any one
article. Thl* I* No. fi ol the series.
upon me more strongly than ever before the im
perative need for a crusade against a Southern
evil which it is a mark of squeamishness and not
"f wisdom to Ignore, a crusade working as in
liOuisiana both through legislation and a more
thoroughly aroused public sentiment. Making
an address at a negro college in the South last
f-pring I asked the co-operation of the blacks also:
urged them to seek by all means to develop pride
of race which would make them both anxious to
show what the negro may do without infusion of
white blood, and ready to build up their own race
rather than make alliance with the vicious and im
moral of our race. And as an illustration of the
insidious menace to the purity of our blood, I may
mention that in the very town in which I spoke I
happened to know of two octoroons who pass as
white, and had completely “crossed over the line.”
I he severest penalties both of law and of social
ostracism should be visited upon every man of
( aucasian blood, who worse than a traitor to his
country, is traitor to his race in the one way
alone which can menace its supremacy—the grad
ual development of a more and more mongrel or
mixed population until the subtle and insidious
infusion of alien blood (as in the couple of in
stances just mentioned) might forever pollute the
pure heritage for which forgotten ages have bat
tled. In the long result of time it is as true of
races as of individuals that the sin flhvava ro.
turns to plague the wrong-doer, the Nemesis in
herent in nature unfailingly pursues the transgres
sor. and the Frankenstein which the worse ele
ment of our race has already called forth, even
now grins hideous menace to our future. The
mixture of different stocks of the same race is
said to produce a stronger type; the mixture of
different races is seldom productive of anything
hut far-reaching evil.
These thoughts, which my observation long ago
formed into opinions and later deepened into my
most fervent convictions, are so strikingly illus
trated by what I saw in Hawaii that I should be
unfaithful to myself and to my love for the South
if I allowed any fear of blunt speaking to keep
me from reporting a situation in which I find all
the warning and alarm of a fire-bell at midnight
—and all the city sleeping, as almost the whole
South now seems to be. The recent legislation in
Louisiana is a step in the right direction, though
I think it does not go far enough. To every man
and woman in the South is given the high duty of
bringing about legislation, and better still, a thor
oughly aroused public opinion which will both
punish and ostracise those who. as I have said,
worse than taitors to their country, are traitors
to their blood and to their race.
And in this connection I wish to bear tribute
to the splendid work of Rev. A. H. Shannon, of
Ocean Springs, Mississippi,—crying aloud with all
the conviction and earnestness of a Hebrew proph
et—and also to Hon. Frank D. Winston whose
....11 __I.._a_X _ 1_A_...._1 _ Off_A A. __A.
II cil vvuvgucu UIIU UlUiUCH OUVVVODIU1 cuvl b IV get
a proper law through the North Carolina Legisla
ture has never received the recognition it merits.
Valued Recognition of Southern Progress.
Turning now to happier subjects, I am remind
ed that in the same pamphlet issued by the Ha
waiian Promotion Committee already mentioned,
I discovered another reference to our Southern
States even more gratifying than its reference
to our ante-bulleum social system—so interesting
a statement to be found away out here four thou
miles from home that 1 cannot forbear reprinting
the paragraph in full:
“The great material prosperity of the Is
lands has been developed along a single
line—sugar. The people have been asleep
to other possibilities of development, and are
only now partially awakened to the true
facts. The cotton States of the South, and
the vast wheat and cattle ranches of Califor
nia have passed from situations similar to
that the ‘Cross Roads of the Pacific’ is just
now emerging from. They have sprung to
prosperity that has made their former suc
cess look poor in comparison, and have
found room for hundreds of citizens where
ten felt crowded before."
(Continued on page 712.)
. .4 k
(9) 709
OCTOBER 4 the Portugese navy, practically
all the army about the capital, and the
populace of Lisbon rose in revolt against
King Manuel. He was permitted to escape to a
British war ship which conveyed him to Gibraltar,
where he and the royal family are at present. The
revolutionists immediately declared a Republic,
with Theophile Braga as President. The revo
lution was the result of a deep-laid plot and was
to have come off a day or two later, but was has
tened by the fact that the king was leaving Lis
bon. Some fighting is reported from the country
districts where the people still remain loyal to the
old order, and it is estimated that 1,000 people
have been killed. The Republic, however, seems
to be safely established and has already been
recognized by several other nations. There was
some talk of British interference, but this now
seems unlikely. The new government seems to
be acting with as much moderation as could be ex
pected under the circumstances; it is reported that
King Manuel’s personal property is being protected
and that very little violence of any kind has taken
place. It is not known just what part the Church
has taken in the revolution. The Clericals were
very bitter in their opposition to the king, but it
is reported that the Republic is enforcing string
ent rules against the clerics, and it is sure that
the Pope has forbidden any priest countenancing
the new government. Spain, as a result of this
uprising, is also in a state of turmoil, and all the
leading cities of the Kingdom are under military
rule. The people of these two nations, poor, illit
erate and sadly misgoverned, can scarcely be ex
pected to establish a stable form of government
at once, but the growth of new ideas in both
countries promises better things for the future.
■ m m
A distinguished and rather unusual vistior to
the United Staes is the Sultan of Sulu, a Malay
monarch, who as a subject of the United States,
receives a salary of $1,500 a year for being good.
The Moros over whom he rules were formerly re
garded as the most troublesome of all the many
tribes in the Philippines.
* * *
A wise movement is that of Governor Mann, of
Virginia, who hgs invited the International Con
ference on State and Local Taxation to meet in
Richmond in 1911 and expects to secure help from
the experts in the Conference in drafting a more
modern system of taxation in the State.
• • •
Recent investigations show that pellagra is
much more general in the South than was sup
posed. Dr. W. S. Rankin estimates that there
must have been a thousand cases in North Caro
lina last year, and the Tennessee State Board of
Health has found numerous cases in that State.
• • •
In the Second Congressional District of. Virginia,
where a contest between Congressman Maynard
and Mr. Young developed an appalling degree of
corruption, the investigation committee has decid
ed that neither was nominated and has ordered a J
new primary. jfl
* * * I
The “harmony” Democrats of Tennessee met at ™
Nashville, October 6 and nominated Senator “Bob”
Taylor, who has been Governor of the State three
times, as their candidate for Governor against
13. W. Hooker, the Republican nominee.
* * *
Massachusetts Republicans have renominated
Governor Draper, while the Democrats, after a
stormy convention, put up a Mr. Mansfield who is
expected later to come down in favor of another
candidate.
• • a
Two or three vessels carrying passengers from
Italy have been detained in quarantine at New
York for fear they had cholera on board. The
disease seems to be scattered all through eastern
and central Europe.
* • •
The Southern Conservation Congress met at At
lanta Friday, October 7. The most notable speak
ers were Gifford Pinchot and Mr. Roosevelt.
• • •
Hoke Smith was elected Governor of Georgia
on Wednesday of last week by about 95,000 votes
to 17,000 cast for Governor Brown.
• • •
The Government has dropped Its prosecution
of Governor Haskell, of Oklahoma.