Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/427

 CA USES OF DECREASE OF HA WAIIAN PEOPLE 4 1 1

the sandal-wood trade, of the whaling industry, and of the sugar industry. Each period, while it has conferred its own peculiar and inestimable benefits upon the aborigines, has at the same time been highly injurious to them : the first through the oppression of the chiefs, the second through the licentiousness of the seamen, and the third through the rapacity of the planters. The sandal-wood trade slew its thousands, the whaling industry its ten thousands, and the sugar industry threatens to exter- minate the remnant. The Hawaiians not because of lack of natural ability, for physically they are extremely vigorous and mentally they are remarkably active; but because industrially and commercially they are yet undeveloped are unable at present to compete successfully with Asiatics in the lower walks of life, and with Americans and Europeans in the higher. Hence they are being ground between the upper and the nether mill- stones of the present industrial system. This juggernaut, if unrestrained, would without doubt soon make an end, once for all, of the Hawaiian race. And as if to hasten the process, the government, now territorial and thus appointive, is persistently carrying out a wholesale policy of liquor licenses, inaugurated in the later days of the so-called republic the number of liquor licenses has increased almost sevenfold during the last six years as if to administer an opiate to the victim before the sacrifice.

Fortunately, the natives now have votes. The suffrage is their rock of defense. This, along with a good school system, it is to be hoped, will enable them, in due time, to take their legitimate place among the able and progressive races of the earth, and to contribute a distinctive and valuable element to American civilization. While the Hawaiian people have been injured and well-nigh destroyed by commerce and missions, they have been immeasurably benefited and helped by the same two forces ; and in an ethical universe the good elements of civilization must ultimately prevail over the evil.

W. B. ELKIN. CORNELL UNIVERSITY.